“Scottish Opera is in limbo, struggling on an already meagre budget and warned that it must pay back a £4 million advance and will receive nothing above its current annual £7.5 million. The most imaginative company in the world cannot survive on nothing, so it seems certain that unless it is thrown a lifeline quickly, Scottish Opera will sink.”
Tag: 04.08.04
Ode To The Studio Musician
“Most of the music you will ever hear will be played by people you will never see and whose names you will neither know nor think to ask. It will be recorded in windowless rooms, witnessed sometimes only by an engineer or producer, the now-ancient technology of the overdub making the presence even of other musicians unnecessary. For every superstar singer or guitar heroine whose name adorns a T-shirt or tattoo, there are hundreds whose work is done anonymously, or as good as. Who play their part, collect their pay and go home.”
The Educated Museum – Cause For Concern?
In recent years museums have become more and more involved with arts education. “To all those of us who value museums and education this may seem like a good thing. But on closer examination there is cause for concern. There are problems with spelling out and dictating a relationship between museums and education. There should be no school ties.”
Wringing More Profits Out Of Downloads
“Unburdened by manufacturing and distribution costs, online music was supposed to usher in a new era of inexpensive, easy-to-access music for consumers. In many cases, buying music online is still cheaper than shopping for CDs at retail outlets. But just a year after iTunes debuted with its 99-cent songs and mostly $9.99 albums, that affordable and straightforward pricing structure is already under pressure. All five major music companies are discussing ways to boost the price of single-song downloads on hot releases — to anywhere from $1.25 to as much as $2.49.”
French Author’s Plane Turns Up At Sea
“A French scuba team has discovered parts of the missing warplane piloted by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince and one of France’s most beloved writers, an Air Force official said yesterday. The French aviation hero disappeared during World War II while flying a reconnaissance mission for the Allies over the Mediterranean. Until now, nobody knew where the plane went down. Two pieces — from the landing gear and engine — of Saint-Exupery’s Lockheed P-38 aircraft were pulled from the Mediterranean near the southern France city of Marseille, said Capt. Frederic Solano.”
But Can Jeff Gordon Pirouette?
Classical dance is not necessarily an easy sell in rural America, and you could make a strong case that a dance which is immediately gripping and enticing in New York might have no relevance to audiences in the Bible Belt. So how to get regional audiences excited about the form? If only you could combine ballet with… with… oh, let’s say, NASCAR racing?
The Great Ontario Book Bust
A bad book fair is a horrible thing to witness, says Russell Smith, and the organizers of the Great Ontario Book Break (you’d think the acronym alone would have been a danger sign) should have seen that they were creating a bad book fair. “Events like these make one come close to despair about the state of the arts and the worth of public funding. Conservatives could easily point to a debacle like this and proclaim that the free market should just take over like a cleansing rain. This is like the sponsorship scandal on a smaller scale: advertising money squandered on a non-event.”
Telefilm Head: Synergy Will Be Good For Canada
“A deal between Telefilm Canada and Creative Artists Agency will help ‘speed up’ Ottawa’s plan to see Canadian films score 5 per cent of the total domestic gross box office by the end of 2006, the head of Telefilm says… The deal, which sees Telefilm pay CAA a ‘very modest retainer fee,’ allows a Canadian producer with a sufficient track record to access CAA’s talent pool (at present there are an estimated 2,200 registered Canadian-born actors, directors and writers in and around Los Angeles) and for CAA representatives to approach a Canadian producer with relevant scripts and/or talent.” The arrangement has been widely criticized by actors’ and writers’ unions as compromising Canadian creativity.
The Vast Right-Wing Morality Crusade
As the government debate over clamping down on broadcast ‘indecency’ ratchets up, John Doyle is getting a bit tired of hearing the crackdown described as a response to a genuine swelling of public outrage, rather than as a private crusade of the American ultra-right. After all, if the public were truly the main concern, why wouldn’t the hearings being held to confront the spectre of Janet Jackson’s exposed breast and Howard Stern’s potty mouth be held, well, in public? “Nothing that happens behind closed doors is genuinely in response to a populist concern. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be necessary to go behind closed doors.”
Daring To Improvise: Jazz As A Life Metaphor
Nat Hentoff’s public profile is that of a strident left-wing columnist and first amendment crusader, but privately, he’s always dreamed of being a jazzer. “Starting when I was eleven, jazz musicians were the adults I most admired, even more than Ted Williams and some of his colleagues on the Boston Red Sox. Their music so lifted me up that at times I’d shout in pleasure and surprise, even though I was a relatively proper Boston boy who did not ordinarily disturb the public peace… And I measured the other adults I knew against these musicians’ resilience of spirit. They made their living as improvisers, taking chances in public every night. Challenging themselves was their natural way of life.”