Beijing is being totally remade. “A city that, until 1990, had no central business district, and little need of it, now has a cluster of glass towers that look like rejects from Singapore or Rotterdam. And these, in turn, are now being replaced and overshadowed by a new crop of taller, slicker towers, the product of the international caravan of architectural gunslingers that has arrived in town to take part in this construction free-fire zone. Rem Koolhaas, Jacques Herzog, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Will Alsop are all building, or trying to build here.”
Tag: 10.16.05
New PBS Channel Has Ads
PBS has a new channel on the air – it’s called PBS Sprout and it’s aimed at kids. But it also has advertisements. “Three weeks after its launch, Sprout has only one sponsor, Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers. The ads are aimed at parents and don’t interrupt shows — though the shows last for only 15 minutes. But the mere idea of a PBS-branded product with ads hit like a bombshell in the public television world. And so far, many stations have refused to affiliate with the new service. Out of 177 licensees, only 90 have joined with Sprout for content and marketing arrangements.”
An Orchestra In Search Of An Opera
“The dismembering of Scotland’s national opera company ranged across the organisation, and included the sacking of the entire chorus. No department was spared. Except the 53-strong orchestra.” So now what are the musicians supposed to do?
BritArt Diplomacy Backfires
A plan to try to improve relations between Britain and Morocco has through art has failed after the art offended the Moroccans. “Two of the works, notably an anatomical statement by Tracey Emin, have been withdrawn, while three others by artists including the Chapman brothers have caused offence because of their sexual nature.”
One Person’s Architecture Prize Is Another’s Tear-Down
“For one glorious, anarchic moment, it looked as if the Scottish Parliament might win this year’s Stirling Prize, the architects’ award for the best new British building, at exactly the moment the public voted that it was the one building in the country it would most like to see knocked down.”
Why Was Longtime Colorado Ballet Director Fired?
“Company officials should be more than ‘appreciative.’ They owe much to this imaginative, passionate, flamboyant, demanding, difficult, temperamental man who, in the end, gave far more than he took. Pardon the cliché, but Colorado Ballet has very big shoes to fill.”
The Day Italian Culture Went On Strike
Hundreds of Italian cultural events ground to a halt Saturday in a one-day strike to protest government arts-funding cuts. “A performance of Rossini’s Barber of Seville at Milan’s La Scala opera house was among scores of cancelled shows. Critics say the cuts could lead to the demise of thousands of cultural institutions, including such venerated events as the Venice Film Festival. ‘In these conditions, the film festival cannot go ahead’.”
Canada’s Pay TV Prospers
In Canada, pay TV languished for years. But it’s become quite profitable recently, and now other players want in…
A Seattle Fringe Rebound
“The quality of the so-called ‘fringe’ — the ever-changing circle of independent Seattle troupes with large creative aspirations and modest means — is a cyclical thing. Today (knock wood), it’s on the upswing. Is it the wildly imaginative, thrillingly relevant fringe scene of my dreams? No. Curiously, there is a dearth here of provocative, topical fare that ignites discussion and makes theater part of the public debate about burning issues of war, peace, class, race, et al. But there are compensations.”
The Joffrey Turns 50
“It has consistently paid homage to the ‘old Europe,’ but from the start it was, above all else, a quintessentially American troupe — the highly individualistic creation of Robert Joffrey (the son of Afghan immigrants who had settled in Seattle), and Gerald Arpino (the son of a working class Italian-American family from Staten Island, New York).”