Nicolai Ouroussoff writes that Disney Hall lives up to extravagant expectations. “What makes the building so moving as a work of architecture is its ability to express a deeper creative conflict: the recognition that ideal beauty rarely exists in an imperfect world. It is this tension — and the delicacy with which Gehry resolves it — that makes Disney Hall such a powerful work of social commentary. That he could accomplish this despite a tortured construction process that dragged out over 16 years is a minor miracle. Its success affirms both Gehry’s place as America’s greatest living architectural talent and Los Angeles’ growing cultural maturity.”
Tag: 10.19.03
Publishing – A Bit Of A Lull?
“This is not an age of miracles. There are no contemporary giants at work in our midst. From the international premier league, the Man Booker shortlist, as reliable a guide as any, could only muster Margaret Atwood. Even in America, to which British readers often look for signs of a new dawn, it is hard to think of a single new novel which, in the past year or so, has registered more than a temporary frisson. Nothing wrong about this, of course. Cultural innovation tends to happen cyclically. The boom of the 1980s and 1990s was bound to be followed by a lull. Perhaps we are in a kind of literary Sargasso sea. It certainly feels that way this week. And yet, looking at the bigger picture, these are momentous years for book publishing.”
Peter Hall’s Theatreworld
Peter Hall is one of the theatre’s most distinguished citizens. But Hall, 72, is not a director emeritus grazing the pastures of praise, memoirs and lifetime achievement awards. Since relinquishing his role as head of the National, which he ran from its opening in 1973 to 1988, Hall has followed an independent and varied path, generating and staging works for the West End, Broadway and the world’s great opera stages.”
Danielle Steel: Fame Hurts
Writer Danielle Steel opened a gallery in San Francisco this fall. “Everyone thinks I have this glamorous life. I have been a recluse for many years. I had nine children, but the death of my son Nick hit me very hard, and it shut down my public world. It is hard being famous. People make incorrect assumptions and are very unkind.”
The De-Musicfication Of TV Shows On DVD
TV studios are releasing TV shows on DVD, and they’re a hit with consumers. But music found in the original TV series is often being replaced. “It all comes down to a matter of money. (Studios are) saying, ‘We couldn’t afford to license the music we used in the show. It’s happening more and more, actually.’ Indeed, studio executives acknowledge that the price of obtaining those rights is prohibitive.”
The VIP Movie Ticket
A New York movie theatre chain begins adding a surchare for its best seats. “It appears that Loews’ already has isolated the best middle sections in three theaters at its 34th Street megaplex near Ninth Avenue. For a mere 50 percent markup from the customary $10, moviegoers can stop worrying that they’ll be sitting too close to the screen or too far from the screen or that they’ll miss the previews and look stupid trolling the aisles in the dark-and still be forced to sit separately from their friends.”
North Carolina Conservatory – Tools For The Job
The North Carolina School of the Arts has long had to contend with inadequate facilities. Despite the limitations, the school has turned out an impressive list of music graduates. But now the school is opening a new $10 million home, and with the right tools…
LA’s Disney Hall – The Aesthetic Challenge
“This hall is our opportunity to take that evolutionary step in creating an orchestra for the 21st Century. We now have the possibilities of enhanced programming and new concert formats, of providing a new gravitas with the community. I’ve always had this feeling that an orchestra should not just be an orchestra but, rather, something that has an intellectual and spiritual impact on the lives of people in the community. You cannot open a new building and simply carry on business as usual. There must be a match of programming and ideology, with the music matching the signals given out by the building.”
Ned Rorem, American Classic
“Rorem’s works have been criticized, even dismissed, for not being more memorable. More to the point, as much as he seems to occupy the creative moment 100 percent, Rorem doesn’t haunt. The music is there and gone, leaving few if any footprints on your brain. As listeners, we’re not used to that.”
Conceptualism Comes of Age, Finally
The notion that art is about more than objects, and that artists and their ideas are as significant as the works they create for public display, developed in the 1960s and ’70s, and a new exhibit in Baltimore aims to deconstruct the movement which would eventually become known as ‘conceptual art.’ “Forty years ago, a small group of artists challenged the idea that works of art were about showing off the genius of a maker’s hand — a notion that had lasted right from Raphael and Rembrandt through to Jackson Pollock. The works they used to make that challenge still feel powerful and exciting, sometimes even radical and unsettling, all this while later. Sometimes they look gorgeous, too.”