Daniel Libeskind, master planner for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, “has been baptized, metaphorically, in the hellfire of New York politics and architecture and emerged, well, slightly singed. But he’s still ebullient, burbling about the strength of democracy and the value of compromise.”
Tag: 10.13.04
Leaving The Nest
Magazines that attempt to explore the art world without confining themselves to a rigid format frequently fall prey to irrelevance or flippancy, but this autumn has seen the demise of what AJ Blogger Nancy Levinson calls “one of the strangest, smartest, most idiosyncratic and eccentric periodicals ever to maintain a quarterly publication schedule… Nest wasn’t everyone’s cup of oolong souchong, but it was the sort of periodical that’s become increasingly rare, not to say endangered: a magazine shaped by the passions and ideas of its leading editor.”
Jazz Legend May Make A Posthumous Move
The board of Kansas City’s American Jazz Museum is considering moving the remains of the legendary Charlie “Bird” Parker to a new site in the city’s historic 18th and Vine District. At the moment, Parker’s remains are housed at a local cemetery where a recent trash-dumping scandal caused the museum to consider the move to a more prominent location.
Changing The Culture Of The CIA (Not That One)
The Cleveland Institute of Art is a distinguished school, but over the decades, its leaders fear that it may have missed an artistic boat or two. “After World War II, [CIA] grew increasingly conservative and insular. It hired a lot of former graduates as faculty. It emphasized fundamental skills, such as painting and drawing, virtually to the exclusion of the theories and concepts that drive the art world today.” Now, a new “academic demolition crew” has taken over the school, and is making a concerted push for change in the way that art students are educated.
A Decency Crusade Becomes A Fox Hunt
“The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday that it would fine 169 Fox television stations $7,000 each, or a total of $1.18 million, for violating indecency rules when it showed a particularly graphic episode of the show “Married by America” last spring… The commission found an April episode of the show violated the indecency rules through a series of sexually suggestive and explicit scenes.” At least one Fox affiliate had refused to air the episode, and will not be fined.
What? We Can’t Steal Your Ideas?
“Since the dawn of the film industry, it has been common practice for writers to send scripts and pitch stories to movie executives and producers. And for almost as long, scores of writers have sued the studios for stealing their ideas, only to have suits, filed on hard-to-prove copyright infringement grounds, which are dismissed or quietly settled. But a recently published opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Jeff Grosso v. Miramax Film Corporation, may soon shift the balance of power in this age-old tug of war.”
Public Nears A Choice On New Chief
The Public Theater may announce the successor to its artistic director, George C. Wolfe, as soon as next week. Doug Hughes (“Frozen”), who spent four years as artistic director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., and Mark Russell, the former artistic director of P.S. 122, are said to be the favorites.
A Black Master Of Vaudeville, In Blackface
With a newly released set of recordings, contemporary listeners can — and contemporary performance artists should — experience black vaudevillian Bert Williams. “Like so many vaudeville artists, Williams made few film appearances. We might also know his work better if he hadn’t spent most of his career performing in blackface. Blackface has become theater’s equivalent of the mark of Cain. It’s a hard tradition to live with: there’s so much cruelty and shame there. But blackface comedy produced some superb artists.”
He Did, After All, Bring Us The Simpsons
“It goes against nearly every stereotype about Rupert Murdoch, the conservative-leaning media baron who owns Fox News and The New York Post: a publishing imprint he owns has, in fact, released a new book titled, ‘Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take On George W. Bush,’ which takes a decidedly critical view of Mr. Bush’s presidency. But ReganBooks, the publisher, and Judith Regan, its impresario, conform to few stereotypes – unless, that is, they involve making money. … In politics, at least, ReganBooks goes both ways.”
Gehry To Design Theater Center At Ground Zero
“Frank Gehry, admired for his voluptuous buildings of undulating titanium and steel, is to be the architect of a new performing arts center at ground zero, his first major cultural project in Manhattan, the development corporation in charge of rebuilding the site said yesterday. The selection of Mr. Gehry for the arts center – which is to include the Joyce Theater and the Signature Theater – brings to Lower Manhattan a celebrity architect who has been notably absent from perhaps the most closely watched architectural site in the world.”