Back in 1940, a ponderous, 400-page tome called How To Read A Book was all the rage. But such a volume would be of little use to the average reader these days, says Alex Beam. Why, what with the inescapable wave of excerpts, previews, press releases and half-assed analysis of every important new book that comes out, what we really need is an expert guide to how not to read a book.
Tag: 10.11.06
Claude Luter, 83
“Claude Luter, a horn player who hobnobbed with Louis Armstrong and was one of France’s most celebrated jazz musicians, has died… Best known for boosting the trans-Atlantic transferal of New Orleans-style jazz to Paris, Luter suffered complications after a fall and died Friday at a hospital outside Paris.”
Ozawa Ill
71-year-old conductor Seiji Ozawa has canceled two concerts scheduled for early November in Paris due to ill health. Ozawa, who had to pull out of several appearances with the Vienna State Opera earlier this year, isn’t disclosing the nature of his illness.
The British American Invasion
London’s theatre district has been developing a distinctly American flavor of late. From the Broadway smash, Wicked, to Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon For the Misbegotten, the American tradition is suddenly everywhere in London, and no one seems to be complaining.
New Ballet Company Rises In L.A.
“Aiming to become what artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary call ‘a major company that belongs to L.A. — that has a local flavor at an international level,’ the newly formed Los Angeles Ballet has announced its first season of performances and placed subscription tickets on sale… The current roster includes 21 resident professional dancers on 21-week contracts. Home is the Malibu Performing Arts Center. The projected annual budget is $1.7 million.”
Why Throw Good Money After Bad?
As Ontario’s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony continues its drive to raise the $2.5 million it needs to avoid bankruptcy, civic leaders are debating whether public money should be spent to help bail out what some see as an expensive and culturally irrelevant organization. Some observers are also concerned that helping the symphony achieve its short-term funding goal would only delay the organization’s inevitable collapse.
The Amplified Orchestra
Huge, acoustically superior new concert halls designed by superstar architects are all well and good for orchestras that can afford them, but those can be counted on one hand. So what is everyone else supposed to do to improve the quality of live sound? A California company is marketing its supposedly undetectable electronic enhancement systems. There’s plenty of resistance, of course, but “we live in an electronic, computerized, rock ‘n’ roll world. How can electronics be kept at bay in the concert hall?”
Orchestra Exec Caught In Predator Sting
The former executive director of a small regional orchestra in Indiana has been arrested and charged with solicitation of a minor. Edward Williams, formerly the head of the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, was arrested when he traveled to an Indianapolis suburb to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl he had chatted with online. The “girl” was, in fact, a police officer. The orchestra, which had already cut ties with Williams, is stunned by the news.
Austin Music Series To Get Major Upgrade
Austin City Limits, the popular public television program featuring live performances by up-and-coming musical acts in various genres, is getting a splashy new home, courtesy of a major downtown development plan in the city known as America’s indie-music capital. The new venue will triple the size of the ACL audience, and bring the popular performances downtown for the first time.
Mighty Tower Comes To Ground
Tower Records is having a giant going-out-of-business sale before closing its doors. “In a download-happy, file-swapping era, the discreet joys of browsing among record racks and losing oneself in reverie while pondering album cover art — the boilerplate experience of shopping at a brick-and-mortar outlet operated for and by music lovers — seem lost on a generation of young shoppers.”