“Once upon a time, checking your watch was the state-of-the-art response to a theatrical moment that bored you. The gesture can even exude a bit of critical panache: A universal pantomime for ‘Get me out of here!,’ it’s a succinct and crisp and relatively unobtrusive expression of personal pique. But now, the Treos and BlackBerrys and the multitasking superphones that do everything except rotate your tires are more than a momentary sideshow for the ticket buyer who might be less than enthralled with the main event.”
Tag: 10.21.07
Writers Guild Votes Overwhelming Strike Authorization
“Members of the Writers Guild of America voted by an overwhelming margin to authorize their leaders to call a strike if they can’t negotiate a three-year contract with the major studios to replace one that expires Oct. 31. Of 5,507 members who voted, 90% favored granting a strike authorization. Guild officials said the turnout was a record for the union, which has nearly 12,000 members.”
LA Philharmonic Embarks On A “Next Generation” Project
“Spurred in part by the crucial role that education played in the careers of its current music director and his designated successor, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is embarking on an ambitious multiyear mission to develop aspiring performers and composers.”
The Retirement Dance
“Love, death, loss, devastation: these are the terms dancers tend to apply to ‘transition,’ dancer-speak for retirement since Career Transition for Dancers, a nonprofit service organization, was established in 1985. In that time more than 3,500 dancers (average age: 29), have gone to the organization’s cramped Midtown offices to ‘turn their minds toward being older,’ in the words of one mentor.”
Louvre Embraces Living Artists Again
“With the arrival of the Impressionists in the 1860s, there was a divorce between France’s curators and contemporary creation. For the following century the museum seemed to project a disdain for living artists.” Now the Louvre is commissioning living artists to create works for the museum.
Back To Basics – Music Out In The Country
“Increasingly the back-to-basics movement that has characterized cutting-edge rock this century, from the blues-based hard rock of the White Stripes to the new wave-postpunk revivalism of Interpol, is giving way to music that looks further afield for its influences. And one result is a clutch of acts, many of them from New York, that are internationalizing rock’s Anglo-American vernacular.”