After Opera Australia ran up a $2 million debt and botched the PR over not renewing director Simone Young’s contract, the company commissioned a study of audience concerns. Among the findings: “The subscriber’s enthusiasm to “frock up” to go to the opera creates problems. ‘It is about a sense of occasion, as well as going to the theatre. But this cuts across new audience members who might feel intimidated because they can’t pronounce the titles and are not sure how to dress.”
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Poets Uprising
“Poets may rightly grumble that they aren’t read or paid enough, but in times of crisis it’s the poets, of all the artists in all countries, who suddenly seem the most important. Robert Lowell was a face of protest during the Vietnam war. Rupert Brooke and Robert Graves were among those who, writing from the trenches in World War I, best conveyed the anguish of war in what was not protest but patriotic poetry. So now, hardly surprisingly, we have our poets stepping forward to protest war, at what appears a fairly late moment. Why are poets the leading dissenters?”
Who Gets To Decide The WTC Job
The competition between the two remaining design proposals for the World Trade Center site is also a contest between who gets to decide the shape of the project. “Two views of what comes next are now contending, pitting Roland W. Betts, a director of the development corporation with strong personal ties to the White House, against Charles A. Gargano, the state’s top economic development official, some Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executives, developers and others.”
Chill Out Dude
Classical chillout albums are a curious phenomenon. The numerous albums that visit this territory do very well: Virgin’s Classical Chillout was the bestselling classical compilation of 2001, shifting 400,000 units, and those who bought it were younger than the usual classical fans. Chillout as an idea has become as good as a brand. And, as EMI’s research shows, many potential customers associate classical music with, above all, relaxation. More stimulating compilations, such as Euphoric Classics, sell less well.”
Eggers And His Movement
“Most observers see Dave Eggers and his fans as existing outside politics. But Eggers’ literary superstardom is prompting an alternative culture that has grown up around him over the last five years. It is a San Francisco- and Brooklyn-based community of writers, artists, designers and, increasingly, children – with a growing national following. They are the readers, contributors and designers of the literary journal-cum-Web site McSweeney’s (first published in 1998) and McSweeney’s Books. They are, especially in the last year, the audiences at McSweeney’s-sponsored conferences, readings and concerts across the country. They are idealistic about education, sentimental about children and impatient with the homogeneous culture that corporations produce.”
Harry – A Record Cover Price For A Children’s Book
The new Harry Potter book could weigh in at more than 1000 pages. But it will also sport a heavy price. “Scholastic Children’s Books, the U.S. publisher of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, announced Thursday a suggested retail price of $29.99. ‘That’s definitely the highest price for a children’s novel we’ve ever seen’.”
Instant Messaging – Why UN Covered Its Guernica Reproduction?
So the UN covered up Guernica this week. Was it sensitive to the message? “The continuing sensitivity to Guernica exemplified by the U.N. cover-up may remind us that modern art is poor in images glorifying just military action, though rich in images of the horrors and injustices of war. Further back in history, of course, there are numerous celebrations of the triumph of righteous might.”
Books Are Dead…Good Riddance
“Books suck. Most books are dopier than television or movies or even advertising (many books tend to be just collateral promotions or the lesser offspring of dopey television, movies, and advertising). Even if there are precious exceptions, the overwhelming number of big-money, industry-sustaining books are incontrovertibly dum-dum things. More cynical, more pandering than any other entertainment product. Working at a magazine where every day random books come flying in by the bushel you get a sense of the magnitude of the wasteland. Books may be the true lowest-common-denominator medium. What’s more, in the book business, you have to work in really deadening conditions…”
Censorship Or Convenience?
Pablo Picasso’s striking anti-war painting ‘Guernica’ hangs at the United Nations in New York, a sobering tapestry greeting visitors to the offices of the U.N. Security Council. But yesterday, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to the Security Council, ‘Guernica’ was nowhere to be seen, concealed behind a blue curtain and a row of flags. The U.N. insists that the cover-up was in reponse to the needs of television cameras, but Peter Goddard reports that it “may have been prompted by U.N. realization that images of the mural’s vivid anti-war message were televised world-wide when it appeared as a backdrop to the Jan. 27 interim report by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.”
Ballet San Jose To Stay Open, For The Moment
“Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley — which just Monday told a city panel that it might close by week’s end without an emergency $100,000 grant — on Tuesday said it could stay in business because it raised some of the money in pledges within the past 24 hours, Executive Director Andrew Bales said. Even if Bales is able to make payroll for now, it’s unclear how the ballet will solve its underlying funding problems. Last year, the ballet had to be rescued by four board members who came up with $2 million in donations. And it remains unknown what would happen if projected ticket sales fail to materialize.”