With actor-director Michael Rylance set to leave the Globe Theatre, there is a definite opportunity for the company to head off in a new direction, a change which many high-minded critics might find welcome. But Rylance’s positive effect on the Globe cannot be easily replaced. “Undeniably, Rylance has made it a popular space where audiences are prepared to put up with the inclement weather, bossy ushers and physical discomfort for the sake of a star performer… [Rylance’s replacement] will determine whether the Globe continues to be an old-fashioned, actor-driven company or whether it opts for intellectually challenging, director-led reinterpretations of Shakespeare.”
Tag: 09.20.04
A Best Seller That’s Online For Free
“While the 9/11 Commission Report — a surprisingly readable work addressing an issue of supreme national importance — is in a category of its own in the annals of government-funded literature, it’s also serving as a high-profile case study of the effects of free online distribution on sales of printed works. One lesson: Just because someone can read something for free online doesn’t mean they will want to.”
Rockwell Kent & The Red Menace
Artist Rockwell Kent was once the darling of the schoolboy set, renowned for his illustrated versions of Shakespeare and Moby Dick. But Kent was also an avowed Communist and staunch defender of the Soviet Union whose political leanings led to a high-profile tiff with a small museum in Maine, which Kent accused of having refused an exhibition of his work. Now, nearly half a century after the flap, the Farnsworth Museum has mounted an exhibition focusing on the controversy, and attempting to refute Kent’s claims of anti-Communist hysteria.
A More Focused Biennale
This year’s edition of France’s Biennale des Antiquaires has a noticably streamlined feel to it, and the upgrade is no accident. Christian Deydier, president of the Syndicat National des Antiquaires which puts on the Biennale, has spent the last two years correcting what he saw as the fair’s descent into the ordinary. This year, the high-end jewellers who had previously been able to exhibit alongside more serious art and antiquities dealers have been effectively banished to a dank corner, and dealers who were perceived to be offering less than excellent works for sale were disinvited. The result is a decidedly more upscale art fair.
Just Another Inter-Museum Loan, Minus The Drama
In 2006, the British Museum will lend a priceless clay drum known as the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran for several months. It will be the second time the artifact has been lent to Iran, and hopefully, it won’t be as eventful as the first: back in 1971, the British Museum found itself in the middle of some serious international intrigue when it “decided to lend the antiquity without consulting the Foreign Office, and the UK government later feared that the Iranians would refuse to return it.” The real story of what occurred in the ’70s has only just been declassified in Britain, and UK museum officials have been stunned by the extent to which international politics played a role.
Why Not Cheat?
Two recent cases of scholarly plagiarism at major American universities have been mostly focused on the role of graduate assistants in manuscript preparation. But is the larger issue being missed? According to at least one scholar, “the costs imposed upon those who are caught cheating are often insufficient to outweigh the objective benefits of cheating,” and so plagiarism can often be a risk well worth taking for many writers.
Bringing The Fruited Plain To D.C.
The National Museum of the American Indian doesn’t look like your average Washington museum. In fact, had it not been so well-executed, it could have easily looked out of place in the nation’s capital. “Bringing rude nature to the hallowed ground of the Mall takes guts, of course. But this is not rude nature. No wilderness actually looked like this. It is as calculated a built artifact in its own way as is Tomorrowland. It is nature to which human intelligence and imagination have been applied. It is an Indian’s image of Eden.”
eMusic To Focus On Indies
eMusic, one of the oldest legal music download sites (it was founded in 1999,) is launching a redesign this week, and with it, a revised definition of its mission. Lagging well behind the subscriber numbers of downloading juggernauts RealNetworks, AOL, and MusicMatch, eMusic has decided to focus on the grossly underserved independent music market. The new eMusic catalog will offer 500,000 tracks from 3,700 indie labels, and will give the small-timers front page treatment. “The aim is to help fans locate the small, the obscure and the eccentric; help musicians find their fans; and grab a chunk of the more than $2 billion in revenues generated annually by independent music labels.”
Gray Lady Gets Her Avant-Garde On
The New York Times has finally assigned an arts columnist to write about the avant-garde. But is it too late? “Many say that no real avant-garde – which I’ll define as a combative group of free-thinking artists – can exist anymore. The media’s reach is too vast. New artists and movements get snatched up too quickly. If they are popular they get overexposed and stale. If they are not popular they disappear, and the marketeers decide they had better play it safe next time.” Still, the digital world has brought so many different types of art and free thinking together that the fusion of styles could be considered the new cutting edge.
The Bessies Celebrate NY Dance
“New York dance had its annual gathering of the clan on Friday night at the Joyce Theater with the New York Dance and Performance Awards ceremony, dance’s equivalent to the Oscars and Tonys. Better known as the Bessies, named after Bessie Schonberg, a choreography teacher who was a mentor to many, the awards carry prizes of $500 to $1,000.” The madcap nature of the event was downplayed a bit this year, with more political musing than usual making its way into acceptance speeches.