Germaine Greer says that the Green movement isn’t doing much for architecture, particularly when it comes to designing homes. “Houses grew uglier as the proportion of architects in the population and their share of the new-build budget grew. New houses are now universally horrible, and eco-houses are the most horrible of the lot.”
Tag: 07.28.08
How Fight Scenes Got So Unwatchable
“The fight scene as it usually turns up in today’s action spectacles–smeared, destabilized, fixated on chaos at the expense of clarity and precision–reflects the changing syntax, the all-around acceleration, of movies in general and Hollywood blockbusters in particular. The current vogue for chopped-up fights also raises the question: Are these hyperedited brawls any more successful than their more straightforward predecessors?”
Can Pops Concerts Be As High-Quality As Classical?
Orchestra musicians are generally known to despise most of the so-called “pops” concerts they play, believing the music to be less than serious. But conductor Sarah Hicks says that the quality of the music doesn’t have to be lowered, and that pops is “a category of orchestral music-making that should be well-produced and of high quality.”
British Museum Angers Preservationists
“A plan by the British Museum to build a £130 million exhibition centre in its northwest corner has provoked anger from heritage groups that claim it will destroy some of the 19th-century building’s most beautiful period details and vistas.”
Warhol Comes To Beijing
“A complete set of Andy Warhol’s silkscreen and acrylic paint “Athletes” series will go on show at the Faurschou gallery in Beijing on 26 July in an exhibition timed to coincide with the Olympics… Their display in China, along with other Warhol portraits of celebrities such as Michael Jackson, represents the first major show by the artist in mainland China where his market has never been tested.”
Ohio Orchestras In Holding Pattern Over Columbus
While loyal fans of the shuttered Columbus Symphony mourn the cancellation of its fall season, other Ohio orchestras are waiting to assess the fallout. No other orchestras in the region are planning to hold concerts in Columbus in 2008-09, mindful of the tackiness of taking advantage of another organization’s collapse.
Jazz, Fusion Star Joe Beck Succumbs To Cancer
“Joe Beck, a jazz guitarist who collaborated with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and James Brown, has died at a local hospice after battling lung cancer… Beck got his start as a teenager in the 1960s playing in a jazz trio in New York. By 1968, he was working with Miles Davis and other top jazz stars.”
MN Orch Gets Serious About Jazz
For the first time in its history, the Minnesota Orchestra has appointed an artistic director for jazz. New Orleans-based trumpeter Irvin Mayfield will oversee an expanded jazz series at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and will be charged with overseeing “a five-concert jazz series and participate in education programs.”
‘Toxic’ Atmosphere At Canada’s National Gallery
“The National Gallery of Canada has a storied 128-year history and one of the country’s largest, most distinguished art collections, but the public’s interest has strayed from the gallery’s towering walls to tales of strife in its offices. The atmosphere, already quietly described as “toxic” by sources inside and outside the gallery before the latest whirlwind, may now be verging on intolerable after the Federal Court of Canada released documents detailing a bitter feud in the top ranks.”
Is Arena Rock Dead?
“A moment of silence, please, for arena rock. OK, it’s not quite dead yet. But the days of the big rock ‘n’ roll concert would seem to be numbered.”