“Should the outrage of residents of America’s richest cultural cities over the sale of a painting on the open market be given the same weight as that of indigenous Peruvians deprived of ancestral Inca artifacts by tomb-raiders?”
Tag: 01.07.07
Novelists Don’t Write The Book In Hollywood
“Authors write books. Screenwriters write screenplays. And while there are strong exceptions to every rule (Herman Wouk, Larry McMurtry), a savvy author tends to know when to step aside and let the filmmakers take charge — or, in some cases, the sausage makers. For some reason, authors tend to refer to pork products when discussing Hollywood.”
The New Book Clubs
“Once a hot trend that saw everyone from celebrities and politicians to housewives and neighbors getting together to read and dish, the book clubs of today are evolving, forgoing the Oprah Winfrey model of read-and-discuss and getting creative about how they meet, read and socialize over books.”
Washington Awash In Shakespeare
“As conceived by the Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser and curated by Kahn, the six-month festival is one of the most lavish explorations this nation has seen of Shakespeare and his impact on the arts. The 60 participating organizations include theater, dance and opera companies, museums, universities and music ensembles, most of them homegrown but some from as far as St. Petersburg and Tel Aviv.”
How To Have A Hit In Toronto
Blue Man Group recently closed in Toronto, disappointed with its showing there. But other shows have done remarkable business in the city. Richard Ouzounian thinks there’s a trick to building an audience there – and it starts with knowing what the locals are looking for…
Harvey Weinstein After Miramax
“For the last year he and his brother have been announcing deals almost as often as they have released films, arranging for theatrical, cable television, pay-per-view, video on demand and video-store distribution of their movies. They’ve invested in a MySpace-style social networking site for the rich and famous called aSmallWorld.net, made a new publishing deal with Hachette Book Group, bought the tiny arts channel Ovation, set up a Latin American film distribution fund and partnered with Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, to make movies under a new urban label, Our Stories Films.”
Jazz’s Rocky Road From Classroom To Business
“While jazz education is thriving, the business of jazz itself, as measured by things like market share and album sales, has been in a tailspin. Fifty years ago those fortunes were reversed.”
Who Owns Your Dance When You’re Dead?
After the debacle over who owns Martha Graham’s dances, other choreographers have begun thinking about what will happen to their work when they die. Paul Taylor and Merce Cunnigham’s plans are “as much a reflection of their singular personalities as are their dances and the troupes each has molded for more than half a century. Mr. Cunningham has made at least 150 dances since founding his troupe in 1953; Mr. Taylor has composed 125 works for the company he created in 1954.”
In San Diego Catching A Train Is An Artistic Experience
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has expanded to a train station. “Part of the historic building still functions as a train station, but the former baggage facility — a cavernous, light-filled space with soaring ceilings — has been converted to spacious galleries and a studio for an artist-in-residence.”
One Mayor’s Scattershot Urban Design (Why?)
Architecture critic Robert Campbell is tired of Boston mayor Thomas Menino dropping urban design bombshells every so often. “My problem with the mayor is that his ideas don’t seem to be part of any larger concept about the urban design of the city. They’re just independent brainstorms. They have nothing to do with one another.”