“The first-ever multimedia concert production of the Persian Trilogy, based on the Persian national epic poem Shahnameh, will make history tomorrow at [Toronto’s] Roy Thomson Hall… Composed by Iranian-American composer Behzad Ranjbaran between 1989 and 2000, the concert will be a highlight of the Seventh International Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies.”
Tag: 08.01.08
Obama’s Hip-Hop Conundrum
The Ludacris song that endorses Barack Obama while taking offensive shots at his opponents is emblematic of a larger issue for the candidate. “Some of the Democrat’s most vocal (literally) supporters are sticking him with a hip-hop dilemma: how to respond to an art form that has a long history as a cultural wedge issue but whose fans and wildly unpredictable practitioners are a part of his base?”
Bringing Petroleum Into The Gallery
Artists working with oils is nothing new. But an artist working with actual oil? “I love using this stuff. It’s seductive. My work has a serious conflict. It’s that honest conflict of: I participate and I’m doing this. I indict myself in the process — I’m partners in crime with the oil industry.”
Yeah, So That Moron Cut You Off. Here’s Some Art!
St. Paul, Minnesota, has a plan to use public art to reduce road rage and perplex drivers into an unexpected sense of calm. (How very Midwestern, no?) “The signs are about the same size as regular traffic signs and feature unusual designs including mazes, bright clovers, and even optical illusions.”
59 Years Of Meddling In Cable’s Affairs
It was on this date in 1949 that the FCC first began poking its nose into the fledgling technology that would come to be called cable television. “An FCC attorney eventually concluded that CATV was a common carrier, subject to FCC jurisdiction. The commission, however, didn’t adopt his recommendation, and it would be 1965 before the FCC decided to regulate cable TV.”
Gould’s Way
“At the busy height of his unlikely career Elliott Gould was as much an embodiment of the times as a movie star. As the 1960s faded into the ’70s, Mr. Gould appeared in role after role that seemed to crystallize the ideals and anxieties of the era… Mr. Gould, who turns 70 on Aug. 29, is being honored in his native borough, Brooklyn, with a series at BAMcinématek.”
The Delicate Matter Of Setting A Rape To Music
The latest from Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is a gut-wrenching opera about the rape of a strong-willed woman by a soldier living in an unspecified war zone. “Ms. Saariaho has said that the idea for this opera came to her when she was pregnant and saw a sonogram of her baby… And pregnancy can be experienced as an invasion by the ultimate other, a metaphor that resonated with [her librettist’s] ideas about cultural clash.”
Is Arts Support Withering In Sydney?
“Artists and performers chasing success in Sydney should pack their bags and leave. Head to Melbourne, Perth or Brisbane. Anywhere really, as long as it is outside [the state of New South Wales.] That is the advice from some of Sydney’s most experienced independent artists, fed up with delays from the state’s leading arts funding body.”
A Calm, Reasoned Argument Against Illegal Downloading
Conventional wisdom says that free music is the future, and the record industry is fighting a quixotic battle even attempting to combat illegal downloading. But one record company exec says we’re all missing the point. “If you could download a loaf of bread free you would. But you can’t, thank God, because otherwise bakers would cease to exist and there would be no bread to download. Then we’d all be dead, and good riddance to us, because we humans are greedy, thieving, conniving bastards, every last one of us.”
Revenge of the Nerds
Is this the golden age of movies for geeks? “Hollywood’s cyclical nature and the ascendancy of comic book aficionados such as Christopher Nolan, Zack 300 Snyder, and Frank Sin City Miller has seen the nerd return as a highly influential factor in Hollywood.”