Sunday September 30 THE DIFFICULT MR. STOCKHAUSEN: Did composer Karlheinz Stockhausen really tell a journalist that the attack on the World Trade Center towers was “the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos”? He says not and that he was misquoted. “Stockhausen the composer, and indeed the man, has always generated both horror and … Continue reading “People: September 2001”
Sunday September 30 BRIGHT FUTURE FOR BROADWAY? One of New York’s senior theatre critics thinks that the doomsayers are overstating the crisis facing Broadway. “During World War II in London, I recall watching theater while Hitler’s doodle-bug, pilotless missiles droned and spluttered overhead. Later, von Braun’s rockets plopped down and caused indiscriminate devastation. There was nothing … Continue reading “Theatre: September 2001”
Friday August 31 IRANIAN FILMMAKER ARRESTED: “A chill wind blew through the Iranian film world yesterday, with the news that feminist filmmaker Tahmineh Milani has been arrested. Milani is a heroine of the New Iranian Cinema, which, despite the restrictive politics of the fundamentalist regime, has produced some of the best recent films on the world … Continue reading “Media: August 2001”
Monday July 31 I LEFT MY ART IN SAN FRANCISCO (AT GATE B-2): Thanks to San Francisco’s percent-for-art ordinance, $11.1 million of the $840 million main terminal expansion project will go to commissioning original artwork in the airport. Sponsored by the San Francisco Public Art Commission, many of the works deal with “the romance of travel, … Continue reading “Visual: July 2001”
Monday April 30 PAINTING FOR NATIONAL PRIDE: The National Gallery of Australia has bought a Lucien Freud painting from the artist for $7.4 million. “The significance of Freud’s gritty figure painting After Cezanne is being compared by some to the gallery’s 1973 purchase of Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles.” The Age (Melbourne) 04/30/01 PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FREUD: Is the world indeed … Continue reading “Visual: April 2001”
Sunday April 29 A NEW ERA FOR BROADWAY? Does the success of The Producers signal the beginning of a new era on Broadway? “The Producers isn’t just a hit; it’s a fully-fledged event in a city that thrives on such things, and its cultural repercussions look sure to be felt in English-speaking theatre the world over, although given its subject … Continue reading “Theatre: April 2001”
Monday April 30 A COPYRIGHT STATE OF MIND: When the New York Times Magazine put together a time capsule to show people in the year 3000 what life in 2000 was like, they natually wanted to include music. But there isn’t any music in the capsule. Why? The recording industry wouldn’t give copyright permission. Wired 04/30/01 UNEASY RELATIONSHIPS: “Even orchestras … Continue reading “Music: April 2001”
Friday March 30 GORE VIDAL ON CENSORSHIP: In a Prague Writers’ Festival Interview, Gore Vidal spoke out against a host of American ills, not the least of which in his mind is the silencing of its freest thinkers. “For instance, throughout the 50s into the 80s, I was a fixture on national television. Now I … Continue reading “People: March 2001”
NOT A PRIORITY THIS TIME: New Canadian government budget cuts taxes but fails to deliver on expected increases for arts and culture. CBC 02/29/00 POST-MODERN IN AN “AFTER-MODERN” WORLD: “We’re living in a postmodern world. We don’t know what that means yet. All we know is that what we have now is not the same thing we had … Continue reading “Issues: January 2001”
Stephen King portrays himself as a giant-killer fighting the publishing industry. “If King’s publishing history were one of enslavement and injustice, you could understand him wanting to disturb the sleep of his persecutors. But Big Publishing just happens to have published, distributed, and marketed 225-million copies of his thirty-eight books, helping to hoist him up … Continue reading “RABBLE-ROUSING”
