Seattle’s new Rem Koolhaas-designed central library has been winning rave reviews from architecture buffs since it opened in 2005. But artistic merit and functionality are two different things, so it’s worth noting that the library has also been a huge success with those who actually use it. “It is casual enough that kids and teenagers are showing up in unprecedented numbers but so are those intent on serious study.”
Author: sbergman
Does New York Even Know That This Debate Exists?
“People on the Bay Area art scene still fret about the larger world’s failure to recognize San Francisco as a center of cultural influence,” and a new exhibit frames the defensiveness as part of a larger art struggle between two of America’s cultural hubs. “It tries to sketch the tensions between New York and San Francisco sensibilities during the years when American art consolidated its supremacy amid the transnational ruins of World War II.”
Banking On Spacey
“After several weeks of tense negotiations, [Kevin] Spacey finally signed to star in the upcoming revival of Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten.” But Spacey’s exorbitant salary creates serious fiscal pressure for the production, which will now have to sell huge numbers of “premium” tickets priced as high as $250 just to break even.
Oscar Plays It Safe
Much of Hollywood’s stranglehold on American culture is built around Oscar hype and hoopla. But as anyone who regularly watches the Oscars can tell you, the best films are hardly guaranteed to take home the gold. “The theme is a familiar one: the academy often goes for less edgy material.” Controversial or edgy films might get nominated, but their odds of winning are slim.
Fanning The Flames
12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning has a new movie coming out this month, and it has conservative bloggers, Fox News personalities, and some child safety advocates up in arms. In the film, Fanning’s character appears in her underwear, is sexually abused by her father, and is raped by a teenager. “Hundreds signed a petition to persuade a [North Carolina] district attorney to prosecute the filmmakers under a law banning simulated sex with a minor.”
Looking For An Escape From The Real World
Is the turbulent state of the modern world causing theatregoers to flock to the stage equivalent of comfort food? In London, it sure seems that way. “Only The Sound of Music, at the London Palladium, is drawing the around-the-block lines that make producers wake up trilling.”
Taking The Formality Out Of The Concert Equation
Orchestras around the U.S. have been introducing new “hybrid” concert series in which the atmosphere is casual, the start time is early, and musicians and conductors spend part of the evening talking in a friendly manner about the music they’re about to play. “And for these concerts, orchestra members are encouraged to stick around afterward to meet and talk with the audience.”
New Technology May Put U.S. Tours Back On Track
Several European orchestras have abandoned American tours in recent years, after the U.S. government introduced aggressive screening and work visa procedures that made the movement of a large group of musicians expensive and logistically unfeasible. But the BBC Wales Orchestra is headed for American shores this week after agreeing to participate in a trial program that expedites the visa process with digital fingerprinting technology.
Nagano To (Finally) Leave Berkeley
Kent Nagano has been a bona fide star conductor for a couple of decades now. And yet, even as his conducting gigs have grown in stature, Nagano has remained faithful to the Berkeley Symphony, the tiny California ensemble that gave him his start in the business. Now, after 31 years, he has finally announced that he will step down from the Berkeley podium.
Are The Inmates Running The Orchestral Asylum?
The era of the dictatorial conductor has been over for decades, and musicians now play a large role in setting the direction of many orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. “With power, of course, comes its misuse. No one wants to go back to the old orchestral days of part-time employment, miserable pay and little or no benefits; the days of sexism, racism and exploitation; days of imperious conductors doling out abuse. Still, a couple of uppity American orchestras have gotten out of hand.”