“Brendan Neiland, an esteemed Royal Academy academic and articulate public champion of painting as an art form, has resigned after financial irregularities were discovered in his work. The academy said Professor Neiland, 62, had left his post as keeper [head] of its art school following an internal investigation. The inquiry uncovered an unauthorised bank account, as well as unauthorised deposits and disbursements.”
Tag: 07.31.04
The New Pulp Fiction
“For good or for bad, street lit is eating up the African American book world at the moment. Walk into the Karibu bookstore in Prince George’s Plaza and you’ll see. It used to be there were just one or two small shelves of ‘street life’ books. Now there’s a whole section… What is a street lit novel? The telltale signs usually include a shut-your-mouth title, straightforward sentences, vast amounts of drugs, sex and rap music and varying degrees of crime and punishment. An exemplary tale is a mixture of foul language, flying bullets, fast cars, a flood of drugs, fallen angels and high-priced frippery. It venerates grams over grammar, sin over syntax, excess over success.”
The Musicians’ Conductor
It’s well-documented that the conductors best loved by musicians are not always the ones who get the best results from their orchestras. So when the Toronto Symphony hired former Tokyo Quartet violinist Peter Oundjian to be their next music director, William Littler needed convincing of the wisdom of the decision. But after following Oundjian around North America for a week and talking with members of various orchestras, the critic admits that there may be something to the idea of a musician leading musicians. “There is an unfailing politeness in the way he addresses the players and a consistently high energy level in his conducting.”
The Luthier’s Secret: Cold Water & Vibrational Energy
A Berkeley acupuncturist is gaining a name for himself as a maker of some of the best modern violins available today. Peter Van Arsdale’s secret is the wood he uses – found timbers salvaged from the icy waters of Lake Superior. “Cut from logs that sank maybe two centuries ago as they were being floated to frontier settlements, the wood — rot-free because there’s almost no oxygen in the cold waters where it was preserved — has a richness and density rare in younger timber.” He also sees a connection between his two professions: “Acupuncture works with vibrational energy, and violins are nothing but vibrational energy.”
Following The Nose
From an operatic standpoint, Shostakovich’s The Nose is a bit of an odd duck, “an absurdist portrayal of a man whose nose departs from his face, runs around town disguised as a bureaucrat, and makes hash of prerevolution Russia’s strict class distinctions.” Musically, the work is a brutal exercise in control, featuring among other things a ten-part chorale and a double canon. (“Imagine Noel Coward patter songs played at warp speed and thrown into a blender.”) But after decades of relative obscurity, The Nose is starting to see some more performances, and the Kirov Opera has adopted it as something of a cause.
Still Shocking After All These Years
“Peek into Isaac Bashevis Singer’s fictional universe and it is easy to see why so many still take offense. Singer’s characters, nearly all Jews, curse and covet and commit adultery. They impersonate demons or invoke them. They are superstitious, provincial, desirous. Nearly everything forbidden by Jewish law and custom is done by one character or another… Now, with the publication of three encyclopedic volumes of Singer’s short stories by the Library of America, and with lectures and readings honoring the centennial of his birth this year, another opportunity is being offered to take the measure of those transgressions.”
The Deadline Poet Gets Political (And Popular)
Calvin Trillin – the often-political poet who got his start in published verse with a little gem titled “If You Knew What Sununu” – does not harbor any illusions about matching up with the great poets of his or any other era. (In fact, he once penned a two-line poem on the subject: “They’ve named another poet laureate / It’s not me yet.”) But Trillin’s latest collection of doggerel debuted at #7 on the bestseller list, and while the humor of his work may have something to do with it, there’s no doubt that his liberal slant and anger at the Bush administration is feeding sales as well.
Is Broadway Choking On Talentless Celebrity?
Broadway’s obsession with big-name pop culture stars and washed-up blips on the cultural radar is getting out of hand. “Just a quick gaze at today’s theater listings can give a person the distinct sensation of watching a particularly poignant episode of ‘I Love the 90’s.'” Worse, previous experience and actual talent or ability seem to have next to nothing to do with these casting decisions.
The British Blandcasting Corporation?
Peter Aspden is exasperated by the BBC’s culture of high-minded talk and middlebrow action. “It is admirably well-meaning, and there is a striking sense of solidarity about the place, the kind of feeling that found expression following the abrupt departure of its former director-general Greg Dyke in the aftermath of the Hutton inquiry. But there is also… something scarily bland in the air.” Lately, though, the BBC had been fighting back against those who claim the company has been dumbing down its cultural coverage, and while some claim that the timing is awfully convenient, it’s hard to deny that many of those assaulting the BBC have a bit of a class-fed elitist bent.
But Pros Play An Awful Lot of Crappy Music, Too
Chicago’s Steans Institute for Young Artists may not be as famous a professional training ground as Tanglewood, but it has been nurturing young musicians in a semi-professional setting for 15 years. But while the program has come far from its humble origins as a chamber music seminar, Andrew Patner says that the organizers may need to reconsider some of their programming decisions, if they’re truly aiming to educate their participants, rather than simply to bore their audience.