Chicago’s year-old Millennium Park has been a great success. “The joyful postindustrial playground, which has brazenly discarded the old industrial age model of the serene urban park, is blowing equally strong winds of change across the cityscape that surrounds it, altering a museum’s plans, boosting real estate prospects and (perhaps) opening doors for more innovative architecture in a city whose design scene had grown stale as recently as a decade ago. It has emerged as a sparkling example, despite its widely publicized delays and cost overruns, of how big cities can get big things done. In the national conversation, Millennium Park is being hailed in some quarters as an example of how business and political leaders can pull together.”
Tag: 06.27.05
Keillor Goes In To Overdrive
At the age of 62 Garrison Keillor is busier than he’s ever been. He “has become an American institution during his 30-plus-year career, often compared to Mark Twain or Will Rogers, or both. But the expanding Keillor “brand” is in no danger of ending up on a cereal box or in a reality show. He’s not that needy. Keillor is like the sausagemaker who loves to hear compliments about his product, and is happy if you buy it, though he will never once mention it’s for sale. Don’t ask to watch him make it, either, or where he shops for his ingredients. He’ll start edging for the exit.”
Bipolar: Report From TCG
The Theatre Communications Group held it annual meeting June 16-18 in Seattle. “The 15th annual conference featured over 700 artists and administrators from 43 states and the District of Columbia, as well as delegates from 15 other countries, including Ireland, Iran, and the Czech Republic.”
Music Festival Cancels Tindall Talk (Too Racy?)
North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival has canceled an appearance by Blair Tindall, whose provocative memoir, ‘Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music’ is the talk of the classical music world. When organizers of the festival learned that concern about the book’s content had prompted another festival for young musicians to cancel Tindall’s appearance, the decision was made to cancel the July 5 talk. “We are concerned that some of the material might be inappropriate or confusing to a 14-year-old student.”
Canadian Arts Groups Protest Satellite Radio Plans
Canadian arts groups are protesting a decision by the federal government to introduce pay-satellite radio service in Canada. They say that the service will erode efforts to produce Canadian content on radio…
Potter Tops A Million
With three weeks to go before its release, advance orders for the new Harry Potter book have topped one million. “At this rate, pre-orders should top the 1.3 million pre-orders received for the previous Harry Potter book in 2003.”
London’s ICA Gets A New Director
Guy Perricone is the new managing directod of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. “Perricone joins the ICA from ABN AMRO of the Netherlands, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, where he was chief operating officer for Global Corporate Finance. He describes his new role at the ICA as that of a “practical visionary” whose mission is to support the artistic programme and enable each discipline to flourish and develop.”
Supremes: Fileshare Services Liable
The entertainment industry wins big as the US Supreme Court rules that file-sharing services are liable for copyright infringement for illegal downloading over their networks. “We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.”
B.B. King: Blues Don’t Get Respect
“It’s been a good year for B.B. King, named by Rolling Stone magazine as the third-greatest guitarist of all time. He’s recording a new album of duets with Elton John, Eric Clapton and Gloria Estefan, a memorabilia book bearing his name soon will be released, and he recently broke ground on the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretative Center in this small Mississippi Delta town. Yet King, acclaimed around the world, still laments what he believes is a lack of respect for blues music in America, where radio stations mostly play hip-hop, pop and rock.”
Worldwide Box Office Slump
The movie business isn’t just down in the US – the rest of the world is in a box office slump too. “Whether it’s because consumers are distracted by the Internet, DVDs, videogames and ever more sophisticated mobile devices — or something as simple as warm weather, as has been the case in some key European markets — it’s clear that people around the globe are not going to the movies as much as they have in recent years.”