While most of the architects imagining new structures for the World Trade Center site focused on office space, one suggests culture as the driving idea. “The mission of reconstructing the skyline is one that is proposed at a cultural level. Should we reconstruct it with the offices of Merrill Lynch? We don’t think so. The need is a cultural need. Almost in the same way, the Eiffel Tower became the symbol of Paris, and it is an empty building. This is an empty building.”
Tag: 12.24.02
Classical Gas – Stuck In The Past?
Why do people constantly dump on classical music? Justin Davidson writes that “those who are most passionate about the art are also people with a strong allegiance to the past – often stronger, in fact, than their affection for the present. Connoisseurs believe in a golden age, when composers really knew how to write, performers knew how to play and music lovers knew how to listen. To members of this cult of bygones, John Adams is a puny figure hopping alongside the colossus of Beethoven, and the violinist Maxim Vengerov a flickering shade in the brilliance of Nathan Milstein. The present is degraded precisely because it can never be the past.”
French Movies Making Comeback
French movies are enjoying a record year, and look likely to eclipse the record 37.4 million admissions set last year. “The past two years ‘have been the best that French films have had for at least 10 years’ in foreign theatres.”
We Dig World Music – Just One Question…What Is It?
World Music is hot. Yet the genre is so broad, defining it leads to all sorts of disagreements. “Such acute diversity can be bewildering. If you’ve ever thought that the term ‘world music’ is one of convenience, you are right. It was, according to Radio 3’s most sturdily-accented presenter, Andy Kershaw, coined by ‘six independent record companies in a room above a pub in Islington in 1986’.”
Guggenheim To Close In Las Vegas
The Guggenheim budget is roughly half what it was at the end of the 1990s. So the museum has been cutting back programs and staff. And, as long rumored, the Goog is closing its Rem Koolhaas-designed Las Vegas branch while it looks for more money…