“Much sweat and ink has been spilled over the perceived lack of interest in classical/new/art/experimental music for decades now. But what if it is this profound effect that music has on the plasticity of our brains that is primarily responsible for this?”
Tag: 01.11.08
Liverpool As Cultural Capital? What’s It All About?
Beryl Bainbridge has difficulty getting excited about Liverpool as a “capital” of culture. “It is not to say that I disapprove of Liverpool trying to be cultural, but what the hell is a culture of youth to a city that is in decline?”
Robert Storr On Contemporary Art
“Critical theory has bred its own Frankenstein. There are so many artists that ironize, jam, play, and flip the system of art evaluation. … There’s also a lack of honesty [among artists]–and I see it among my students–about their engagement, their relationship, with the market and with marketing.”
UK Dance Could Be an Example For The Rest Of The Arts
The McMaster Report suggests some changes in the ways the arts do business. But British dance already incoporates many of the report’s ideas. “Many of our companies have become a magnet for performers from around the world, while the range of dance programming at our theatres is, in my experience, unmatched anywhere else.”
Chelsea Rents Force Galleries Out
“Rent jitters are common among Chelsea art dealers these days, as the district becomes a victim of its own success. Car repair shops have given way to luxury towers designed by Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel, and galleries in need of new digs must pay up or leave.”
Some Ideas To Fix The Music Business
“While overall music sales were up 14 percent in 2007, most of that growth was due to the sale of digital tracks. More telling, album sales were down 9.5 percent, and every genre suffered a sales decline, from rap (down a whopping 30 percent) to rock (12.5 percent) to country (16.3).”
Long Wharf Theatre Rethinks Itself
A new $50 million Long Wharf Theater in a hip district of downtown New Haven is causing leaders of the 43-year-old institution, one of the oldest in the regional theater movement, to ask: “Who are we?”
Canadian Court Strikes Down Huge MP3 Tax Plan
The tax would have significantly raised the price of MP3 players, cellphones and computers.
“The levy, which was slated to be introduced in 2008, would have amounted to an additional $5 to $75 depending on the storage capacity of the recorder.” The money would have been paid to copyright holders to “compensate” them for digital file copying.
Miami Performing Arts Center – New Money, New Name, New Hopes
Managers hope that Adrienne Arsht’s $30 million gift to the troubled Miami Performing Arts Center will help put some of those troubles behind. Carnival Cruise Lines, the center’s naming patron has agreed to take its name off the building.
Broadway “Mermaid” Is Seaworthy Effort
“Forget the overused and now cliche ‘theme-park’ adjective. This musical, buoyed by one of the best Disney film scores and a delightful new leading lady, succeeds as enjoyable family entertainment. And, yes, the sets are big, but then, so is the ocean.”