“Turnage’s willingness to engage with the nitty gritty of contemporary life is matched by his openness to popular music: most obvious has been a love of jazz, with nods to such artists as Miles Davis, going back to the very beginning of his career, but he doesn’t deal exclusively with such respected work.”
Tag: 01.22.11
Classical Music? What’s That?
“I’m a big fan of keeping the music serious but making the rest of it accessible,” Rhodes says. “I hate the term ‘classical music’. Why not just call it ‘music’ and play it on Absolute Radio? There’s a massive snobbishness from the powers that be.”
Christopher Wheeldon Talks About Choreography
“It can only be put down to the right combination of personalities with the right music. That’s why sometimes you make a bad ballet. Because something’s not right. You’re not inspired by the dancers, or you think the music is going to move you in a certain way, and then it doesn’t.”
Roger Ebert: Criticism Dying? Not Hardly
“We’re actually living in a Golden Age of Film Criticism. More filmgoers are reading more good writing about more films, new and old, than ever before. They are also reading more bad writing, but there you go. Having lost the ability to speak, I’ve adopted the Internet as my own social network and am amazed almost daily by yet another extraordinary film critic.”
Rights Group, Writers Protest Sri Lanka Book Fair
“[It’s] highly disturbing that literature is being celebrated in this manner in a land where cartoonists, journalists, writers and dissident voices are so often victimized by the current government,” said a release from Reporters Without Borders this week.
Keeping Art In Britain? Not So Fast…
“Efforts to keep some of the most important works of art in Britain for the nation are being undermined by overseas collectors, the BBC has learned.”
How To Stop The Golden Globes Nonsense
“Here’s an insider’s tip on how to put an end to these long, boring and ridiculous self-congratulatory awards shows: Stop watching them. Also stop talking about them, even in a negative way; Hollywood lives on buzz, especially when it’s negative. Just look at Gervais’ pal Charlie Sheen.”
How The New World Symphony Got A Shiny New Home
“As much Tilson Thomas’ handiwork as Gehry’s, the $160 million New World Center, which opens this week with a series of galas and concerts, bears their shared trademarks of edgy experimentation, intellectual rigor and artistic ambition tempered by unabashedly populist impulses.”
New Miami Concert Home – A Frank Gehry From The Inside Out
“The New World Symphony’s new $160 million home is the architectural analogue of the mission the 23-year-old orchestral academy has adopted under founding artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas: to encourage experimentation within the stolid walls of the classical-music tradition.”
“Spider-Man”: A Disaster Of Delicious Proportion?
“The apparent cultural disaster of the moment is Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and I have to admit I’d love to see it. Some of my fondest memories are watching expensive, ill-conceived shows that improbably made it to Broadway.”