The National Ballet of Canada is suing NOW Magazine for $1 million over an ad the magazine published last month supporting fired dancer Kimberly Glasco. The ad compared the non-renewal of Glasco’s contract to the dismissal of Jewish artists in Nazi Germany. – CBC
Tag: 06.02.00
THE TONY TANGO
Trying to handicap this year’s theatre work up for honors at this Sunday’s Tony Awards is difficult as usual. In the running is “an odd mishmash of daring new work and lukewarm fare that has left theater professionals searching for a cohesive theme.” – New York Times
FISSIONABLE MATERIAL
Broadway’s “Copenhagen” is a play about science – physics no less. “Presenting difficult concepts is always risky for a playwright, but it is particularly so in an era when audiences have been conditioned by lowbrow entertainment to have their senses tickled but not to have their brains massaged.” That hasn’t discouraged a growing number of productions about science that seem to be popping up. – New York Times
MAKING HAY ON “ARTISTIC BANKRUPTCY”
Lars Von Trier isn’t a director, he’s a Happening. Picking up the top prize at Cannes only inflamed his supporters and critics. For some, “Dancer in the Dark” confirmed the flamboyant 44-year-old Dane as a posturing charlatan. “The director’s work is undoubtedly ambitious and original, and he has an ardent band of followers. But for many he remains as specious as the fake aristocratic Von he has attached to his name.” – The Telegraph (UK)
MAKING HAY ON “ARTISTIC BANKRUPTCY”
Lars Von Trier isn’t a director, he’s a Happening. Picking up the top prize at Cannes only inflamed his supporters and critics. For some, “Dancer in the Dark” confirmed the flamboyant 44-year-old Dane as a posturing charlatan. “The director’s work is undoubtedly ambitious and original, and he has an ardent band of followers. But for many he remains as specious as the fake aristocratic Von he has attached to his name.” – The Telegraph (UK) 06/02/00
“CLASSIC MUMBO-JUMBO”
Presidential candidate announces an investigation into why so many Hollywood movies are fleeing Canada. “One recent report by the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America said so-called runaway production has cost the Los Angeles film community 20,000 jobs and cost the U.S. economy $10 billion. But Canadians question the claims. B.C.’s production industry, the biggest in Canada, is worth about $1 billion, so where’s the rest? – Vancouver Sun 06/02/00
HUMAN CONTACT
Speaking to the Book Expo America convention, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos “predicted that e-commerce probably would not take over the marketplace. He expects that 10 years from now, only about 15 percent of sales would take place online.” – Inside.com
CHECKING OUT THE SYDNEY BIENNALE
“If it seems glib, after a few hours’ lurching about in a media ruck, to give a simple thumbs up to an exhibition of such scale and diversity as the Biennale of Sydney 2000, there is nevertheless a point here worth insisting on: if you choose interesting work by terrific artists rather than forcefeeding art through a predetermined, predigested theme, you come up with an exciting show.” – The Age (Melbourne)
SHILLING FOR SALES
The budding business of online art auctions is still trying to work out some of the kinks, as last month’s sham auction of a fake(?) Diebenkorn showed. “A close analysis of that and other eBay art auctions reveals that the flourishing cyberauction world faces a deeper, more intransigent problem than lone self-bidders: the prospect of rings of shill bidders, acting as partners.” – New York Times
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
What to call web art? Calling it “web art” is so…well, dull and uninspired. So why wait around for the art historians to name it? “Names are rock and roll: They bring friends to the party,” says Miltos Manetas, (cool name Milt) who embarked on a project to find a name for the art and he approached some professional namers (yes, they do exist) They came up with… – Wired