“While the music industry mutates in ways that impoverish entertainers and annoy aficionados alike (greedy promoters flogging inauthentic acts), the house concert has emerged as an attractive – and easily achievable – alternative to the commercial scene.”
Tag: 01.15.10
In Recession, Some Opera Companies Find Ways To Thrive
Anne Midgette points to opera companies that are adapting well to the tight economy by keeping their focus on the art.
Rafael Manzano Martos Wins Driehaus Architecture Prize
The University of Notre Dame School of Architecture’s 2010 Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture goes to Spanish architect Rafael Manzano Martos, while Yale architectural historian Vincent Scully wins its Henry Hope Reed Award, for “non-architects who make significant contributions to traditional architecture.”
Patti Smith On Her Friendship With Robert Mapplethorpe
“As Smith describes him in Just Kids, Mapplethorpe is striking, a ‘Hippie shepherd boy’ with dark curls. She says the pair, two of a kind, lanky outsiders who shared artistic drive and a physical connection, ‘Fulfilled a role for each other.'”
A Mock Record Shop As Installation — And Education
The long-vacant Tower Records store in the East Village will bustle this weekend “with performances, panel discussions and conceptual art installations, some lamenting the demise of music stores.” The event’s organizers “say it’s partly meant as a look at what the art world can learn from the music world’s troubles.”
The Slush Pile Is Dead (And The Web Doesn’t Help Any)
“Film and television producers won’t read anything not certified by an agent because producers are afraid of being accused of stealing ideas and material. Most book publishers have stopped accepting book proposals that are not submitted by agents. … It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”
Joyce Carol Oates Takes On New Subject: Herself As Widow
“Ms. Oates seems more shocked than anyone to find herself, nearly 50 years into her writing career, entering a new phase in her life.” Remarried last spring to a Princeton neuroscientist, she says that “her writing habits, hobbies and outlook on life have changed.”
Growth Niche: D.C. Pop-Up Galleries That Sell Real Estate
“Artists and developers link arms to throw art shows in unsold, high-design 2BR/2BAs along U Street and up 14th. These pop-up galleries-in-a-condo are such a phenomenon that a new crop of impresarios has emerged to connect the creatives with the capitalists.”
R&B/Soul Luminary Teddy Pendergrass Dead At 59
“As the lead singer for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and in a solo career in which he sold millions of albums, Mr. Pendergrass brought gospel dynamics to bedroom vows in songs like ‘If You Don’t Know Me by Now,’ ‘The Love I Lost,’ ‘Close the Door,’ “Turn Off the Lights’ and ‘”Love T.K.O’.”