Los Angeles prides itself on being a literate city. But a recent survey of America’s most literate cities places LA 54th. “To get to Los Angeles’ place on the list, in fact, you must wade past Las Vegas (tied for 13th), Newark, N.J. (18) and Wichita, Kan. (39); beyond most other major California cities, including San Francisco (5), Sacramento (25), San Diego (40) and Anaheim (53), all the way down to the bottom 10 on the list, just above Fresno. Even so — Toledo?”
Tag: 07.13.03
Shaking Rattle At Beethoven
Putting your stamp on Beethoven’s nine symphonies has traditionally been the great conductor’s calling card. It happens less these days, but Simon Rattle is the star of the day and he’s got a new set of recordings of the symphonies. Tim Page reports that “this would hardly be my first (or, for that matter, my 10th) choice for a complete Beethoven. Rattle has attempted to meld historically informed performance practice with old-fashioned orchestral grandeur, which means that the tempos tend to be on the quick side while the sonorities are full and lush. So far, so good. But Rattle places such an emphasis on drama and ferocity that many of the gentler and more expansive qualities of Beethoven’s art are lost.”
The New Glyndebourne
The Glyndebourne Festival in the late 90s had fallen upon considerable disrepeair. “Now, with a new, young leadership team in place, the future of Glyndebourne looks generally bright. Such a popular and excellent festival is not likely to self-destruct. Still, whether the new administration can find a way back to what now looks like a golden age of a decade ago, or whether in the name of fiscal sobriety it will shy away from innovation, remains to be seen.”
Tapping At A Higher Level
“Like Mikhail Baryshnikov or Michael Jordan, Savion Glover has raised the technical baseline of his field: maneuvers once extraordinary are now commonplace. Such technique, especially speed, is often overused, but the greater threat is over-influence. Dancers understandably want to model themselves after Mr. Glover, but merely to imitate him would be to betray the example he’s set — the way he absorbed the styles of his mentors and forged his own, as they had before him. Despite his frequent deference to both predecessors and contemporaries, the press often treats him as the only tap dancer worth noticing. Such attention (and its financial fruit) encourages imitation, yet even without it, Mr. Glover’s reinterpretation of tradition is compelling enough to obscure other options.”
The New Cultural Paradigm
We’ve moved into a new era in the culture, writes Frank Rich. “In post-9/11 New York, it’s not those tired 20th-century battles about pornography and blasphemy that draw blood. The new culture wars often spring from 9/11 itself, starting with the future, aesthetic and otherwise, of ground zero.” So here’s “the leading front of the culture war: can architecture, commerce and artistic entrepreneurship (a new City Opera? a Museum of Freedom sponsored by American Express?) so quickly bind the gravest wound in New York’s modern memory? Officially, we keep being told, the answer is yes…”
Music – Better On Your Own
Recording labels have generally been ruthless in dropping artists that haven’t sold as well as expected. Now the tables are being turned. “These days, with the entire music biz in flux, a growing number of major-label artists, from Pearl Jam to Natalie Merchant to Jimmy Buffett, are biting the hand that doesn’t feed them enough. They’re finding that they can start their own record labels and do just fine outside the big-label structure, that going independent and using technology to their advantage can pay off both financially and creatively.”
Gangs And Amateurs Rip Off Museums
Theft from European museums is becoming a bigger problem. “Harried police investigators and heartbroken museum curators blame lackluster security guards, insufficient budgets and lenient laws for the rise in thefts. Problems have plagued not only grand institutions like the Louvre in Paris, but also lesser-known regional museums, churches and stately private homes. Thieves have increasingly targeted displays of diamonds, antique clocks, sculptures and rare furniture that can sometimes be sold more easily than well-recognized paintings by master artists. The trade is lucrative – some pieces of rare furniture are valued at $1 million or more.”
Museum Board, Director, Resign In Selling Scandal
The Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff was facing a $1 million deficit this spring, so its director and board decided to sell artifacts to finance operations. That has led to the forced resignation of the museum’s board and director. “The museum’s leadership came under fire after 21 of the museum’s artifacts were sold to raise operating money, its geology department was closed and paleontologist David Gillette and his research staff were fired. Director Robert Baughman told members in June that the sale was necessary because the museum was so broke it had funds for only three weeks of operation.”
Wave Of Personal UK Galleries Opening
The success of Charles Saatchi’s new gallery in London has spurred others, including Sir Elton John, to build and open their own public galleries. “Opinion is divided in the art world over the reasons for this sudden wave of philanthropy. While there are few who do not welcome the thought of these eclectic collections being made public, sceptics sense that the scale of investment being bestowed on the new galleries owes as much to vanity as it does to charity.”
Whistler – So Tough He Responded To His Own Obituary
In 1902 James McNeill Whistler collapsed from a heart attack and hung on to life for a week before recovering. But a local Dutch paper printed a premature obituary, promting a letter from Whistler: “May I therefore acknowledge the tender glow of health induced by reading, as I sat here in the morning sun, the flattering attention paid me by your gentleman of ready wreath and quick biography!” He recovered enough to go on to Amsterdam to see one of his paintings in the Rijksmuseum before returning home to London. And while never entirely well again, the world-famous artist lived another year, finally expiring 100 years ago this week, on July 17, 1903.