Kennedy Center chairman Michael Kaiser defended his organization’s construction cost overruns and fire safety plans before a Congressional committee yesterday, taking issue with a General Accounting Office report which harshly criticized the performing arts complex. “Kaiser argued that the center overhauled its management of construction finances in 2003, after the GAO first found accounting problems.” The Kennedy Center is accountable to Congress rather than to a city entity, because Washington, D.C.’s civic budget is largely controlled by the federal government.
Tag: 04.07.05
Architects, Pop Stars: Who Can Tell The Difference Anymore?
How do you know when the whole architect-as-superstar phenomenon has gotten completely out of control? When Frank Gehry shows up to play himself on an episode of The Simpsons…
Whatever Happened To Sondheim?
Stephen Sondheim is as legendary as it gets in theatre circles, yet he hasn’t had a bona fide hit in more than a decade. Yet “even as his own creative powers appear to dim, Sondheim is enjoying a golden age of revivals, reassessments, retrospectives and tributes.” In fact, many Sondheim shows now being revived to great acclaim were popular and critical failures the first time around (Assassins, for instance.) “Wise and mortality-haunted beyond his years, he’s made a career exploring themes that others on Broadway rarely touch — emotional ambiguity, moral ambivalence, the impermanence of love, the terrors of connection, death. But somehow now, more than ever, Sondheim seems a man out of joint with his time.”
Possible New Mozart Work Found In Vienna
Austrian state television is reporting that experts are examining newly discovered sheet music found in Vienna’s famed Musikverein concert hall to determine if they could be part of a previously unknown composition by Mozart.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Regulate ‘Em
“Armed with colour-coded charts that show an embarrassingly small amount of truly Canadian programming on TV or Canadian feature films in our theatres, [two prominent Canadian actor-directors] lambasted the federal government yesterday for doing next to nothing to support or promote Canadian culture.” The union representing workers in the Canadian film and TV industries is demanding that Ottawa institute new regulations which would more or less require cinemas, video stores, and television networks to devote a certain percentage of their space to homegrown content. CanCon laws, as they are known, have been on the books for decades, but the regulations have been loosened in recent years, just as many see the threat of creeping Americanism growing stronger.
Dancing Into Tomorrow
The National Ballet of Canada is quietly shaking up its repertoire and reassessing its focus during a trip to New York. Artistic director James Kudelka wants the company to focus on new works that can bring an audience to a deeper understanding of contemporary dance and solidify the company for the future, despite the mostly conservative bent of its home audiences. But the initial steps don’t seem to be going so well – today’s New York Times includes a scathing review of the National’s appearance at the cutting-edge Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Idiocy Is The New Intellectualism
“We live in a curious age of relettering (‘Hi! I’m Cyndee!’), reversals (Red Sox = world champions), and rejiggering. Paid flacks are the new journalists, fiction is the new truth, war is the new peace. The New York Times announced this week that Kiev is the new Prague. Does that mean we have to start drinking Ukrainian beer? I hope not. Osama bin Laden has famously declared that America is the new Rome… Perhaps you are familiar with the ladies’ apparel phenomenon known as vanity sizing. Here is all you need to know: Size 6 is the new 8.” And of course, absolutely everything is the new black. Whatever happened to the world just being itself?
Shut Up About The iPod, Already!
The whole iPod cult is getting a wee bit out of control, says Kevin Cowherd. Yes, it’s a fine invention and all, perfect for those people who feel the need to be on the cutting edge of every new technological revolution, but honestly, it’s just a music player! “Not all of us want to live every moment of our lives in a cocoon of blaring music. Not all of us want to sit at our office computer terminals, bopping our heads to an invisible beat, a blissed-out expression on our faces… Why, some of us even enjoy extended periods of silence, which we use to think about things.”
Putting It Together In San Antonio
The San Antonio Symphony, one year removed from bankruptcy and hoping to stabilize its financial situation, has received a $250,000 challenge grant from the Kronkosky Foundation. The money “will help fund five free concerts, co-sponsored by Radio Disney, that will target youth and families and, symphony leaders hope, reinvigorate interest in the orchestra among old and new audiences.”
Underwhelmed At Humana
This year’s Humana Festival of New American Plays was something of a disappointment. “If the playwrights showing new works at the festival earned marks in the category of social significance, their grades in other, more artistically relevant subjects were middling at best. Admiration for their desire to inspire audience interest in tangled social and political issues mingled with disappointment at their inability to channel these concerns into potent theatrical forms.”