Is there a question anymore about the traditionalist turn art has taken in the past couple of years? “In these times when any visitor to Times Square can sit for an artist whose oeuvre includes fine sketches of Tupac Shakur, James Childs has turned a clever living immortalizing what was once called upper-case-S Society, in a heroic, labor-intensive style you might have thought even more antiquated than Society itself. Working in the formal discipline of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres or John Singer Sargent, Mr. Childs takes about four such commissions a year, for which he charges $150,000 and up for full-length portraits.”
Tag: 08.24.03
Hollywood’s Romance With Books
“Hollywood has had a long love affair with books, and like any relationship, it has had its highs (“Gone With the Wind”) and lows (“The Great Gatsby”). There are movies that are better than the books (“The Godfather”); movies that drastically depart from books with disastrous consequences (“The Scarlet Letter” starring Demi Moore); and movies that differ to one degree or another but still capture the spirit of the book (“The French Lieutenant’s Woman”).”
Elliott Carter – On Top At 94
“Though considered in certain circles to be America’s greatest living composer, he is, in others, demonized for alienating audiences with music that’s so dense, so packed with information in so little time, that it’s like street noise. Anyone listening to Carter expecting typical classical symmetry and tunefulness is primed for disappointment. If heard in the anything-can-happen spirit of progressive jazz, Carter’s hairpin turns and animated chatter among instruments are anything but mysterious. He tests listeners at the beginning of his pieces, often with a jarring chord that all but says, ‘If you can handle this, the rest is easy’.”
The BBC’s Architecture Problem
The BBC is having difficulty choosing an architect and design for a new concert hall. “Faced with the embarrassing discovery that none of the five architects it had invited to design a showcase concert hall at White City came anywhere near meeting its budget, the BBC is having to learn quickly that an architectural competition is no guarantee of great architecture. On one level, the corporation has only itself to blame. The real problem with architectural competitions is not of the BBC’s making. It, at least, is serious about building – but it has been swept along by the illusion that architectural competitions are a cultural duty – a myth perpetuated by self-important clients and socially dysfunctional architects.”
How About Investing In My Novel?
Novelist Kent Nelson needed $5000 to help finish his novel, so he went to a friend and offered to cut him in on the profits if he’d put up the money. Trouble is, Nelson didn’t exactly have a track record of profits from his writing, and he didn’t even have a publisher. But the friend put up the money, Nelson snared a major publisher, and the book is getting great reviews. Are profits next?
Embracing Our Digital Movie Future (But When?)
“There is little question that digital is the future of movie exhibition. The real questions are when it will happen and who will pay for it. The major studios are gung-ho on the technology because transmitting a movie over phone lines or on discs or by satellite will save them the expense of making individual prints of their films. At $10,000 a copy, a studio spends millions to duplicate a film like “The Hulk” that opens on 3,000 to 4,000 screens. Digital imagery is ostensibly incorruptible and theoretically as vivid as photographs on film. The digital revolution was supposed to happen four years ago…”
The 70s – When Movies Were Golden (Weren’t They?)
In the past 10 years, 1970s cinema has become an unqualified cult. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze make films under its influence; fan-boy Web sites extol its glories. Not long before she died, Pauline Kael wrote that the 1970s were ‘when the movies seemed to be about things that mattered.’ Yet, there’s something troubling about the way 1970s cinema has evolved from mere fandom to become its own genre, especially among younger cinephiles.”
Arena Shows Shrinking
The big arena pop music shows are dwindling. Rather, the number of bands that can fill an arena are shrinking. So “arenas around the country are reacting to a changing marketplace by shrinking themselves into more intimate, theater-style setups while hoping to lure the plethora of midsized acts who can only draw between 5,000 and 8,000 spectators per show.”
Read…er…Watch All About It
“As technology and programming continue to be refined, the border between artwork and interpretive information will probably blur further. All sorts of boundaries in the arts got blurred or erased beginning in the ’60s, with the rise of Pop art, Fluxus, Happenings, earthworks and other innovations. We may be witnessing the erasure of yet one more.”
Stepping Up To Support Edinburgh Fringe?
Scotland’s new culture minister says more support for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival might be on the way. He “said the Fringe was a product others would kill for and could be enhanced by strategic funding of its infrastructure. In a clear shift in the Executive’s position, Frank McAveety acknowledged an investment in the bricks and mortar of the event – its venues, accommodation and transport – was something which could be pulled together”.