Tag: 02.01.04

More Choice = Tyranny Of Minorities

The proliferation of TV channels has “brought about the tyranny of the largest minority. Because reality shows are hot right now, most networks throw them up willy-nilly, holding their noses all the way. And news, which networks used to treat more like a public trust in exchange for their licenses to operate over public airwaves, has become another profit center. Viewers bring profits, and because the people want Michael Jackson ‘news’ more than, say, foreign trade news, they get Michael Jackson news. But now rapidly burgeoning digital technology is threatening to narrow those audiences even further.”

Participatory Artocracy

“From musicians to Hollywood studios, and from network executives to owners of newspapers such as this one, the creators and purveyors of arts and letters are realizing that Americans increasingly are unwilling to sit down, shut up and consume their culture in the time-honored fashion of grateful passivity.”

City Ballet Balanchine – In Need Of Help

As New York City Ballet’s Balanchine celebration wends on, Tobi Tobias laments the state of the company’s custodianship of its illustrious founder’s legacy. “The two-dimensional condition I find in many of the NYCB’s Balanchine productions is not simply physical. I’d dare to say—though now we’re getting into the dangerous realm of the intangible—that a spiritual dimension is lacking as well. Is the present manner in which the NYCB dances its Balanchine capable of remedy? Some of the erosion that has occurred is inevitable, given the absence of the choreographer as chief custodian of his work. But I’m convinced that…”

Theatre-Building In DC

Washington DC is in the midst of a theatre building boom. “All over town, all over the region, theaters are hiring architects and raising millions and embarking on ambitious plans to move to spanking new homes or enlarge and refurbish existing ones. It’s Act 1 in a period of monumental physical change for Washington theater, a building boom that is going to affect every major company – and even some less-than-major ones – in and around the city. By the time the boom is over, sometime around the end of the decade, the area’s premier theaters will all have roomier accommodations and new looks.”

Satellite Radio Takes Hold

After a somewhat rocky start, satellite radio has taken off in the US. “Over the holidays, an unprecedented number of subscribers signed with XM and Sirius, the Coke and Pepsi of orbital radio, for programming that plays through special car or indoor receivers and can be heard coast-to-coast. The services have entered into partnerships with NASCAR, NPR, Fox, Playboy and others to create content that has regular broadcasters feeling earthbound. It is a moment like the arrival of cable television, a novelty 30 years ago, and now a drain on traditional broadcasters’ audience and ad revenue.”

Here’s $50 Million And $15 Million More

After recently giving the Philadelphia Orchestra $50 million for its endowment, Leonore Annenberg comes through with another $15 million for an endowment for the Academy of Music concert hall, owned by the orchestra. “The gift from the Annenberg Foundation is for the Academy’s endowment, to be placed there in perpetuity, generating income each year for capital improvements to the 147-year-old landmark.”

Balanchine’s Enduring Ubiquity

George Balanchine revolutionized the vocabulary of dance. “In short, he made ballet American, and then watched as American ballet became the official dance language of the Western world. The twist is, Balanchine and his work both became so famous they faded from view. By the time he died in 1983, his streamlined style had become so pervasive worldwide that we don’t even recognize it as his style anymore: It’s just “ballet.” On the 100th anniversary of his birth, the choreographer remains an enticing enigma.”