Rep. Jeff Flake (R – AZ) questioned NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman over a number of grants, including those to an international accordion festival and to the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Making grants like these “feeds the cynicism out there about everything we do,” Flake said.
Tag: 05.11.11
Tracking The Decline Of German Orchestras
“There are 2,237 fewer full-time positions for orchestral musicians in Germany today than there were in 1992 — a loss of 18%. As we wring our hands over the loss of orchestras in Louisville, HonoÂlulu, Syracuse, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s declaration of bankruptcy, imagine what we’d do if we lost 35 of them.”
Library of Congress Launches ‘National Jukebox’
“The new website provides access to more than 10-thousand historical recordings for free on a streaming-only basis – no downloads. It covers the first quarter of the twentieth century and includes music, poetry, political speeches and other spoken word recordings.”
Nine Of The Best Recordings From The New Library Of Congress Jukebox
Atlantic tech editor Alexis Madrigal: “We asked the lead curator of the Jukebox, Gene DeAnna, to create a playlist for us of some of his favorite recordings as an entry point for the collection.”
Judd Apatow’s Movies Are Not Sexist
“It’s hard not to view Bridesmaids … as his mea culpa to the women of America. Presumably, he’d like to put to rest charges that the women in his films are underdeveloped vehicles for male transformation. … [But] Apatow has no need to atone. While his film canon is undeniably dude-centric, the lady characters he’s brought to the screen are more complex and fully realized than his detractors claim.”
Wilton’s Music Hall In London Faces (Literal) Collapse
“The London venue, the oldest music hall of its kind in the world, needs £3.5 million to make it structurally sound, according to its director, Frances Mayhew.” Since re-opening as a performance space in 1999, Wilton’s has hosted many opera and theatre productions – most notably, several Deborah Warner/Fiona Shaw collaborations.
Amateur And Professional Theatre In Britain Edge Closer Together
“A ‘professional’ could be defined as someone who has trained in a particular skill and then earns a living through using this skill. Yet, of course, simply because of the way the industry works, by this definition many people who work in theatre wouldn’t count. … So what, really, are the differences between the situation of the performers I’ve just described and amateurs?”
Canada Gets New $60K Non-Fiction Prize
“Billed as the richest award for factual writing in Canada,” the $60,000 Writers’ Trust Hilary Weston Prize “and the autumn gala at which it will be announced are intended to do for the craft what the Giller Prize does for Canadian fiction.”
May Is Zombie Awareness Month (Who Knew?)
The Zombie Research Society reminds us that “because Spring naturally brings with it a sense of renewal and hopefulness, May is the perfect month to emphasize continued vigilance in the face of the coming zombie pandemic.” All month, “the society says, people are encouraged to wear a gray ribbon, ‘to acknowledge the coming danger’.”
Are The Arts Losing Their Soul To Anonymity?
“Great art is made from a great paradox: it is grounded in the local, the specific, the ephemeral, yet it achieves the metaphysical and cheats time and place. The floating world of international co-productions and festival art doesn’t allow for that local starting place: work is being made in the first place (sometimes literally, often metaphorically) in the business lounge. And the audience who come increasingly expect that floating, international world of luxury.”