The Motion Picture Association of America has a new chief. “To succeed Jack Valenti, 82, once an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Motion Picture Association of America has chosen Dan Glickman, a former agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton and a Democratic congressman from Kansas, as its new chairman.”
Tag: 07.02.04
Britain’s New Cabaret
Live performance and cabaret acts have never been so popular in the UK. “Welcome to Britain’s Cabarenaissance. Across the country a new breed of night owl has sworn to bring the dressing-up, the decadence and the dandy back into after-hours debauchery. Clubbing is getting classy. For a growing number of people seeking to burn it at both ends, standing in a cramped stench-box listening to some trend-ophile play six hours of ‘fusion grime’ just doesn’t cut the mustard any more.”
Report: UK Science Funding Impoverishes Arts
The British Academy has issued a report that charges that “government enthusiasm for scientific research has left the arts and humanities underfunded and neglected.”
Rethinking Aussie Arts Funding
The Australian government is undertaking a review of arts funding, and the country’s major arts groups are weighing in with opinions on the current system’s shortcomings (shortfundings?).
Venice Police Arrest Hammer Man
A man has been arrested in Venice for damaging dozens of statues in the city with a hammer. “Antonio Benacchio, 38, an engineer living in the city, was detained when a priest became suspicious of his behaviour in a church on Monday. Because of his eccentric gestures, Mr Benacchio was already known to Venetians as the ‘engineer who measures the air’.”
American Ballet Theatre’s New Executive Diva
Rachel Moore is a former ABT dancer. Now she’s taken on running the company as its new executive direcctor. “Moore’s performing role now is to bring stability to a premier company that has seen tumult in recent years, with questions raised by former trustees about the company’s financial health, and a high turnover of executive directors. She is the fourth executive director in four years.
The New Criticism (Or Not)
“Critics today, it is claimed, are too cozy behind the ivied walls of academe, content to employ a prose style that is decipherable only to a handful of the cognoscenti. The deadly dive of university critics into the shallow depths of popular culture, moreover, reveals the unwillingness of these critics to uphold standards. Even if the reasons offered are contradictory, these Jeremiahs huddle around their sad conclusion that serious cultural criticism has fallen into a morass of petty bickering and bloated reputations. Such narratives of declension, a staple of American intellectual life since the time of the Puritans, are misplaced, self-serving, and historically inaccurate. And difficult to prove. Has the level of criticism declined in the last 50 years?”