The Girl-group string quartet Bond has a new album out. “They think it’s funny to have to explain that they are virtuosos rather than vamps, a preconception that has plagued the comely classical crossover group since their debut “Born” sold more than 2 million copies in 2001.”
Tag: 06.30.04
Why Does Canada Have So Little Regard For Important Architecture?
Lisa Rochon decries the treatment of architect Arthur Erickson’s buildings in Canada. He “is the éminence grise of modernism in this country. He led a postwar movement of design that extends landscape through architecture, something Canada’s new generation of award-winning practitioners have absorbed into their own thinking. It’s easy to blame lack of money. Or zoning. Running through all of these moronic moves is a lack of will to safeguard our national treasures.”
Howard Stern – Higher Ratings = More Stations
Howard Stern, who has been heavily fined for indecency on air, and was dropped by Clear Channel from four markets earlier this year, is adding nine new markets, including four where his show was taken off the air over indecency concerns. Stern has been a target of an FCC crackdown on content on American radio, bhut since the controversy began his ratings across the country have gonee up.
NYC Increases Culture Budget
Earlier this year, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed cutting the city’s culture budget. But this week the mayor and city coucil actually increased the budget by almost 4 percent, from last year’s $118.8 million to $123.3 million. The new budget takes effect July 1.
Does Clear Channel Really Own The Concert Instant-Recording Idea?
One of the most promising innovations in the music industry is the ability to record and sell recordings of live concerts within minutes of their conclusion. “On Monday, Clear Channel announced that this summer, it will offer some 100 live recordings of various artists who will be taped throughout the country.” But beware, independent artists who want to offer the service: “Clear Channel bought the patent for the live-recording technology from its inventors, and the company now claims it owns exclusive rights to the concept of selling concert CDs after shows.”
Tumult Over 10-Story Jersey Teardrop
“Chances are there would have been some degree of opposition sooner or later had anyone suggested building a 10-story, 175-ton nickel-surfaced teardrop suspended within a bronze-clad tower on a pier across the water from the World Trade Center site as a 9/11 memorial. But when the artist turns out to be Zurab Tsereteli, a Russian sculptor whose works — like a 300-foot statue of Columbus or a 165-foot Peter the Great — are so controversial that opponents once threatened to wire Peter with explosives and blow him up, another level of tumult is pretty much guaranteed.”
Saratoga Raising Funds To Keep City Ballet
The Saratoga (New York) Performing Arts Center has raised two-thirds of the $600,000 it needs to keep New York City Ballet in residence next summer. “In February, SPAC’s board decided to drop the ballet’s summer residency, saying it was costing SPAC nearly $1 million per year. That decision was later reversed following a firestorm of public opposition.”
Has New York Museum Passed Its Expiration Date?
With the attentions of the city focused elsewhere for tales of its history, the Museum of the City of New York is at risk of becoming a footnote among cultural institutions interpreting the city’s heritage…
Remaking London’s Skyline
London is “looking quite literally for a new profile, one with shapely skyscrapers designed by big-name architects proclaiming the city’s determination to be known as an innovative 21st-century metropolis. By 2010, not just the majestic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral but also a new forest of glass and steel will symbolize the ancient heart of London. After centuries of sprawling growth, the city is finally reaching for the sky.”
In Praise Of “Difficult” Art
“Life in the cultural universe of the difficult tribe could be bleak – yet perhaps this is a time to revive those debates, for the silencing of such severe examinations of value has occurred in step with the closing down of cultural spaces wherein complexity or difficulty might thrive. The enemy of complexity has always been the commodity – the work of art reduced to mere gratification.”