Anyone who says that classical music is a purely aural medium has probably never seen an orchestra in action. The movements of a conductor can range from subtle to violent, and musicians can be seen moving independently or in concert. Charlotte Higgins says that observing the physical movement of an orchestra is half the fun of the performance.
Tag: 04.26.06
Historians Slam Smithsonian Commercialism
“The Society of American Historians, a group that promotes excellence in historical writing, has suspended Smithsonian Books from its ranks in protest over the Smithsonian Institution’s ‘increasingly commercial approach to its mission.’ The suspension itself will have little impact, but it is the latest symptom of friction between the Smithsonian’s top managers and many of the nation’s scholars.”
America By The Numbers
The 28.5-pound, $825, five-volume Historical Statistics of the United States, Millennial Edition is out, containing more numbers and comparisons than you can shake a stick at, all purporting to paint a useful picture of America Then & Now. But Joel Garreau says that “what it is, really, is a marvelous walk through a bizarre notion — that America, our culture and values, indeed our reality — can be described in numbers.”
How Do You Play A Terrorist?
Imagine you’re an actor of Middle Eastern descent trying to make a career in Hollywood. For years, you had endless trouble getting parts. Now, the industry can’t get enough of you, but most of the parts available will have you playing a terrorist, and if you do your job as an actor and try to humanize the character, you’ll stir up the animosity of countless viewers. What do you do?
First Look At 9/11 Film Proves Emotional For Many
The controversial and much-anticipated United 93 made its debut in New York last night, and the reaction, as might be expected, was emotional in the extreme. “The screen went dark after the stomach-turning sequence showing the plane’s nosedive. The theatre was silent except for the gut-wrenching sobs and wails from the loge, where the relatives [of the flight’s passengers] were seated together.”
Preserving Pollock Presents Plenty of Problems
Art conservation has become such an intricate and well-understood science that it sometimes seems as if there is no damage a skilled professional cannot undo, no work that cannot be perfectly preserved. But the paintings of Jackson Pollock present a unique challenge for restorers, with the famous spatters subject to cracking and other deterioration. A new restoration job on one of Pollock’s more famous works points up how conservators’ techniques have changed over the decades.
A Tale Of Two Getty Gardens
“Gardens at the two Getty Museum campuses could not be more different. California artist Robert Irwin’s central garden at the Brentwood Center is a constantly changing, off-balance geometric splash of color and texture. It’s a stark contrast to the beige classicism of the towering, marble buildings above it. Conversely, the elegant Mediterranean-style landscaping of the newly reopened Getty Villa in nearby Malibu is an understated partner to the estate it surrounds. Nonetheless, the two gardens share a dramatic spirit: One is a work of living sculpture, the other a piece of horticultural theater.”
So, Another Advance Is Out Of The Question, Then?
The Harvard student-turned-author who confessed yesterday to “accidentally” plagiarizing parts of her first novel, has now been blasted by the publisher of the book she copied from. “In a statement issued today, [a senior VP of Crown Publishing] said that, ‘based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an unconscious or unintentional act.” The executive, Steve Ross, also says that there are more than 40 apparently lifted passages in Viswanathan’s novel, and calls the situation “nothing less than an act of literary identity theft.”
Will This Become Another “Poor Me” Story?
Alex Beam isn’t cutting Kaavya Viswanathan any slack for her alleged plagiarism, and points out that she didn’t exactly “write” her own novel in the traditional sense, anyway. “[She] bought her way into Harvard — her parents paid $10,000 to $20,000 to IvyWise, a college counseling service, according to The New York Times — then lucked her way into a $500,000 two-book contract with Little, Brown & Co. She shares the valuable copyright on her first novel with ‘book packager’ Alloy Entertainment, which helped flesh out the novel’s concept.” Beam wonders whether Viswanathan will be able to slough off the blame for the copying on some anonymous Alloy staffer.
Movie Satire Loses Specificity, Gains Appeal
Satire is hot right now, but the biting political send-ups that have made Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert millionaires seem to lose some of their specificity when Hollywood translates the idea to film. Caryn James says there’s a good reason for that: “Political satires on screen may be most successful when they don’t aim at specific politicians at all… At their shrewdest, movies like American Dreamz and Thank You for Smoking follow the lead of Wag the Dog. They don’t attack individual politicians or entertainers (not even Simon); they are really satirizing how all those scoundrels in Washington and Hollywood talk down to us.”