A Language All Their Own

“The book world has a language all of its own. Reviewese isn’t confined to book reviewers; it pervades the literary world. A lot of it comes from book-jacket blurbs, which produce a repertoire of sentences that publishers would like to see in book reviews. This literary lingo consists of words, constructions and formulations few English speakers use, but that sound true if used about books.”

Star-Cross’d Soviet Strangeness

An old Soviet imagining of Prokofiev’s ballet version of Romeo & Juliet, as realized by Korea’s Universal Ballet and choreographer Oleg Vinogradov, is an interesting historical exercise, but not much of an artistic one, says Tobi Tobias. “If the dancing seems to have no impulse, no drive, no phrasing, it’s because the choreography doesn’t demand such things—indeed, appears to have no idea they exist. And the dancers haven’t been encouraged to make up for the deficiency. The music keeps issuing urgent reminders on the subject, but no one, apart from the audience, hears them.”

Schwarzenegger Snubs The Arts, Again

The state of California, which houses more than 10% of the population of the U.S., has a State Arts Council with a budget of only $1 million, the lowest per capita level of arts funding (by far) in the nation. And last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto to remove an additional million dollars of arts funding approved by the state legislature. The cuts have left California arts leaders in despair, with one civic leader saying that the disappointment “was not about that million dollars, it was about what it represented.”

The Controversy That Just Won’t Die

The old debate over who wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare is the theatrical controversy that seems only to grow in intensity with every passing year. But a new seminar at the UK’s recreation of the Bard’s own Globe Theater has upped the ante once again “with the introduction of the first woman suspect — Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke.”

Rockers For… Well, Against Bush, Anyway

“Provided the planet survives long enough for us to observe these muddled times from a safe distance, music historians might someday credit George W. Bush’s presidency with giving rock ‘n’ roll activism its biggest boost since the Vietnam War… it was big news last week when heartland hero Bruce Springsteen — one of those performers who’s always come across as political without being overtly so — stepped into the coming U.S. election fray by announcing he would join such disparate types as R.E.M., John Fogerty, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Death Cab for Cutie, Bonnie Raitt, Jurassic 5 and Babyface in a series of anti-Bush concerts to be held in American ‘swing states’ this coming October.”

Exporting Art, On The Government’s Dime

Washington choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess has spent his summer in Peru, touring with his own company and working with the country’s own national troupe. “What made Burgess’s Peru trip possible was the State Department’s American Cultural Specialists program. The program, which sent 66 artists abroad last year, promotes cross-cultural exchange through the arts… [The] program is one contemporary example of the federally sponsored international tour, a practice that was at its height during the Cold War period and has always functioned with a combination of public and private funding.”

Whatever Happened To The Nasty, Churlish, 90s Man?

“Once upon a time Sexist Lad ruled the radio. He was the ‘slob with a gob’, baiting his employers and flirting remorselessly with female guests before reducing them to tears.” In fact, Alpha Males might have been the official UK Broadcast Symbol of the 1990s. But as it turns out, that kind of caveman mystique wears thin fairly quickly, and the new generation of radio stars tend to be either women, or a noticably less aggressive breed of “regular guy.”

In Edinburgh: The Fringe That Needs A Fringe

Maybe the Edinburgh Fringe Festival isn’t as cool as it once was? Some artists seem to think so. “As a booming fringe kicks off this weekend and finally threatens to overtake completely the official annual arts festival, there are signs of a dangerous split. Prompted by a dislike of the slick public relations operations, bureaucracy and high admission prices, many influential performers are striking out to create a radical, cool ‘fringe of the fringe’.”