“If you have been following the news about arts funding, you have reason to be concerned. A vast pool of private, public, and philanthropic capital has gone down the drain in the US, and elsewhere, in the “Great Recession”–with predictable consequences.”
Tag: 06.09.10
Planned Arts Center In Bellevue, WA Gets $25M Gift
“In one of the largest gifts to an arts or cultural organization in this area, the Tateuchi Foundation is giving $25 million toward the creation of a 2,000-seat performance center [and a 250-seat cabaret space] in downtown Bellevue.”
Does Glee Have Copyright Law Problems?
A post at the law blog Balkinization observes, “The fictional high school chorus at the center of Fox’s Glee has a huge problem – nearly a million dollars in potential legal liability” for crimes like performing “a near-exact copy of Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ music video.” Andrew O’Hehir points out that the show “is itself an example of a new business model for generating revenue from popular music … Glee is a music business revenue machine. The cast spawned 25 Billboard top 100 singles in 2009.”
Patrons, This Is Your Moment To Step Into The Void
“As the coalition sharpens its axe” for funding cuts, “let us remember that most of the world’s great works of art are the fruit of spendaholic patronage by magnificos who knew how to tell the accountants where to go.”
Writing Better By Abandoning In-Text Links
“You write differently when you know you can’t dodge explaining yourself by fobbing the task off on someone more eloquent or better informed. You have to express what you want to say more completely, and you have to think harder about what information ought to be included and what’s merely peripheral.”
LA Opera’s Ring, Through A Pop Music Critic’s Eyes
“Achim Freyer’s staging of ‘Das Rheingold’ is as much a pop experience as it is a classical one. That’s not to say it’s easily digestible. … Pointing to all corners of culture, Freyer’s set and costumes argue vehemently against any division between high and low.”
Blues Legend Robert Johnson – Have We Been Hearing His Music All Wrong?
“The handful of recordings Delta blues icon Robert Johnson made in 1936 and 1937 are among the most influential songs in music. Disciples praise his high, moaning voice and fleet-fingered guitar work. But have we been listening to them at the wrong speed?”
Composer Jack Beeson, 88
“Nicolas Slonimsky once described Mr. Beeson’s approach to composition as ‘enlightened utilitarianism.’ That characterization delighted Mr. Beeson, who eschewed dogma … His pragmatic approach was exemplified by Lizzie Borden, his fourth opera,” premiered by New York City Opera in 1965 and revived there in 1999.
Kingsolver’s Lacuna Beats Out Wolf Hall For Orange Prize
“Barbara Kingsolver took the £30,000 prize for The Lacuna, her eagerly awaited first novel since 2000.The American novelist held off heavyweight competition from Hilary Mantel, for Wolf Hall, and Lorrie Moore, for A Gate at the Stairs, to take what is the biggest literary award for women writers.”
V&A Museum Displays Entire Buildings – On Site
“Finding a fairytale Japanese teahouse sprouting from wooden stilts in a corridor of the Victoria and Albert Museum is an unexpected yet curiously apposite experience. Unexpected, because this bewitching structure is one of seven brand-new, imaginative and full-scale buildings installed through the museum’s galleries this week …”