While some universities seem to be moving away from the arts, Lee Bollinger, the new president of Columbia University, believes the arts are “integral to the university experience.” Now that “he finds himself running a major Ivy League research university in the most highly cultured city in the United States. He gives every sign of relishing the prospect of forging more ambitious, more glamorous bonds between the arts and the university.”
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Attracted To Coming Attractions
Previews of movies “embody the great promise of modern consumerist entertainment: that there will always be more. They are like the still-wrapped packages under a Christmas tree: the one you are about to tear into might turn out to be a pair of wool socks or a cheap knockoff of the toy you really wanted, but there is still all this other stuff yet to be opened up. Whatever disappointments the movies themselves might bring are safely in the future, as you feel the rush of all their expensive promise — the fights, the explosions, the computer-generated imagery, the macho repartee — in compact, thrill-packed doses. Big, commercial movies may rarely be surprising these days, but the possibility that they might be is always there.”
Artists Cancelling Appearances In The US
Some international artists have begun cancelling performances and appearances in the US because of the war, though not many yet…
NJ Arts Groups Press For Smaller Funding Cuts
New Jersey arts groups are certainly happy Governor James McGreevey is reconsidering eliminating state arts funding. Instead, the cut might be 50 percent. But this isn’t good enough some say. “The chop would actually represent a 60% slice over two years, since the State Legislature cut the arts budget by 10% last session. A 60% cut will cause a lot of damage to cultural institutions in the state in an already difficult economy. ‘We feel we are a solution to economic problems because we generate a lot of money for the state of New Jersey. We continue to be puzzled by the governor’s decisions to slash our funds when we’re a billion-dollar industry to the state.”
Movies – What Are Today’s Classics?
Are there movies being made today that will be judged as cinematic classics? Yes. But it make take years before they’re recognized as such. “The great movies tend to have a level of complexity to them that isn’t entirely obvious to the viewer at first glance. Sometimes there’s this stealth factor at work. A movie just plants a seed in you. And you don’t realize it until you’ve gone home, and you’ve tried to forget about it – and you can’t.”
Book-Of-The-Month Club Going Global
“The popularity of books tends not to cross borders as easily as movies and pop music. Many readers prefer homegrown writers and resist what could be called literary globalization.” Still the Book of the Month Club is planning to launch a “global marketing initiative” for its selections. “For the first time, it’s offering an International Book of the Month, recommending the same title to readers around the world.”
Rattle At The Top
Is there a bigger star in classical music than conductor Simon Rattle? “Rattle’s career path has been a perfect, shooting-star arc from the National Youth Orchestra to Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra to his mould-breaking 10 years with the City of Birmingham Orchestra. At 48, he is very young to be a conductor of international repute and he remains, to many, the perennial high-achieving golden boy of British classical music. He certainly seems to be much too amiable and accommodating to have survived and thrived in one of the notoriously brittle areas of the arts.”
Oscars Should Cancel?
Should the Oscars go on as scheduled? Jack Mathews thinks not. “To go on with the Oscar telecast now would be wrongheaded in more ways than the average Joan Rivers red carpet interview. The awards show has great professional and financial importance to the participants, but it’s a cultural bagatelle to the rest of us – a good reason for a high-carb party and some jocular elbowing over the relative merits of our favorite movies, and nothing more.”
War Makes For Oscar Changes
With Gerge Bush’s Iraq war, there are some entertainment programming changes in America. The Academy Awards “announced Tuesday that it will eliminate this year’s red carpet festivities, citing concerns among many attendees about how such a celebration would look in light of world events. In addition to television, that decision has repercussions for other industries, such as publishing and fashion, which build glitzy events around the Academy Awards.”
Changed Tone For Oscars
Oscar handlers are changing their prep for Sunday’s Oscars. “No Lara Flynn Boyle tutu moments. No hordes of snapping photographers. No embarrassing faux pas from perennial gadfly Joan Rivers. And for the fashion world, millions of dollars in lost publicity. ‘This is a huge disappointment for the industry. The Oscars are the emotional crescendo of the fashion and glamour season – the No. 1 most important showcase for the latest fashion and jewelry. Now it’s no bigger than the SAG awards’.”