“It may seem unclear exactly what they were protesting about, since Simone Clarke did not goose-step on stage. But their message was clear enough: the arts must be politically policed to ensure that artists are ‘free’ of incorrect opinions. If those standards were imposed across the board, we would have to ‘kick out’ everything from Wagner to Mel Gibson.”
Tag: 01.16.07
London Theatre Gets Print-Your-Own Tickets
A new service in London will let West End theatre customers buy their tickets online and print them at home. “Customers will be able to buy tickets online and print off confirmation from their home computer which includes a barcode that can be read by ushers at the theatre using a handheld scanner. The system, which is already common on Broadway, cuts out the need to visit the box office on arrival and makes it harder to for tickets to be forged.”
Classical Crossover With Finnish
Violinist Pekka Kuusisto may be “the best thing to happen to classical music in years… There’s something appealingly chaotic about a violinist who can play concertos in front of the LA Philharmonic, but is defeated by nail polish remover.”
British Library Use Up
“There was a small rise of about 1% in the number of visits to public libraries – continuing a trend for increasing visits. The total number of visitors has risen 7.5% in total over the past five years. The number of computer terminals in public libraries has risen by 7% in the past year as libraries continue to expand their role into different forms of educational media.”
Jazz Takes The Lead In Music Education?
“How is it that jazz has become the vehicle for the resurgence of robust music programs in the schools while classical music, and its offspring (arguably US) still find it a challenge to be seen as relevant to arts education in the United States? Perhaps it is because jazz is an honest child of the arts in American culture and is taking back its true inheritance.”
Movie Scorecard – How Hollywood’s Studios Rank
How did Hollywood’s big movie studios fare in 2006? Well, Fox is at the top. “Big Fox is an assembly line, making low-risk movies with low-wattage filmmakers.” Here’s a scorcard on how the studios fared last year.
Austria’s Mass Mozart Pulled In The Masses
Austria’s year-long festival celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday drew 1.2 million visitors – a record for an Austrian festival. “Because of the tremendous interest in classical music generated by the Mozart events, there are now plans to establish a composers’ alliance this summer to better promote contemporary European musical talents.”
An Art Market Turned Upside Down
“When the market rules, the old rules of collecting and connoisseurship are overturned: Quality judgments seem out-of-whack in a wacky world where Rembrandt’s auction record of $28.69 million is eclipsed by Klimt’s auction record of $87.9 million. Art investors formerly expected to hold onto works for five years or more to turn a profit; now big bucks are made on quick flips. Young artists, still wet behind the ears, sell still-wet canvases and become instant (if ephemeral) art stars.”
The Critic As Friend/Hagiographer
“Can artists and critics ever be friends? It might be different for music or film critics, but for an art critic in Britain in the 21st century, it has become an urgent question: critics have become so close to artists, they practically do their laundry.”
Appeal Argued In ‘Da Vinci Code’ Case
“Two authors who failed to convince Britain’s High Court that New Hampshire’s Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’ took their case to the Court of Appeal on Tuesday. Lawyers for Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who face a bill of more than $2 million if the earlier verdict stands, said the lower court ruling ‘was based on a misunderstanding of the law and of the claim.’ “