John Kim Bell is a successful conductor, an outspoken advocate for the arts, and a Mohawk from aboriginal Quebec. You would think he’d be a role model in the First Nation community, but in fact, the opposite is true. Bell has a habit of being publicly critical of native leadership, and has sparred with national activists on the issues surrounding aboriginal rights. Adding to the controversy is the fact that Bell often makes sweeping pronouncements about what it will take to lift Canada’s native people out of an endless cycle of poverty, contradicting and criticizing native leaders as if he himself had grown up on a reservation and clawed his way to respectability, which he didn’t.
Tag: 03.23.03
Should Movies Be An Escape?
“They’ve pulled a dirty trick. They’ve snuck art into your entertainment.” So says Chris Vognar, in response to moviegoers’ complaints that today’s big-budget films are just too darn serious and depressing. After all, we go to the movies to escape from reality, right? Movies are supposed to delight and thrill us, not (shudder) make us examine our own humanity! If we wanted to think, we’d read a book! But it does seem to be the serious, introspective films which are winning awards these days. So is the film world out of touch with the public, or is the public out of touch with what makes a good film?
Art Amidst The Guilt
With soldiers dying 6,000 miles away, it’s easy for those of us at home to descend into a spiral of ‘arts guilt.’ How dare we (pick one) read a novel/listen to a pop song/attend a play when matters of such import are afoot in the world? “Guilt isn’t really guilt; it’s recognition of ambiguity. It’s realizing that we don’t always know the right thing to do, that sometimes we’ll end up doing the wrong thing, but that our desire to have the arts in our lives – to keep before us the simple pleasure of appreciating the audacity of creativity – can’t be a bad thing, no matter how dark the skies grow in Baghdad, or, God forbid, Boise.”
Why Should The Oscars Be Toned Down?
“If someone had planned to honor the best works in classical music or the visual arts this weekend, it’s unlikely anyone would complain that celebrating such art is in bad taste when a war is being fought. Yet movies are perhaps the greatest American popular art form as well as one of this country’s most influential, lucrative exports, and the Academy Awards ceremony ostensibly exists to recognize what’s best in the field. So the problem is… ?”
Who Says There Are No New Protest Songs?
If critics are having trouble finding musical protests against the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it’s probably because they’re looking in the wrong corner of the music industry. Once the province of folkies with acoustic guitars, political outrage has become the province of rock music, and artists from the Beastie Boys to Sheryl Crow are issuing quick hits against the military action. A web site even offers the chance to download protest songs by major artists free of charge.
From Cowboy City To Culture City?
Calgary may be having trouble holding on to its symphony orchestra, but there is no question that the arts are coming of age in the metropolis known to most Canadians as Cowboy City. “After decades of oil-fuelled prosperity, there is a growing feeling that Calgary’s continued success will depend on its ability to become a different kind of city, one that fosters the development of arts [and] culture.”
Don’t Look Back – Someone Could Be Gaining On You
Since the advent of movies and the beginning of a culturally dominant film culture, theater aficionados have taken comfort in the old saw that the worst stage play is still better written, better acted, and better conceived than the best Hollywood dreck. But, says, Ed Siegel, that may no longer be the case. “This year should be a wake-up call for theater professionals and patrons alike. By any standards, this has been an extraordinary year in filmmaking and a yawningly ordinary one in theater.”
Happy Talk From The Podium
It used to be that conductors proved themselves with their music. Nowadays, writes Sarah Bryan Miller, many conductors seem more at ease schmoozing with their audiences than showing insight in their music. “The younger ones, in particular, have grown up with the idea that they should be as comfortable chatting – on radio, on television, to an audience – as actually leading an orchestra. Besides, conductors are not, as a breed, short on ego. Nattering from the podium seems, for many of the more egregious practitioners, to be just another way of hogging the spotlight.”
The Sound Inside Your Head
HyperSonic Sound is something entirely new in sound reproduction. It sounds like it’s coming from inside your head. “It is no exaggeration to say that HSS represents the first revolution in acoustics since the loudspeaker was invented 78 years ago – and perhaps only the second since pilgrims used ‘whispering tubes’ to convey their dour messages.”