A Music Mag For Adults

Pretty much all music magazines are written for younger fans. But what about older adults? They still like music too. A new music magazine called Tracks hopes to reach that market. “Older consumers generally do not excite advertisers, and Tracks’ first issue has little in the way of ads from companies that are not record labels. But older consumers, whether out of technological impairment or a habit of collecting, still actually buy music. So as the music industry has watched sales drop 30 percent over the last few years, these listeners – and readers – have a special, and growing, power in the music industry.”

Canadian Museum – Oh Yes, And Some Doors Would Be Nice Too…

A new Canadian heritage museum – a pet project of outgoing Prime Minister Jean Chretien – won’t cost $90 million as the Prime Minister announced last May; the bill will be at least a third higher. “Officials estimated it will cost $125-million in a letter to the Department of Canadian Heritage prior to the Prime Minister’s announcement. The department had only $90-million to put toward the project, to be built in the century-old Rideau Canal train station near Parliament Hill, so expensive items were taken out of the budget to bring the cost down for the hurried announcement.” However, some of what was taken out was essential to the project – humidity controls, anyone?

In Praise Of Traditional Nudes

“Traditionalists distressed by the alleged distortion of the female form in modern art are hitting back by launching the Society for the Appreciation of the Female Nude (SAFN) to encourage artists who depict beautiful female nudes, whether in a classical or modern style. The founders, a group of wealthy art-lovers, believe that contemporary artists who follow a tradition stretching from Botticelli to the Victorians Leighton and Millais are being sidelined by Britain’s national galleries.”

A Portrait Of DH Lawrence

As a painter, DH Lawrence was a pretty good writer. “Many of Lawrence’s paintings are hilarious – awful and a bit weird. His attempts to draw the human body make you think of Jim Shaw’s collection of paintings bought in American thrift stores, or the bad bodies that populate John Currin’s deliberately kitsch daubs.”

Lang – Full Of Himself?

The young pianist Lang Lang is being extravagantly touted as the future of classical music. “Far from being intimidated by the pressure, Mr. Lang seems to be high on his success. But as on other recent occasions, his playing suggested that success is going to his head. When he first gained attention in the United States in 1999 at 17 he seemed an unformed but musically intuitive pianist with a white-hot, brilliant technique and an exuberant personality. On Friday, though, for all its color, flair and energy, his playing was often incoherent, self-indulgent and slam-bang crass.”