“This year’s Kennedy Center honorees, announced today, include country musician Merle Haggard, choreographer Bill T. Jones, composer Jerry Herman and Sir Paul McCartney. But all of them, including the former Beatle, will likely be upstaged by Oprah Winfrey, who was also on the list.”
Tag: 09.07.10
Tripping the Lightbox Fantastic: Toronto Int’l Film Fest’s New Home
“Though inspired by cinephile meccas such as the British Film Institute, [the Lightbox is] unique in the world – an art-house rebuttal to the multiplex that recombines fine art, film and pop culture in a blockbuster hybrid of cinemas, galleries, learning studios and public spaces.”
Cecilia String Quartet Wins Banff Competition
The Toronto-based, all-female foursome’s victory at the 10th Banff International String Quartet Competition brings them $25,000 [Cdn] cash, a 2011-12 tour or North America and Europe, a set of custom-made bows, and a new album (as well as attention from agents and presenters).
Beyond the Fringe: Edinburgh Int’l Fest Sets Box Office Record, Too
“Box office receipts for the event, which ran from August 13 to September 5, were at £2.67 million – a 3% increase on 2009’s figures. … The higher box office was, in large part, thanks to an increase in top price tickets.”
Edinburgh Int’l Fest Director Counsels Care in Making Budget Cuts
Jonathan Mills: “I think it would be a real pity if, in the current climate, one went for a simplistic response to a quite complex set of equations – to say that comedy does well and suddenly all the emphasis is going to be on comic acts.”
The Architect Who Changed Shanghai
“Shanghai architecture is framed by its French Concession, the Bund’s neoclassical edifices, and Pudong, China’s own interpretation of the future. Much of it draws reference from the architecture of Ladislav Hudec, a Slovak who arrived in Shanghai as a World War I refugee.”
Site-Specific Theatre: It’s Everywhere
“The world really can be a stage. In recent years, plays have been performed in everything from fields to freight containers, public toilets to disused department stores. Open your office stationery cupboard these days and you’re likely to find a theatre company doing site-responsive Kafka inside.”
The Dude’s L.A. Coming-Out Party, in Video on iTunes
“Music Director Gustavo Dudamel’s 2009 inaugural gala with the Los Angeles Philharmonic will be featured in the first full-length classical concert video on iTunes.”
Why Godard Is Blowing Off His Oscar
Explains his partner: “He just told me, ‘It’s not the Oscars.’ At first he thought it was going to be part of the same ceremony, then he realised it was a separate thing in November. … Jean-Luc won’t go to America, he’s getting old for that kind of thing. Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?” (He’s 79.)
The Artist In The Desert
Texas artist James Magee has been something of a recluse in El Paso. Fewer than a hundred people have probably seen The Hill, his magnum opus, a complex of buildings and sculptures on some 2,000 acres out in the West Texas desert. The Hill is a career summation that bears comparison with Donald Judd’s famous Marfa or Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field in New Mexico.