Radar Magazine, which put out two “test” issues last year and has been involved in a long search to find funding, has found $25 million to open. Radar aims to be a general interest magazine aimed at capturing “the interest of young, single people who live in urban areas and are tastemakers in their own right” The first issue under new ownership will appear next April, with issues to follow every other month for the rest of the year before the magazine moves to a monthly schedule in 2006.
Tag: 10.19.04
Lincoln Center’s New Jazz Palace
Lincoln Center opens its new theatre complex devoted to jazz. Ben Ratlif says that while it’s too soon to pass judgment on the complex’s finer points, “already these rooms impressively translate into bricks-and-mortar reality how the planners of Jazz at Lincoln Center have raised the stakes for jazz to become visible and powerful in the city.”
Hollinghurst Nabs Booker
Alan Hollinghurst has won this year’s Booker Prize for his novel The Line of Beauty. “I hardly know where I am. My whole psychological technique for dealing with this evening was to convince myself I wasn’t going to win it.
Starbucks Brews Up New Music Biz
Starbuck’s has unveiled its new music business, which lets customers select and burn CDs while they sip their brew. “Coffeehouse customers use computer tablets to select from 150,000 tracks, which include reggae, world music, jazz and religious songs. The tablets transmit the selections to the CD-burning machine, which can burn two discs at a time.”
Getty Museum Director Resigns
Deborah Gribbon has resigned as director of the Getty Museum, citing differences with Getty president Barry Munitz. “Barry and I have differences on a range of things. They are real differences. I think this is a very important moment for the Getty. Perhaps to a fault, I believe in the good of the institution. I think it’s better to resign than let differences become a distraction.”
Real Movie Sex: Now Legal In Britain!
In an unprecedented move, Britain’s film censors have approved for public viewing a movie “which features real sex scenes including fellatio, ejaculation and cunnilingus, some in close-up.” The film, 9 Songs, premiered at Cannes this year to much controversy, but the film board ruled that “the sex occurred in the context of the development of a relationship between two people and did not raise issues of harm or sexual violence.” The approval is the latest sign that the UK is moving away from hard and fast rules regarding what its citizenry can expose itself to.
Dreyfuss Quits The Producers
Richard Dreyfuss has abruptly pulled out of the London production of The Producers only days before opening night, citing the toll the physical aspects of the role was taking on his body. Another possible explanation for his departure may be that Dreyfuss had drawn the ire of his co-stars when, in a recent interview, he “[joked] that the lavish production of Mel Brooks’ Broadway smash hit was not yet fit for public consumption.” Nathan Lane, who played the role to great acclaim on Broadway, will step in until January.
‘Subversive’ Theater On The Rise In Britain
“While the RSC looks for a West End home in London and the cult of deadly dull celebrity theatre continues to bore and fleece, there’s an exciting subversiveness going on in anti-theatreland. It threatens to rip up the pretentious splendour of red-padded fold-down seats, jam the 20p slots of those opera-glass dispensers and slash the suffocating, red-tasselled curtain that falls between the acts.” All of which is to say, there’s some seriously exciting theater going on in the UK, if you know where to look.
Britain’s Wunderkind Conductor Comes Home
Daniel Harding is the definition of a conducting prodigy if ever there was one. Handpicked by Simon Rattle as the next great maestro while still a teenager, Harding’s rise through the normally sluggish world of conducting has been legendary. Now, in an unexpected move, he is coming home to London, there to assume the post of principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Harding had been known to be looking for a full music directorship, but he will conduct a dozen weeks a year with the LSO, and will tour with the ensemble as well, which is nearly as heavy a workload as that assumed by most music directors.
Great Picture, But Not Worth The Hassle
Seeing the Mona Lisa is almost a requirement for tourists visiting Paris. But objectively speaking, the experience is a serious waste of time and energy, fighting huge crowds and long lines for a fifteen-second glimpse of a painting squirreled away behind layers of glass. “Waiting to see the Mona Lisa has all the thrill of standing in an airport check-in queue. The crowd pushes forward, cattle-like and unquestioning, performing a ritual they know they have to go through with in order to complete a pre-ordained tourist experience.”