Fifteen pianos appeared out on the streets, with invitations for passers by to play them. “The pianos have been installed in public places allowing anyone to sit down and play: some were already in enthusiastic use yesterday, others barely noticed. They will remain in situ until after Easter – if they survive that long – those outliving the experiment given a permanent home.”
Tag: 03.14.08
The Whitney Biennial’s Cool Cerebral Wind
“This show comes at a restless, discontented moment. Institutional critique has become an institutional style, and the socioartistic movement known as “relational aesthetics”–that is, art that’s all about your own relationship to being in public with it–has gone mainstream. Most in the art world want more than that.”
West End Moves Toward Sunday Shows
“Until now, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a West End theatre open on a Sunday.” Taken in context, this is bizarre, since Broadway theaters have long raked in the cash from Sunday matinees. Now, London’s National Theatre is breaking the Sunday taboo, and the rest of the London scene is likely to follow.
Online Innovation Signals A Hollywood In Transition
“Predicting the death of network television is a popular pastime in Hollywood… But it’s still not time to count the Big Five networks out yet, say media watchers. They may have stumbled in the transition to the world of digital entertainment, underestimating audience appetite for consumption in new media beyond traditional TV, but they’re rapidly trying to adapt.”
LACMA’s Land: Imagine The Possibilities
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has acquired a potentially valuable parcel of land across Wilshire Boulevard from it’s main campus. Now, what does LACMA plan to do with this acquisition? That depends on who you ask, but Christopher Hawthorne writes that the possibilities are fascinating…
Bestselling Novelist Donates $1m To Combat Alzheimer’s
“British novelist Terry Pratchett said Thursday he will donate $1 million to fund research into Alzheimer’s disease, the incurable illness he was diagnosed with last year… Pratchett is best known for his Discworld fantasy series. More than 55 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide.”
Hallelujah, Yet Again
Leonard Cohen’s hauntingly beautiful song, “Hallelujah,” seems to get rediscovered every decade or so, and jammed into every available space in film and TV soundtracks. Now, it’s come to the attention of the online generation, with the strange result that a 73-year-old songwriter now has one of the top downloads on iTunes.
The MySpace Casting Call
Where are filmmakers finding fresh, undiscovered talent for their movies these days? Why, online, of course…
UK’s Four To Get A Lot More British
Britain’s Channel Four is planning to cut way back on the number of American TV programs it airs, and will recommit itself both to homegrown dramas and documentaries. The costs of changing over to digital broadcasting and a need for more government funding are behind the change in philosophy.
Boston Ballet To Lay Off Nine Dancers
“Tumultuous times have returned to the Boston Ballet, which said on Thursday that the number of dancers in its main company will shrink by nearly 20 percent.” The cuts include at least two principal dancers, and come just days after the company announced the departure of its executive director.