— from Azerbaijani or Ukraine artists. Now the curtain is finally pulling back. Not surprisingly, there’s nothing that really qualifies as a unified art scene here. – London Evening Standard
Blog
CONDUCTOR QUITS OSLO
Mariss Jansons quit as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic last week to protest poor working conditions, particularly bad acoustics in the city’s concert hall. – Newsday
Gerard Schwarz –
– named to direct Royal Liverpool. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
UNDER A SPELL
“If music is truly distinct from speech, then it ought to have a distinct processing mechanism in the brain—one that keeps it separate from the interpretation of other sounds, including language. The evidence suggests that such a separate mechanism does, indeed, exist.” What exactly is the biology behind our reaction to music? – The Economist
POSTMODERN DEAD END?
The postmodern fiction of Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace can tie you up in knots and circles. But is their tangle a literary dead end? Or is there a way out? Keith Gessen looks for clues. – Feed
A BORING BOOK ABOUT DRAGONS?
So Seamus Heaney won this year’s Whitbread “Book of the Year” honors. And Harry Potter’s J.K Rowling won “Children’s Book of the Year.” Something for everyone. But the judges let slip Rowling lost “Book of the Year” by only one vote, and now a big brouhaha has erupted. – MSNBC (Newhouse)
THE GOLDEN AGE OF HYPERTEXT
Ten years ago Robert Coover helped usher in the artistic and technological revolution of hypertext. Now the world wide web has brought us something new. “For those who’ve only recently lost their footing and fallen into the flood of hypertext, literary or otherwise, it may be dismaying to learn that they are arriving after the golden age is already over, but that’s in the nature of golden ages: not even there until so seen by succeeding generations.” – Feed 02/11/00
IT’S A CHARLIE BROWN TV
As “Peanuts” finishes up its comic-strip run this weekend, a fan remembers the making of the first “Peanuts” TV special. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was a struggle to get to TV, and was at first considered a failure by its creators. – Los Angeles Times 02/11/00
COMPU-TALK
Artist at Canada’s Banff Center invites scientists, computer designers to work on more body-friendly ways for people to interact with computers. “Art will be the model for creating new computer technologies. In turn, those advances will actually create new forms of artistic experiences.” – CBC 02/11/00
IT’S A ROUGH TIME FOR FOREIGN FILMS —
— in the US, with the obstacles to getting distribution growing. So why does one of the country’s leading art-house movie chains think now is the time to expand? – LA Weekly 02/11/00