“Few of the standard materials of art or architecture would seem more retrograde to the interests and the appetites of contemporary New York than mosaics. But the convergence of no fewer than four events suggests that the fortunes of this ancient craft may be changing for the better.” Of those, “the phenomenon that will make most people sit up and pay heed is the splendid implementation of the material in the new Greek and Roman wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
As Music Stores Die, Cultural Life Dies A Little, Too
Norman Lebrecht laments: “Something goes out of a town when its classical outlets close down: First Sam Goody’s, then Tower Records, then one by one the backstreet stores. Where does a guy have to go these days to get his Hammerklavier fix? … The loss of a place where people go after work to muse upon music, emerging with anything from a baroque obscurity to an armful of Mozart concertos, leaves a hole in city life.”
Yahoo Puts Lyrics Online, Legally
“Yahoo Inc. is expanding its online music section to include the lyrics of 400,000 songs, hoping to strike a chord with Web surfers looking for a more reliable alternative to Internet sites that publish the words without the permission of the copyright owners. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company is touting the free service to be unveiled Tuesday as the Web’s largest legally licensed database of lyrics.”
When Art Works (And The Art-House Crowd Is Absent)
“A minor miracle occurred Thursday night at the Hirshhorn Museum. A new piece of contemporary art truly worked. A crowd of ordinary Joes and Jills sat through a 90-minute, plot-free piece of experimental cinema. Instead of grumbling, shifting in their seats or simply leaving, the overflow audience for ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’ sat engrossed….”
FCC To Target Violent Programming
“Federal regulators, concerned about the effect of television violence on children, will recommend that Congress enact legislation to give the government unprecedented powers to curb violence in entertainment programming, according to government and TV industry sources. … For decades, the FCC has penalized over-the-air broadcasters for airing sexually suggestive, or ‘indecent,’ speech and images, but it has never had the authority to fine TV stations and networks for violent programming.”
Hollywood Backstabbing Comes To Publishing World
“(R)ough-and-tumble Hollywood business tactics, including lawsuits and personal attacks, are permeating New York’s traditionally more genteel book world.” The reason? Movie and TV rights. “Ever since ‘Gone With the Wind,’ studios have been vying for the rights to bestsellers that could become the next ‘Da Vinci Code’ or ‘Harry Potter.’ Increasingly, they’re also seeking out quality material. … The fight for the inside literary track can be brutal, and agents live in constant fear of being out-hustled.”
A Roaring Lion Has Some Wisdom For Cubs
“Do what you have to do to make a living, but figure out if you’re going to be a hack or your own person” is one sampling from Edward Albee’s unambiguous advice for high schoolers in the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’ YoungArts program. Here’s another: “Read junk. It’s enormously encouraging to tell yourself, ‘I can do better than that.’ “
Imagination, Not Experience, The Key To Empathy
“What is critical to understanding someone is not necessarily having had his or her experience; it is being able to imagine what it would be like to have it. Thus, I do not have to be black to empathize with the toxic effects of racial prejudice, or be a woman to know how I would feel about being denied promotion on the basis of sex. Contrary to what many people believe, being empathic is not the same thing as being nice. In fact, empathy can sometimes be put to a very dark purpose.”
PEN Festival Invites Politics Into Literary Sphere
PEN American Center’s World Voices Festival of International Literature, which begins today in New York, “brings together people from 45 countries to talk not only about problems directly affecting writers, but also about other issues, from global warming and the international refugee crisis to the war in Iraq and political torture. It is that direct engagement with political topics that perhaps makes the festival — at least in the United States — stand out.”
Choreographer Michael Smuin, 68
“Choreographer Michael Smuin, a major force in the San Francisco dance world and one of the region’s most prominent and audacious showmen, died of an apparent heart attack Monday morning after collapsing while teaching a Smuin Ballet company class. … Smuin was co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet from 1973 to 1985.”