Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” ideas have been widely embraced in America. But there’s a backlash, and he is “taking political hits from the right and the left “There is just one problem: The basic economics behind [Florida’s] ideas don’t work,” writes one critic. Another “calls Florida’s city-revitalization theory ‘so wrong and backward that it reads like satire.’ Florida has mistaken the side effects of a booming economy for the causes of growth. After all, ‘Potemkin bohemias’ are not going to get old steel cities humming again.”
Tag: 02.29.04
Baroque On The Record
Boston Baroque’s recordings with Telarc will never earn back the money it takes to make them. But there are other advantages: “The records have invigorated our audience, and the reception the records have earned — including three Grammy nominations — has changed us from a local into a national and international ensemble. The recordings have led to invitations to tour in Europe and in America. We have five weekends a year to say `Come and hear us,’ but the recordings can introduce us to people all the time. And the recordings have had a tremendous impact on the musicians. The intensity of the recording process is a lot different than rehearsing a concert and presenting it. And of course through recordings, the group can hear itself.”
When Twyla Met Billy Joel
Twyla Tharp didn’t have to spend much time convincing Billy Joel to let her use his music for an evening-long show. “It was like archeology. I treated the songs as shards, pieces of pots that had been pulled out of the ground, and I had to reconstruct the whole pot. My other concept was something called living newspapers. It was a short-lived form of American theater — Orson Welles, among others, practiced it. They took subject matter like electricity, water, labor, and bulked dramatic evenings out of these concepts, and I had the feeling that I would do this with the conflict of war.”
What’s “Authentic” About Tevye?
“With the arrival of a new production of “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway, some commentators have again assumed that the show’s value lies in its authenticity. Early responses to the revival have gone so far as to count the Jewish names in the cast and crew, noting incredulously that even the role of Tevye is played by a non-Jewish actor, Alfred Molina. This is hardly surprising: the further removed we are from the Old World, the more we long to recapture it. But what is surprising is that the pseudo-klezmer tunes and schmaltz-laden accents in “Fiddler” were ever assumed to be the real thing.”
A Cultural Wave – Gay Marriage
Gay marriage is an inevitable social certainty, writes Frank Rich. “The polls find a clear majority of those ages 18 to 29 in favor of same-sex marriage. In America, generational turnover is destiny — especially when it’s plugged into capitalism. In a country where only half the families are intact heterosexual marriages with children, those that break the old mold are a huge developing market — for weddings, tourism, housing and anything else American ingenuity can conjure up for consumption.”
Frozen Art At The North Pole
An unusual village of ice and snow scultures has risen in northern Finland. Teams of architects and artists have created it, and the project’s curator “believes the show has spawned technical and artistic breakthroughs in what can be done with snow and ice. But more daringly, he hopes to demonstrate that artists and architects can work together in an environment, on a scale and with a material alien to most of them.”
The Sampling Debate – Legalities Aside…
Internet protests over Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album” last week show that “there’s really no way to resolve the legal issues surrounding sampling. It’s a subjective thing: It makes sense for Vanilla Ice or P. Diddy to cough up some cash and a co-writing credit when they appropriate “Under Pressure” or “Every Breath You Take” more or less in bulk to build another song, for example, but does a single snare loop or sampled “Yeah!” from an ancient funk record deserve to be treated the same? Where do you draw the line?”
The Weight Of Keeping Balanchine Alive
“Since Balanchine’s death in 1983, the company he founded has been run by Peter Martins, the former star who has been responsible for teaching a new generation of dancers the works of one of the 20th century’s greatest innovators. Beloved as he was onstage, Martins’s backstage role has made him a lightning rod for blame. Throughout his tenure, critics have complained that the Balanchine repertoire has faded, has lost its vitality. When the vibrancy of a performance appears to dim, it’s not as easy to renew as colors on silk and tulle.”
Dancin’ In Miami At The Winter Music Conference
Miami Beach is hosting the 19th Winter Music Conference for thousands of dance music fans. “More than 3,000 deejays and musicians perform at some 250 events – some tied to the official event, but most of them not.”
Daniel Boorstin, 89, Former Librarian of Congress
Daniel Boorstin was Librarian of Congress, won a Pulitzer, and wrote “two dozen books, which were translated into at least 30 languages. Millions of copies have been sold around the world. The best known include a trilogy on American history, a trilogy on world history and a 1962 social and cultural commentary titled The Image.”