Where The Architects Are – Beijing

Beijing is being totally remade. “A city that, until 1990, had no central business district, and little need of it, now has a cluster of glass towers that look like rejects from Singapore or Rotterdam. And these, in turn, are now being replaced and overshadowed by a new crop of taller, slicker towers, the product of the international caravan of architectural gunslingers that has arrived in town to take part in this construction free-fire zone. Rem Koolhaas, Jacques Herzog, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Will Alsop are all building, or trying to build here.”

New PBS Channel Has Ads

PBS has a new channel on the air – it’s called PBS Sprout and it’s aimed at kids. But it also has advertisements. “Three weeks after its launch, Sprout has only one sponsor, Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers. The ads are aimed at parents and don’t interrupt shows — though the shows last for only 15 minutes. But the mere idea of a PBS-branded product with ads hit like a bombshell in the public television world. And so far, many stations have refused to affiliate with the new service. Out of 177 licensees, only 90 have joined with Sprout for content and marketing arrangements.”

BritArt Diplomacy Backfires

A plan to try to improve relations between Britain and Morocco has through art has failed after the art offended the Moroccans. “Two of the works, notably an anatomical statement by Tracey Emin, have been withdrawn, while three others by artists including the Chapman brothers have caused offence because of their sexual nature.”

The Day Italian Culture Went On Strike

Hundreds of Italian cultural events ground to a halt Saturday in a one-day strike to protest government arts-funding cuts. “A performance of Rossini’s Barber of Seville at Milan’s La Scala opera house was among scores of cancelled shows. Critics say the cuts could lead to the demise of thousands of cultural institutions, including such venerated events as the Venice Film Festival. ‘In these conditions, the film festival cannot go ahead’.”

A Seattle Fringe Rebound

“The quality of the so-called ‘fringe’ — the ever-changing circle of independent Seattle troupes with large creative aspirations and modest means — is a cyclical thing. Today (knock wood), it’s on the upswing. Is it the wildly imaginative, thrillingly relevant fringe scene of my dreams? No. Curiously, there is a dearth here of provocative, topical fare that ignites discussion and makes theater part of the public debate about burning issues of war, peace, class, race, et al. But there are compensations.”

The Joffrey Turns 50

“It has consistently paid homage to the ‘old Europe,’ but from the start it was, above all else, a quintessentially American troupe — the highly individualistic creation of Robert Joffrey (the son of Afghan immigrants who had settled in Seattle), and Gerald Arpino (the son of a working class Italian-American family from Staten Island, New York).”