A composer/scientist has undertaken a series of performance in Zurich with his computer-generated music. The computer “reads” the audience – fidgets, coughs, shifting in the chairs – and translates the variables into music. – New Scientist
Tag: 03.28.00
DREAM TEAM
After watching its heavily favored “Saving Private Ryan” lose the Oscar for best picture last year, Dreamworks SKG enjoyed “sweet vindication” on Sunday when its “American Beauty” took home five awards-just six years after the studio was founded and only three years after its first release. “DreamWorks SKG had at last risen to the top of the pecking order, for one night, at least.” – New York Times 03/28/00
EDITORIAL SEX APPEAL
Salon and Slate, two of best political and cultural affairs sites on the Web, have had a healthy, erudite rivalry going for some time. But arguments turned personal in a recent volley of remarks between Salon editor, David Talbot, and Slate editor, Michael Kinsley. Talbot: “‘Mike Kinsley, if you’ve ever seen him, is not the sexiest guy in the world, and that’s reflected in his product.'” Kinsley (after calling Talbot’s remarks “moronic”): “‘How sexually appealing the editor of Salon finds the editor of Slate is of no practical interest to the editor of Slate — or, presumably, to the editor of Salon. The trouble with `editor’s sexiness’ as a metric is that it is hard to quantify objectively.'” – Chicago Tribune
ACCUSED
- Journalists in India, outraged that “The Sixth Sense” didn’t win a single Oscar, have accused the Academy of apartheid. “The country’s media claims the film’s lack of success in any of the six categories in which it was nominated was due to racism against its director, M. Night Shyamalan, who was born in India.” – BBC 03/28/00
ONCE AN ARTIST, ALWAYS AN ARTIST
An interview with German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who celebrates his 75th birthday-and five decades of recitals, concerts, and operas-next month with the release of a special Deutsche Grammophon Fischer-Dieskau Edition of 20 CDs. Retired from singing since 1992, Fischer-Dieskau has kept busy ever since reciting poetry, conducting, and painting. What keeps him hungry for artistic expression? “Goethe always said that life must be like art somehow. It is for him only bearable if it is art. Otherwise it cannot be lived.” – The Times (UK)
WHO’S THAT GIRL?
- As the Humana Festival for New American Plays – the foremost festival of new theater in this country – gets under way in Louisville, Kentucky, theories are rampant about the true identity of playwright Jane Martin. Martin’s plays (including “Keely and Du”) have enjoyed many productions at Humana, yet no one has ever met her. There is much speculation that she is actually Humana founder Jon Jory, who is stepping down as the festival’s director this year. – NPR [Real audio file]
THE SOUND’S THE THING
A great many successful Canadian plays started out as projects for CBC radio. “Requiring only some actors, a sound effects technician and a microphone, it has always been a cheap and easy place to make a start or take some risks.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
NOT HERE, NOT NOW
In a rare show of public protest, some of China’s preeminent architects and scholars are voicing their opposition to a government-backed plan to build a modern 2,500-seat opera house near Mao’s mausoleum in downtown Beijing. Critics of the Grand National Theatre – or “big duck egg,” as its glass-and-titanium design is becoming known – cite aesthetic as well as economic rationales. “The structure…is to cover 25 acres that supported hundreds of courtyard houses until they were bulldozed during the past few months.” – Financial Times
COURTING CONTROVERSY
With the inclusion of provocative works by Chris Ofili, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, and others, the 12th Sydney Biennale, which opens in May, seems ready (and eager?) for some Brooklyn Museum-style publicity. Museum of Contemporary Art Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor said the show will “no doubt attract attention with Guo-Qiang’s naked woman on a horse…Chris Ofili, the artist who uses elephant dung, and Yayoi Kusama’s soft phalluses…it may well create outrage.” Be careful what you wish for. – Sydney Morning Herald
MARRIED TO THE MOB
Scottish painter Peter Howson has come clean about his dealings with Glasgow’s mafia underworld for the last 15 years. Internationally regarded for his “macho figurative paintings,” Howson explains “how his strange relationship with the world of crime began when he was visited in the 1980s by the kingpin of the Glasgow crime scene, the late Arthur Thompson, Sr., who offered cash on the spot for a canvas. Howson found himself supplying paintings to the city’s criminals for a fraction of the price charged by his London dealer. When he tried to renegotiate, he got death threats. Gangsters like art, it seems, but they like it cheap.” – The Guardian