Thanks to the success of such buildings as Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Sciences, “2008 just may be the year in which doing the right thing, or at least thinking about how one might go about doing the right thing, became cool.”
Tag: 01.06.09
Newspapers Have Really, Really Tried To Get On Top Of The Web
Jack Shafer: “It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption… [but t]he industry has understood from the advent of AM radio in the 1920s that technology would eventually be its undoing and has always behaved accordingly.”
Barenboim’s Arab/Israeli Orchestra Cancels Mideast Concerts
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the group of young musicians from Israel and the Arab world founded and led by Daniel Barenboim, has called off upcoming performances in Cairo and Doha, Qatar. The ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas has prompted concerns about the musicians’ safety.
Degas’s The Little Dancer On The Market
“The bronze figure, one of only a handful of casts remaining in private hands, is expected to fetch £9-12 million when it is auctioned at Sotheby’s on February 3.”
Betty Freeman, 87, New Music’s Fairy Godmother
“As far as I could tell, Betty Freeman did not have a sentimental bone in her body. An arts patron like no other, she supported an extraordinary contingent of important composers… but she immediately lost interest in them after they died. She cared about the living, about new work, about the future, not the past. Once someone was gone, she moved on. Now she’s gone.”
The Casting Director For The Orchestra Pit
Bassist John Miller is a Broadway orchestra contractor, the go-to guy if you’re trying to put together a Frankie Valli-style combo for Jersey Boys, replace an oboist or violinist in the orchestra for Les Miz or find a pipa player for M. Butterfly.
Joffrey’s Academy Of Dance Opens In Chicago
“The Joffrey Ballet on Monday held a ribbon cutting ceremony to open its official school, the Academy of Dance.”
Has Guitar Hero Taught Us Nothing? Strings Are Too Hard!
“Why are they still making guitars with ‘real’ strings that are difficult and boring to learn how to play and really make your fingers hurt? What is the point? Do we still slaughter our own cows? Dig our own wells? Work in the turnip fields for 18 hours a day, six days a week? No.” The solution is obvious: Redesign the guitar. Buttons only this time.
Remain Calm, Morris-Dancing Fans; It’s Merely A Lull
Poet-performer John Hegley says there’s no cause for panic about the health of Morris dancing:
“The Morris is a mate of mine
the rumours state it’s in decline!
My answer is a little dull,
it’s not decline – it’s just a lull:
like concertinas squeeze to shut
until the arms unbend,
like deckchairs go back in the hut
at every summer’s end.”
Challenging The Limits Of Dance, With And Without Legs
“A company of disabled and non-disabled dancers, Candoco was never going to settle for sideshow status: it was main billing or nothing. And now, they’re players on the world stage.”