“Parents worry a lot about keeping their children entertained. In the holiday season especially, the thought process goes: we are a lot older than their fun little friends, plus we both have a hangover. Must entertain little bleeders. Must entertain and improve. In fact, you could not be more wrong. According to research by Dr Richard Ralley, a psychology lecturer at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk, Lancashire, boredom is valuable for children… What I would say, though, is that boredom is like olives, or antiques, or green vegetables, or black-and-white films. Children might get force-fed with boredom just in the run of things, and it might actively be good for children, but only adults will really appreciate it.”
Tag: 04.14.06
Leave Spacey Alone!
Apparently, not every critic in the UK has it in for Kevin Spacey and his (perhaps) quixotic quest to revive the Old Vic. “Mr Spacey has used his energy to put on original work in a theatre which has daunted directors for decades. He should be thanked for it rather than moaned at.”
KC PAC Is Finally A Go
After much debate and delay, the board behind the proposed $326 million performing arts center in Kansas City has decided to break ground on the project this fall, despite being somewhat short of initial fundraising goals. The Kansas City Symphony, which will be one of the center’s primary tenants, celebrated the decision.
Muppets Are Coming For Your Infants
“Two weeks ago, that international cartel for salubrious children’s entertainment [known as Sesame Workshop] introduced ‘Sesame Beginnings,’ a series of half-hour DVD’s aimed at children 6 months to 2 years old. The content of the programs is innocuous and even enjoyable — a rainbow coalition of real and Muppet parents and babies loving on each other… The fact that these DVD’s exist at all, however, has incensed a clan of Boston-area child-health experts… who are determined not to let an absence of conclusive research get in the way of their conviction that television is noxious to developing minds.” Virginia Heffernan thinks all the fuss more than a bit absurd.
Will Downloading Revive The Single And Destroy The Album?
Not too long ago, music journalists and industry observers were speculating that the music single was on its way out, and that no one bought anything but full-length albums anymore, anyway. But now, with downloading accounting for an ever-increasing chunk of music sales, the opposite may wind up being true. “As downloading becomes universal, the singles charts (for too long in thrall to the marketing power of record companies and tastes of teenagers) will once more start to reflect the real listening experience of the general population.” And with that change could come the death of the traditional album.
Amis Pens Story Of 9/11 Hijacker’s Final Days
Novelist Martin Amis, never one to shy away from controversy, may be facing another round of public disgust when his new collection of short stories is published this fall. “Once feted as the voice of his generation with novels such as Money, critics and the public alike seem to have taken great delight when [Amis] has faltered since.” Clearly, controversy doesn’t phase the author: among the tales Amis spins in his newest book is a fictionalized account of “the final movements of Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker of the 11 September attacks.”
Is BritArt Regressing Into The Future?
One of the most anticipated contemporary art moments of the year arrived this week in the UK, when Marc Quinn’s much-ballyhooed sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss was unveiled. And that, says Jonathan Jones, should tell us all we need to know about the state of contemporary art in Britain. “After all the sensations, after the brilliant careers and after the fire, we have arrived by some cyclical divine joke in 18th-century London, where portraiture is god and the leading artists of the day compete to depict [celebrities.]”
This Is Why We Have Intermissions
The BBC made international headlines when it announced that it would broadcast Wagner’s complete “Ring” cycle in a single day. But how many people could actually stand to sit through such a thing, even in the comfort of their own home? One London critic decided to give it a go, and did just fine for the first seven hours or so. Then, well… “Whimper. Make the nasty music go away, mummy! … This is apocalyptic, disturbing stuff, and it’s rolling madly around in my head.”
Renewal Begins With A Brief Exile
Russia’s St. Petersburg Philharmonic will be playing a reduced home schedule and increasing its touring beginning this July, as the city’s premiere concert hall closes for a major renovation. “The renovation is all the more challenging now that the [music director Yuri Temirkanov] has just removed the company’s executive director Vladimir Gronsky. The Philharmonic hasn’t had much luck with its managers, having changed three directors over the past ten years, with all of them being forced to resign before the end of their contracts.”
Gergiev Wants To Conduct The LSO, Not Control It
Russian conductor Valery Gergiev will take the reins of the London Symphony Orchestra next January, and anticipation is building in Britain’s capital city. But what does Gergiev plan to do with his new toy? Well, for one thing, he plans to explore some of the Russian music that has fallen out of fashion since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But more importantly, he won’t “pretend to take the orchestra to other planets” and would hope “never to block a truly artistic statement” from any musician. Gergiev seems particularly sensitive to the burnout that some music directors face with the world’s great orchestras as a result of fundraising and gladhanding duties, and stresses that he wants his relationship with the LSO to be “purely musical.”