What is art? What a boring question. But if anyone makes you think about it, Chris Burden is probably the artist to do it. “The history of the avant-garde comes down to this: a boyish gimcracker diverting us by diverting himself. Worse things have happened.”
Tag: 05.07.07
Cincy Mayor Could End Arts Funding Deadlock
Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory may decide which of the city’s arts capital projects will get funding after the City Council couldn’t agree. They sent him two proposals.
The Audiobook As Pre-Publication Marketing Tool
Audiobooks “typically ride on the coattails of the hardcovers. Because audiobooks are so fast, inexpensive and easy to record, the dynamic seems to be changing, with publishers looking to the audio format to fuel interest in paper books that aren’t quite ready for the printing press. And with the ubiquity of iPods, that interest can be generated quickly: recordings need not be pressed onto CDs and packaged, but can quickly be uploaded to iTunes.”
NY Drama Critics’ Circle Honors Stoppard, Sheik
“The Coast of Utopia, by Tom Stoppard, was named Best Play of the 2006-07 season by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, the membership announced May 7. The Best Musical award was given to Spring Awakening, which features book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik. The late August Wilson’s Radio Golf was named Best American Play.”
The Theatrical Plagiarist
“Since 1999, Jack L. Herman has been acquiring the scripts of Canadian plays, putting his own name on them, claiming copyright over them, and sometimes staging his own productions at his amateur theatre company, as well as authorizing productions of the stolen plays by other companies.”
Pittsburgh’s Protected Broadway
Live Nation is America’s largest Broadway touring company. But now the company is being sold, touring Broadway seasons in many seasons are in jeopardy. Not in Pittsburgh, however, where the home team books the local season and gets the A shows…
London Is Gaga Over Dance
London is awash with dance. Sadler’s Wells, Covent Garden, SouthBank, the Barbican and The Place all have dance seasons. But can the city support so much movement?
Great Architecture In A Country Of Challenging Extremes
Norway is a country that seems to work. “To make a modern economy thrive in extreme climatic and geographical conditions, Norwegian architects, engineers and designers have had to be resourceful, matter-of-fact and highly inventive.”
Writing – All About The Failure
“You might not think it from this publicity, but most literary endeavour ends not in prizes, but failure. First, there are the countless manuscripts completed, but never published, and the hours of frustrated composition tossed into the wastepaper basket. Then there are the thousands of books published, but not reviewed. These, in turn, are matched by the scores of titles reviewed, but scarcely sold.”
The Best Museum In The World?
Neil MacGregor “left the National Gallery to take over the BM in 2002. It was on its knees. Now it can fairly claim to be the best museum in the world, and its visitor numbers – almost 5m a year – are the highest they have ever been. And it’s all down to this jacketless, giggly bloke in his gloomy and very chilly office – he says he likes it that way – overlooking Robert Smirke’s cold, colossal but loveable facade. So, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, what’s it all about, then?”