It wasn’t too many years ago that Australia made attempts to export and promote its culture. Now not so much. “Is culture a dirty word in federal cabinet? Many arts academics and practitioners fear so and see Australia as struggling with a stereotyped ocker image abroad, to its cultural, artistic and economic detriment.”
Tag: 06.17.07
Britain’s Best Director (And What It Means)
“There’s no shortage of British theatrical talent, but who’s our best director? I was discussing the question with an actor recently at a party and we both came up with the same answer. But, before revealing the name, maybe it’s worth exploring the ramifications of the question.”
The Pocket Beethoven
“Performing all nine Beethoven symphonies in 90 minutes by taking one movement from each may not get the Philadelphians respect from the aficionados, but these concerts were not designed for them. These shorter, 7 p.m. primers on three populist composers are clearly aimed at listeners looking for a friendly entry point into an art form that too often sends the message that everyone in the audience – except you – first walked into the concert hall about three decades ago.”
When Short Stories Become Movies
“Why wrestle an unwieldy 500-page novel into a screenplay, lopping off key characters and subplots, when you can tackle a much more manageable 20 pages, with a third of the characters and half the irony?”
Video Venice – A Biennale That Flickers
“With so much flickering newsreel on show, the biennale as a whole feels as preachy as an Islamic bookstore. It’s short on wow factor, and heavy on words. You’ll have gathered by now that what is missing from this biennale is some art by grown-ups: the signature pieces, the leaps of invention. They exist, but they have to be sniffed out.”
Reinventing The Circus Experience
“Across the world, circus performers are mixing in a little cabaret, adding some nudity, sprinkling a fetish here and there, to deliver a spicier brew than Mr Chipperfield ever imagined. In New Zealand, Heavenly Burlesque joins strippers with acrobats in a blend of high wire and low life. Edinburgh’s La Clique toys with fetish and fantasy. The Montreal acrobats Les 7 Doigts de la Main cling to each other’s flesh with the intensity of passionate lovers.”
India’s Hottest Movie Ever Breaks Box Office Records
“Sivaji – The Boss” has been hugely anticipated. “The film took 19 months to be completed and is said to be the most expensive movie ever produced in India. Huge banners and hoardings were erected in front of cinema halls where Sivaji was released. Fans performed ablution by milk on Rajni’s cut-outs and broke coconuts to ward off evil forces. The movie has been released in 17 theatres in Chennai and in over 500 cinema houses all over the state. Tickets for the movie have been sold out for the next three weeks.”
Tchaikovsky Competition Aims To Regain The Big Time
The once-venerable competition usedt be on top. Now, not so much. “Around 200 young pianists, violinists, cellists and singers from 34 countries will perform over the next two weeks before juries of top musicians in Moscow’s grand but run-down Conservatory, hoping to become the virtuosos of the future. Organizers hope that more entrants, increased sponsorship, open voting and more prestigious juries will return some of the luster the four-yearly competition enjoyed prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.”
So What If You’re Not The Best?
Glenn Kurtz’s is “a story many of us know at some neurotic level, whether we’re musicians, ball players, painters, writers or tightrope walkers. Owing to a confluence of doting parents, late capitalism and a vague cloud of nurturing in the air, we’re told to pursue our ambitious passions, or maybe our passionate ambitions. Follow our hearts and we’ll eventually prevail, we’re told from an early age; over and over the movie music swells and the plucky hero beats the odds, and we drive home and think, “What does Ralph Macchio have that I don’t?” But then… what if I don’t?
Why We Should Embrace The Casual Reader
Is it possible that those in the cultural sphere want the public to love them a bit too much? Or, put more directly, do we risk alienating those who merely see the arts and literature as a pleasant diversion with unceasing paeans to the glory of cultural engagement? It’s an important question: “If literature is to survive beyond the next few years, assailed as it is by the triple whammy of brutal economics, shrinking attention spans and unrelenting competition from less demanding pastimes, it will survive as much because of book likers as book lovers.”