“The role of culture, however, must go beyond economics. It is not focused on the price of things, but on their value. And, above all, culture should tell us what is beyond price, including what does not belong in the marketplace. A culture should also provide some cogent view of the good life beyond mass accumulation. In this respect, our culture is failing us.”
Tag: 06.17.07
Where’s The Love, San Antonio?
San Antonio, Texas, is a huge city by American standards, and yet, its orchestra is the very definition of small time, with stagnant wages, an undersized complement of musicians, and a board that seems either uninterested or incapable of raising even the bare minimum that the organization needs to avoid crisis every few years. “The board’s timidity indicates economic leadership that doesn’t have the will, energy or ambition to lead — that likes to claim the title of a major city but doesn’t want to work very hard to make it so.”
In Praise Of Really Bad Musicians
“Let’s hear it for artists with tin ears who’ve proudly lowered the bar of musical performance. We’ll start our survey with a new Scottish group, whose name says it all: The Really Terrible Orchestra. Many who’ve heard them have embraced these amateur classical musicians as a lovely alternative to pros who play, um, really well.”
A Violinist Rises From Small Club To YouTube Fame
Alex DePue played an open mic night Nov. 11 at Lestat’s, a tiny San Diego club that seats just 50. But his performance of “Owner of a Lonely Heat” was filmed and somebody put it up on YouTube. Now he’s famous. “It got 80,000 hits in the first week. Now, it’s up to over 781,000 hits on YouTube alone. If you include the other Web sites that have posted it, like break.com and iFilm.com, and add them up, we’ve had 1.5 million viewings.”
Hollywood’s Been Kidnapped By Celebrity!
“In the wake of everything that has happened recently with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie, is there anyone left on the planet who doesn’t think that something is terribly wrong with this Hollywood? A dangerous cult of celebrity has been created in our society, and it must be destroyed before someone important gets hurt.”
Twofer – Choreography That Paints
“Chinese-born, contemporary choreographer and dancer Shen Wei, is leader of the 14-member Shen Wei Dance Arts. But Shen, also a trained painter, views the wide-open floor with the longing of an artist. For him, it is something closer to a canvas, beckoning to be filled. And so in his 2004 dance “Connect Transfer,” that’s what Shen did – he put canvas on the floor and devised a way for his 14 dancers to deposit pigment on it in the act of dancing. The dance and the resulting painting are an unusual exploration and collision of movement and image.”
How Smart Are You? How Many Words Do You Know?
“It turns out that having a good vocabulary is shatteringly important. It’s fairly easy to teach our little geniuses to read. But how well they understand, and how much they learn for the rest of their lives, depends directly on how many words they acquire before they turn 18.”
Film Company Sues Author Over Fake Author
“A film production company has sued Laura Albert for fraud, saying that a contract signed with JT Leroy to make a feature film of ‘Sarah’ should be null and void, for the simple reason that JT Leroy does not exist.”
Too Complex To Be Useful?
“Customers worldwide are frustrated with increasingly complex handsets, poorly written manuals, inadequate explanations by salespeople and rising service costs, according to a February survey by a unit of the Chief Marketing Officers Council. Many of the cameras, keyboards, music players and other features in cellphones go unused.”
The Wretched Magnificent City
“A century ago, only about 10 per cent of the world’s population lived in cities. By 2050 that figure is expected to rise to at least 75 per cent. The great thing about cities is not how awful they are, but how wonderfully well they work, considering that putting more than 20 million humans in close proximity to engage in serial acts of competitive individualism could not be considered a reasonable idea. If you put rats into claustrophobic circumstances, they become cannibalistic in no time at all. But humans find ingenious solutions: Maglev trains, underground car parks, Korean supermarkets, pizza delivery, cycle lanes, very tall buildings.”