“In China, classical music is booming as mightily as the 1812 Overture. It’s fortissimo in Shanghai, home to China’s oldest orchestra, forte in Beijing and other lively cities, and on a crescendo in farther-flung areas. Commanding Y100-200 ($12.50-$25) per hour, private music teachers in Shanghai can readily earn more than five times the average per capita monthly income.”
Tag: 01.20.07
A Change In How Movies Are Rated
Hollywood’s movie ratings board is making some funamental changes in the way it rates movies. “The most substantive change for directors would be in the appeals process, allowing filmmakers to cite similar objectionable scenes in past movies when trying to overturn what they think is an overly harsh rating that restricts the ages of movie-goers.”
Is Digital Art Destined To Disappear?
The rise of digital art has wrought many changes in the art world, but one of the biggest challenges for those who use computers to create their art may be avoiding technological obsolescence. “Is this work – perfectly preserved in binary code – doomed because it will be superseded by future hardware and software?” And when art is designed to be fluid, how do you even define what constitutes the art, anyway?
Did Seattle Build The Perfect Library?
Seattle’s new Rem Koolhaas-designed central library has been winning rave reviews from architecture buffs since it opened in 2005. But artistic merit and functionality are two different things, so it’s worth noting that the library has also been a huge success with those who actually use it. “It is casual enough that kids and teenagers are showing up in unprecedented numbers but so are those intent on serious study.”
Does New York Even Know That This Debate Exists?
“People on the Bay Area art scene still fret about the larger world’s failure to recognize San Francisco as a center of cultural influence,” and a new exhibit frames the defensiveness as part of a larger art struggle between two of America’s cultural hubs. “It tries to sketch the tensions between New York and San Francisco sensibilities during the years when American art consolidated its supremacy amid the transnational ruins of World War II.”
Banking On Spacey
“After several weeks of tense negotiations, [Kevin] Spacey finally signed to star in the upcoming revival of Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten.” But Spacey’s exorbitant salary creates serious fiscal pressure for the production, which will now have to sell huge numbers of “premium” tickets priced as high as $250 just to break even.
Oscar Plays It Safe
Much of Hollywood’s stranglehold on American culture is built around Oscar hype and hoopla. But as anyone who regularly watches the Oscars can tell you, the best films are hardly guaranteed to take home the gold. “The theme is a familiar one: the academy often goes for less edgy material.” Controversial or edgy films might get nominated, but their odds of winning are slim.
Fanning The Flames
12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning has a new movie coming out this month, and it has conservative bloggers, Fox News personalities, and some child safety advocates up in arms. In the film, Fanning’s character appears in her underwear, is sexually abused by her father, and is raped by a teenager. “Hundreds signed a petition to persuade a [North Carolina] district attorney to prosecute the filmmakers under a law banning simulated sex with a minor.”
Looking For An Escape From The Real World
Is the turbulent state of the modern world causing theatregoers to flock to the stage equivalent of comfort food? In London, it sure seems that way. “Only The Sound of Music, at the London Palladium, is drawing the around-the-block lines that make producers wake up trilling.”
Taking The Formality Out Of The Concert Equation
Orchestras around the U.S. have been introducing new “hybrid” concert series in which the atmosphere is casual, the start time is early, and musicians and conductors spend part of the evening talking in a friendly manner about the music they’re about to play. “And for these concerts, orchestra members are encouraged to stick around afterward to meet and talk with the audience.”