“The more stringently the ceremony tries to remind viewers about the magic of movies, the less appealing the whole thing seems; the good-medicine approach always backfires in entertainment.”
Tag: 03.01.12
The Great Church Of El Sistema
“Venezuela is not especially a deeply Catholic country, and El Sistema’s top rank of musicians do not display piety. But through the influence of Mr. Abreu, who professes deep religious devotion, the trappings of a church have emerged, even if the similarities are only a question of atmospherics. It is possible to extrapolate that a good part of El Sistema’s success is due to these trappings, or at least to the single-minded focus on spreading the gospel of social action through music.”
Qatar Becomes Major Player In World Art Market
“Qatari buyers make up to 25 percent of the Middle East’s $11 billion art market … The emirate itself was the world’s biggest buyer in the art market by value last year,” paying fearsomely high prices for works by the likes of Cézanne and Rothko to adorn its glittering new museums.
Yet Qatar’s Free-Spending Royals May Be Stifling Local Artists
“Critics of the Qatar royal family say it is behaving as a facilitator of the international art scene while at the same time using it for self-promotion. And rather than letting the art scene in Qatar grow naturally according to the needs of its people to express themselves, these observers say, the country is handpicking artists who are politically neutral. In such an atmosphere, most local artists do not stand much of a chance.”
Modern Dance Comes Into Its Own In China
The art form is finally finding its footing “after years of lagging behind other theatrical arts in performance opportunities, funding, media coverage and audience. … Most remarkable of all, in a Chinese context, is that many of these companies are privately run, self-supporting, unregistered – and fiercely independent.”
The Twilight Of Doo-Wop
“In a world where fans and the remaining performers are almost invariably in their 60s and 70s, or older, … whether because of an absence of charismatic individual stars, musical shortcomings or the way it has been relegated to Happy Days nostalgia, doo-wop has been marginalized as tacky music stuck in time.”