“It’s no longer enough just to keep students on campus. Now, university planners are strategizing about ways to offer big-city pleasures wrapped up in welcoming, occasionally daring architecture… If you build, they will come – or so the current planning dictate goes.”
Tag: 09.07.08
It’s A Man’s World
“Perhaps by way of competing for attention during a historic presidential campaign, Broadway is also shining a bright spotlight on the male psyche this autumn. A handful of productions, probably converging by coincidence, will provide a season-long seminar on the subject of the male animal under pressure.”
“Serious” Architecture Still Out There To Be Seen
“Some of us are overfond of complaining about the big money that drives new architecture today. The theoretical designs that once served as a critical commentary on the professional mainstream have all but dried up. Architects who once flaunted their radical credentials now work almost exclusively for giant corporations and nouveau-riche clients. But take heart. There is evidence that serious architecture is still being made, some of it even in New York.”
Golden Lion Goes To Mickey Rourke Comeback Flick
“The Wrestler has won the coveted Golden Lion for best picture at the Venice film festival. The film stars Mickey Rourke as a has-been professional wrestler pitifully loath to throw in the towel… The Silver Lion for best director was won by Russia’s Alexei German Jr for Paper Soldier.”
Screen Legend Dies At 98
“Veteran actress Anita Page, whose career dated back to the silent movie era, has died… in Los Angeles. Page counted Buster Keaton, Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford among her co-stars during an 84-year career which saw her start out as an extra in 1924.”
Is Phoenix’s Boom Ignoring Architectural Standards?
“If Phoenix has any ambition to be the world-class city it keeps talking about, it can’t do it with low-bid buildings and timid design.” The fast-growing desert city seems constantly to be under construction, yet in recent years, says Richard Nilsen, there has been a demonstrable and unfortunate lack of civic will to create buildings that will stand the test of time.
The Key To Classical Contests? Keep The Public Out Of It
The BBC’s summer reality TV program, Maestro, has attempted to teach celebrities how to properly conduct a symphony orchestra, and against all odds, says Rafael Behr, it actually appears to be doing so. “This system subverts a basic premise of most reality TV by abandoning any pretence that the public’s judgment is worth something… Is that elitism? Yes. Musical virtuosity is the province of an elite and there is nothing morally abhorrent about that.”
Letting Emerging Composers Emerge
“Many of today’s repertory staples would not exist if the major musical institutions of past eras had not championed living composers. It’s not enough today for leading opera companies, orchestras and concert halls to present new works. Ideally they need to commission and showcase pieces in ways that provide them with context and galvanize public attention.”
Monk’s Little-Known But Long-Enduring Legacy
“When Thelonious Monk played with a 10-piece band at Town Hall in New York in February 1959, his music acquired new colors… Monk’s music was so personal and so perfect for small groups that the recordings of his large-ensemble collaborations with Overton in 1959 and in 1963, for another concert at Philharmonic Hall, remain underappreciated. But they left a trail that keeps getting longer.”
A Legendary Fiddle Finds A Home In Milwaukee
Thanks to collectors willing to bid up the price on instruments they will never play, top-notch violins made by masters like Stradivari are all but out of reach for most musicians today. So you can imagine how Milwaukee Symphony concertmaster Frank Almond felt when he got an e-mail out of the blue asking if he’d like the indefinite loan of a legendary Strad.