“Is our national modesty to blame? Are we quietly patting ourselves on the backs at insular parties when we could be adding more heft to our accolades? Is there, in fact, a way to build a better awards system?”
Tag: 07.13.12
The Neverending Band Camp (Well, Orchestra Camp)
“The [Baltimore Symphony Orchestra] academy was a kind of fantasy camp, better known to rock and baseball fans. But unlike air-guitarists or flabby softball players, we faced a high level of intensity from the start. The music was difficult, even for the pros many of us hoped to keep up with. Virtually all of us were there to improve our technique and musicality, not merely soak up star power.”
The Mean, Mean World Of Criticism On The Internet
Anne Midgette: “I’d rather see the energy and passion, even if it’s accompanied by some unfortunate asides, then be restricted to an obedient world in which all opinions are disseminated politely and considerately, and colorlessly, and without response.”
Cable TV Disputes – Nobody Wins
“When customers who are, in many cases, already paying a lot for cable TV find out that they can’t watch The Daily Show or Breaking Bad because of a fee dispute between their cable company and the content provider, do they sit around researching the issues to figure out who should get the blame? Or do they simply assume that it’s more of everybody on every side sticking it to the regular guy, and that with the amount of money they’re paying, they both ought to be able to work it out?”
Britain’s Museum Boom – Did It Work?
“Over the past decade, bold and costly new art galleries have sprung up in towns from Margate to Middlesbrough in the hope of regenerating underloved areas and bringing modern art to the masses. Has the strategy worked?”
The Difficulty Of Fixing TV Shows
“All TV shows are stalked by the shark of irrelevance and staleness, and the trick of avoiding being eaten by the shark without jumping it is a deft one indeed.
Change a program too radically and viewers turn off in disgust. Fail to change enough and they turn off in boredom.”
Streaming Boosts Swedish Music Sales
“Figures released by Swedish recording industry association GLF show that revenue from streaming music online jumped 79.4 percent to $40 million (SEK 252.7 million) compared with the first half of last year. Digital music sales now account for 89 percent of total music revenues in Sweden.”
The Problem With UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites List
“UNESCO, like most other UN agencies, suffers from a house culture which prefers to deal with governments, and lives happily with the fiction that governments genuinely care about citizens and their heritage. If that were true, then the problem of protecting patrimony could simply be solved by telling governments to pass good laws and enforce them.”
Mike Daisey Is Still Performing His Steve Jobs Monologue (?!)
Earlier this year, the falsehoods in Daisey’s hit one-man show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs – a piece which was basically presented as non-fiction – were revealed in a spectacularly humiliating fashion. “[The] most pressing question is the simplest: Why is Daisey still performing a play that brought him so much disgrace?”
Another Member Quits LA MoCA’s Board Over Museum’s New Direction
“The troubles of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art intensified with the resignation of noted artist John Baldessari’s from its board. … Baldessari is the fifth MOCA board member to leave since February. His exit after 12 years is another signal that the old guard of L.A.’s contemporary art scene has grown disenchanted with its direction under [Jeffrey] Deitch.”