“Since May 2003, combined sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips doubled from $109 million (about £60 million) to $220 million last November. But last week they rose to just $225 million. Like a giant pot-bellied pig, the market is lying on its back, enjoying its excesses, but with little room left to expand.”
Tag: 05.16.05
Eye On A Wheel Of Art
On the longest day of the year (June 21), artists are taking over the London Eye – the giant ferris wheel. “On that date, each of the 32 capsules will host a performance by a different artist, musician, dance troupe or acting company in an effort to highlight the campaign for fair trade with the third world.”
Possible Actors Strike Against Video Game Producers
Actors are considering striking against video game producers. “The companies have refused to open the door to any form of profit participation for those actors who lend their voice, likeness and/or performance to a video game.”
Cannes And The Anti-America Movies
Films about the dark side of America are everywhere at Cannes this year, including a scathing portrait by Danish director Lars von Trier: “We are all under the influence — and it’s a very bad influence — from America,” said the 49-year-old Dane. “In my country everything has to do with America. America is kind of sitting on the world. “America has to do with 60 percent of my brain and all things I experience in my life, and I’m not happy about that,” von Trier said. I’d say 60 percent of my life is American so I am in fact an ‘American’ too. But I can’t go there and vote or change anything there. That is why I make films about America.”
Is PBS Headed For A Political Storm?
PBS is headed for a political showdown with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “CPB’s drive for political balance on the air could lead to a public or private showdown with PBS over editorial standards. The corporation’s annual production aid to PBS, worth $26.5 million next year, will depend on its approval of the PBS standards on balance and other journalistic issues, now being reviewed by a panel of outside journalists. Further conflict could be expected if CPB hires Tomlinson’s reported candidate for president, Patricia Harrison, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.”
“Rings” Advance Sale Goes Crazy
The new Lord of the Rings musical doesn’t open in Toronto for 9 months yet, but tickets are selling like crazy. “Tickets for The Lord of the Rings went on sale yesterday on the Internet only and were expected by midnight to reach an impressive total of nearly $1 million (all figures Canadian). Add to that the $3 million in advance group sales and it means that close to $4 million or roughly 40,000 tickets have been sold before the box office opens to the general public today at 9 a.m.”
Uncovering East Germany’s Vanished Literature
“Just the name ‘subversive literature’ has a provocative, candle-under-the-bedcovers feel. In communist East Germany — perhaps the most spied-on nation in history — however, almost everything fell under that dicey rubric. Poetry about freedom? Anti-utopian sci-fi? Political satire? All blacklisted. Now, 16 years after the Soviet puppet state crumbled, two former citizens have unearthed the vanished nation’s hidden literature and — adamant that it no longer be submerged in anonymity — are pushing to get it published.”
The Cranky Font
“Typography, it turns out, is not always such dumb fun. Graphic designers, who often have fonts to sell, can be cranky about where their p’s and q’s come from, and they seem to be getting crankier by the minute. Maybe it’s because there is less and less demand for original typefaces; free fonts are easy to come by on the Web.”
A Conceptual Art Day Camp In The Shadow Of New York
“On Saturday, with the help of the Public Art Fund, the artist Allison Smith and more than 100 other artists commandeered [New York’s] Governors Island to create a kind of conceptual art version of day camp. Or maybe a Dadaist’s dream of a craft fair. Or else a mini-Woodstock in which music was replaced by artists taking the stage in mock-military style to declare that they were fighting for causes like “sequined religious figures,” “the right to sing sentimental songs in full,” “the right to be scared” or more straightforward causes like financial support for AIDS research and ending overfishing of the oceans.”
Opera Idol In Montreal
Two hundred singers entered the 2005 Concours Musical International de Montréal. Now it’s down to the finals. “The competition used to be a triumvirate of voice, violin and piano. But that’s all changed. Voice is undoubtedly the star of the event at the Centre Pierre Peladeau, where music fans mingle with voice teachers and coaches, as well as aspiring singers from the Conservatoire, McGill and the Atelier lyrique of Opéra de Montréal. ‘Voice is where it’s at. Piano and violin are important, don’t get me wrong, but everybody wants to know who the next great tenor or bass or mezzo is going to be’.”