“Why do we read on trains? For as many reasons as there are readers, one suspects; the public uses of a book, a newspaper or a magazine are unlimited. Obviously, they take you away from what are, unless you are making a very short and simple trip, gruelling surroundings; lumped into a confined space with a load of people you dont know, subject to delays and confusions that cant be anticipated, unable to control noise or temperature or random incidents.”
Tag: 02.04.07
When Criticism Is Beyond The Point
There are books, music, art that defy criticism. They are what they are. “Nature doesn’t owe us perfection. Novelists don’t either. Who among us would even recognize perfection if we saw it?”
Genre Fiction, Set In A Neighborhood Like Yours
Plenty of detective stories are set in suburbia, Marilyn Stasio writes, even though “suburbia just doesn’t attract the same kind of dark, brooding sleuths who are drawn to the mean streets of Big Bad City, U.S.A. What we tend to get, instead, are the comedians, the cranks and the kooks…. But the grounds for satire, no less than murder, depend on where you live — and what constitutes a killing offense in your community.”
Is V&A Becoming The People Magazine Of Museums?
Critics are dumping on The Victoria & Albert Museum for staging a Kylie Minogue show. “The London museum’s decision to mount ‘Kylie – The Exhibition’, which charts the changing image of the Australian singing star, features costumes, album covers, accessories, photographs and videos from the career of the 38-year-old, who this weekend revealed she had split from her boyfriend Olivier Martinez.”
10 Years Of Promoting Minority Musicians
“The 10th annual Sphinx Competition in Detroit, which opens Wednesday, shines a spotlight on the lack of minorities in classical music. Some of the finest young minority string players in the nation, accompanied by the all-black and Latino professional Sphinx Symphony, will compete for more than $100,000 in prizes and scholarships to top music schools and opportunities to perform with leading American orchestras.”
Reconsidering The Denver Art Museum
After some bleak reviews of Daniel Libeskind’s new Denver Art Museum, more recent assessments have been more upbeat. “It is impossible, of course, to know how posterity will ultimately judge this building or what influence today’s reviews will have. But what is clear is that some of the early attacks on the building were extreme and a more fair and balanced assessment is coalescing.”
A Menu Of Conductors
Last week the Dallas Symphony appointed Jaap van Zweden as its new music director. So who else was on the shortlist?
The Directors With Slow Motion Careers
A number of successful young directors have taken a great deal of time between projects in the past few years. “Is it a sign of timidity, or laziness, or some unexpected lack of drive? Is it a lack of interesting material? Is it the fault of the studio system and its emphasis on high-paying, mind-numbing commercial fare?”
Who Cares About The Grammys, Anyway?
“Their credibility and timeliness continue to erode. As the Internet accelerates the way music is distributed, consumed and evaluated, fans can turn to many credible and far more timely outlets to find the year’s best songs and albums. Increasingly, the Grammys can’t help but be perceived as a relic of a time when MP3 files didn’t exist.”
Harry At $65? (And Topping The Charts)
The final Harry Potter is six months away. But “not only is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows topping the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble .com, a deluxe edition, priced at $65, is No. 2, outselling the You diet book, Sen. Barack Obama and an Oprah Winfrey-endorsed memoir by Sidney Poitier.”