“Pick any city, look at its newspaper, and you’ll find attention to classical music diminished to the basic minimum. It will focus on the ‘big ticket’ events — which, in the Bay Area, means the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, and Ballet, plus the most celebrated visiting artists. As is well-known to any person interested in classical music, such coverage just skims the surface. Who’s responsible? Newspaper publishers and their editors who have a hand in setting policy and then executing it. What to do about this downgrading of classical coverage?”
Tag: 10.17.06
Universal Sues Video Sharing Sites
“The federal lawsuits alleged massive infringement by Grouper Networks Inc. and Bolt Inc. for permitting users to post without authorization hundreds of music videos from such popular artists as Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Black Eyed Peas. The sites have made “token, ineffective” steps to stem the infringement, Universal said.”
The “Project Runway” Fan Support Group Will Meet Wednesday Night …
“Wednesday night is buddy-up time in the art world. Artists who have cable make room on their couches for those who don’t. Unless held early in the evening, art openings aren’t happening on Wednesday nights. Nobody would come. The reason is ‘Project Runway,’ now in its third season on Bravo and the hands-down, coast-to-coast favorite of artists, curators, critics, dealers and collections. Ever since blogger Tyler Green (Modern Art Notes at on www.ArtsJournal.com) admitted his addiction to the show in September, everybody’s been coming out of the closet with his or her ‘Runway’ obsession.”
Music Editor Out After Okaying Reviews By Ad Staffer
“The Stranger, one of Seattle’s two alternative weekly newspapers, accepted the resignation of two employees late last week after it was discovered that an advertising coordinator had been secretly writing for the paper under a pseudonym — something editors and managers called a conflict of interest.” Those two employees were the advertising staffer, who wrote music reviews and blog entries for the paper, and the music editor who oversaw the arrangement.
Cadaver Exhibit Draws Legal Challenge
“The operators of a (Seattle) museum that offers UFO exhibits, Bigfoot displays and ghost tours have filed a federal complaint against an Atlanta-based company that has opened an exhibit in downtown Seattle displaying 21 human cadavers and some 250 body parts. In a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson, directors of the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, accused Premier Exhibitions of violating the U.S. Anatomical Gift Act — which prohibits the sale of human tissue — by displaying dead Chinese citizens who did not give consent for their bodies to be publicly shown.”
Reading The Art Market
Is the sizzling hot art market cooling? CultureGrrl reads the tea leaves…
By What Right A Composer?
“Sure, there have been and continue to be tons of great composer/performers out there. But if no one else ever performs your own music except for you, are you a composer? Is a singer-songwriter whose material never gets covered by anyone else a composer?”
Wynn Punches Hole In $139 Million Picasso
Steve Wynn was showing a group Picasso’s “Le Reve” when… “He raised his hand to show us something about the painting — and at that moment, his elbow crashed backwards right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise. Wynn stepped away from the painting, and there, smack in the middle of Marie-Therese Walter’s plump and allegedly-erotic forearm, was a black hole the size of a silver dollar – or, to be more exactly, the size of the tip of Steve Wynn’s elbow – with two three-inch long rips coming off it in either direction.”
Full Speed Ahead For Microsoft’s Live Book Search
“Microsoft’s strategic shift into Google territory took another step forward today with the announcement that the software giant has signed a digitisation agreement with a digital scanning specialist, Kirtas Technologies. The deal … will enable Microsoft to forge ahead with its Live Book Search portal…. Its Live Book Search portal, to be launched early next year, will make available two strands of material: out-of-copyright scholarly material from educational establishments, and in-copyright books that are sent to Microsoft by publishers or authors and which are scanned by the company free of charge.”
Berlin’s Bode Museum Reopens
“Berlin’s famed Museum Island complex moves a big step closer to recovering its former glory this week when the Bode Museum, home to the city’s sculpture collection, reopens after six years of restoration. The domed building, which juts out into the Spree River in the heart of former East Berlin, is the second of the five Neoclassical museums to get a full makeover as part of a government-funded $1.5-billion overhaul.”