Jack Vettriano’s paintings are wildly popular with the public, and his work fetches huge prices. But he takes a workman’s attitude to art: “It’s wall decoration for me, I don’t regard it as this big meaningful thing. My subjects are men and women getting off, that’s all. Mind you, some people don’t think sex is serious, but I happen to think it’s terribly serious.”
Tag: 03.19.06
Do You YouTube?
“Thousands of amateur video clips, rare footage of music concerts and home-made film spoofs are now being uploaded every day to the video-sharing website YouTube for the enjoyment of millions of web users around the world. Allowing the public to watch and share clips for free, it has become an unprecedented platform for amateur film-makers to show off their home movies. But music labels, film studios and television bosses are now cracking down on the site.”
Hispanic Society Moves Downtown
New York’s Hispanic Society is moving from its obscure upper Manhattan location to downtown. The Society is “probably the most unknown major museum in the US. Its holdings of Spanish art, decorative arts, photographs, rare books and manuscripts are the most extensive outside of Spain, and worth billions of dollars.”
The New NPR – Money And Ambition
What has national Public Radio done with its gift of $230 million from Joan Kroc’s estate? For one thing, “NPR has created nearly 70 new jobs in its newsroom, many of them for reporters on newly created beats like police and prisons, labor, international economics, the environment, technology and the media. And all this as other news organizations have been paring their staffs and scaling back their ambitions as consumers and advertisers drift away.”
“Rings” – Aiming For Three-Plus Hours
Lord of the Rings, the musical, is long. Very long. “As the March 23 opening night bears down on the cast and crew of the most expensive theatrical show of all time, several issues still need attention. Some scenes and characters don’t work quite right. The music must be tweaked. Actors are still working on their characters. And the show’s producers must fix these things while making it all go faster — far faster than the nearly five hours the show ran at its first night of previews Feb. 4.”
This Is What a $23 Million Musical Looks Like (Almost)
The new Lord of the Rings musical costs $23 million. “This is one of the most expensive theatrical productions ever, and it comes on the heels of an Oscar-winning film trilogy of the Tolkien classics, of which more than 100 million books have been sold worldwide. On top of paring 1,200 pages to 3 1/2 hours of text and music to tell the by now familiar tale of hobbits, elves and humans pitted against evil wizards and their henchmen, the creators faced the challenge of assembling a team of 75 technicians from around the world, a cast of 55 — classical actors, singers, dancers and acrobats — and a 25-piece orchestra.”
Tonys Ban Voter Swag
Oscar “goodie bags” were worth more than $100,000 to presenters. There will be no such largesse to voters for the Tonys. “The Tony Awards Rules Committee has adopted resolutions that ban the distribution of “any campaign or promotional materials to voters, other than a script or a cast recording” tied to a show in award contention. The resolutions also prohibit nominees’ promotion through any communication that disparages or casts “any negative or derogatory light on a competing production, element, person or achievement.”
Tere O’Connor On Dance:
“I feel it’s unfortunate that people feel that there’s a hidden intellectualism in dance, but it’s one of those places where marginalization looks elitist and it’s not. Lace-making is not a popular thing, and in a way it’s the same thing with dance. We’re small, not because we don’t want more people, but because this is a different way of looking at the world that isn’t born out of capitalism or religion.”
Who Owns The Public?
“The practice of street photography has a long tradition in the United States, with documentary and artistic strains, in big cities and small towns. Photographers usually must obtain permission to photograph on private property — including restaurants and hotel lobbies — but the freedom to photograph in public has long been taken for granted. Remarkably, this was the first case to directly challenge that right. Had it succeeded, “Subway Passenger, New York City,” 1941, along with a vast number of other famous images taken on the sly, might no longer be able to be published or sold.”
Do American Museums Need An Exit Strategy?
The Metropolitan Museum has made a deal with the Italians to return artwork. But this is just the beginning. “With the Italians playing their cards close to their vests and other nations, such as Greece, Turkey and Egypt, examining the prospects of making their own claims against American museums, worried museum officials are wondering who’s next.”