“Common wisdom has it that the social networking Web site is primarily a hangout for teenagers and 20-somethings, where middle-aged cops can entrap pervs preying on teenagers. But savvy classical music marketers are discovering that if you want to attract young people, you’ve got to go where they are. Thus MySpace is becoming a valuable marketing tool for some of today’s biggest classical stars – and is poised to be even more important as young musicians promote their own careers.”
Tag: 06.10.06
Evangelicals Fight Over Cable Choice
Evangelical Christians are lobbying for consumers to have the right to pick and choose which stations they get. But “the fear among Christian broadcasters is that a proposal to allow consumers to reject MTV or Comedy Central would also allow them to drop the Trinity Broadcasting Network or Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. Cutting off that access could hurt religious broadcasters.”
Was Kandinsky Painting By Sound?
“A new exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky’s work shows how the artist used his synaesthesia – the capacity to see sound and hear colour – to create the world’s first truly abstract paintings… There is still debate whether Kandinsky was himself a natural synaesthete, or merely experimenting with this confusion of senses in combination with the colour theories of Goethe, Schopenhauer and Rudolf Steiner, in order to further his vision for a new abstract art.”
LA Opera’s “Grendel” On A Grand Scale
“Nearly two decades in the making, this opera conceived by Goldenthal and director Julie Taymor finally — after a 12-day delay due to finicky computer technology — had its premiere Thursday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And this much can be said without qualification: It is the most ambitious, spectacular and successful new opera yet from Los Angeles Opera.”
Senator vs. Smithsonian’s Small
“A key Senate Republican has asked the Bush administration whether Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small should continue to head the national museum complex… The letter is the latest in a series of clashes between Congress and the Smithsonian. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa cited ‘Small’s involvement in the extensive financial fraud’ reported by federal regulators at Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association), where Small worked before moving to the Smithsonian in 2000. Grassley also noted that the museum’s finances and executive compensation packages are being scrutinized by the Smithsonian’s Office of the Inspector General.”
Filmmaker Meets Cuba Ban Head On – Feds Not Amused
The federal government is investigating Cuban-American filmmaker Luis Moro for possible violation of the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba. Moro isn’t exactly denying the charge – he traveled to Cuba and made a film there as a direct challenge to the ban, which he believes to be unnecessary and punitive. Moro’s film, Love & Suicide, has been screening at various U.S. film festivals this season.
A Literary Prize From The Inside Out
“Worth a lucrative 100,000 euros ($126,000), the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the richest and most international prize of its kind. Libraries from all over the world nominate books and, unlike many other awards, it is open to translations and thus to books written in any language.” Judging for large literary prizes is generally conducted with the utmost secrecy, but one of this year’s IMPAC judges has decided to document her experiences.
Toronto’s New Opera House
Toronto’s glittering new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts opens this weekend, and the $150 million venue is aiming high, as is the primary tenant, the Canadian Opera Company. “Architect Jack Diamond’s spare, modernist structure is first and foremost an ideal place to experience the powerful blend of words, music and drama that is opera. If the opera company and its associated Canadian Opera House Corporation can continue to pay their way, the new structure heralds a bigger dot for Toronto on the world’s cultural map.” The Four Seasons Centre opens just in time to play host to COC’s upcoming production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
Opera As Exhibit A In The Wonder Of The Modern City
So Toronto’s opera lovers have a new palace. That’s nice and all, “but why should anyone who doesn’t know Parsifal from Pagliacci give two hoots? The answer, I think, has something to do with the importance and the wonder of cities… Cities stretch us, challenge us, broaden us. Cities, like magazines in their glory years, can pique our curiosity with an almost unlimited table of contents. And we become intrigued. About hockey, perhaps; about graffiti, perhaps; about commodities, perhaps; about Verdi.”
FCC Fines Go Through The Roof
After years of threats, Congress has finally acted to dramatically increase the maximum fine that can be levied by the Federal Communications Commission against a television or radio station deemed to have aired objectionable material. The new maximum fine per violation of the FCC’s often vague and always controversial obscenity rules is $325,000 (a tenfold increase.)