“The women who so identified with Bridget Jones a decade ago have now settled down and had children. The book industry noticed – and the current glut of ‘yummy-mummy lit’ is the result.” What is ‘yummy-mummy,’ you may well ask? (You may well regret asking.) Suffice to say, attaching the “literature” tag to the unbelievably formulaic genre at all is probably stretching credulity.
Tag: 03.18.07
Austen, Asked and Answered
The Jane Austen fan club is real, it is global, and if you question its power, just step into any bookstore and utter the word “overrated” in the general direction of a copy of “Emma.” (Then duck.) But what drives the mania? “Why can’t folks get enough of Austen’s Regency-era escapism that typically features a boy, a girl, a great love story, only a hint of sex, the great divides of class and money, plus an abundance of heaving bosoms and tight breeches?”
Too Many Batons, Too Few Candidates?
With Daniel Barenboim gone and no new music director in sight, the Chicago Symphony has been entertaining a slew of guest conductors. But does such ever-changing podium leadership hurt the orchestra in the long run? More importantly, does the parade of guests make it difficult to judge who would truly make a good long-term partner for one of America’s great orchestras?
Indie Theatre, Enhanced
“An enhancement deal, conventionally, is when a commercial producer pays money to a nonprofit theater to help subsidize a production. If a theater decides to stage a big musical, for example, a commercial producer may throw in a few hundred thousand dollars — or a couple million in some cases — to raise the show’s production values and get a sense of how it would look in a bigger theater… Some theaters still fear that widespread knowledge of enhancement could jeopardize their reputations, their donations or even their nonprofit status. But as money has become increasingly scarce, the enhancement system has become accepted. In fact it is all but essential, even in Off Broadway’s small and midsize theaters.”
Deep Background
The scandal over the “Joyce Hatto” piano recordings that turned out to have been copies of other artists’ work begs some interesting questions. “Whether you are a master teacher, an opera buff, a concertgoer or a critic, knowing something of the background of the artist you are hearing will inevitably affect your perceptions.” So, when the artist you think you’re listening to turns out to be someone else entirely, your impressions of the entire performance can turn on a dime.
Still Waiting
The paintings of abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, long hidden away from public view in a warehouse awaiting a permanent home that would meet the strict terms of the artist’s will, will soon have a home at a new museum in Denver. The Still archive, which few scholars have even had the chance to peruse, is, in a word, massive, and at least 10% of the works have significant conservation problems.
Digital Hollywood
We are fast approaching the day when consumers will be able to download, view, and archive movies, TV shows, and any number of other digital entertainments at will, and watch them in any number of different ways. Some observers are suggesting that, far beyond transforming consumer choice, the new technology will transform the process and ease of film archiving, as well as cinema as a whole.