“Across the arts, consensus has yet to emerge about what the slump may bring. There is anxiety about ticket sales, sponsorship and subsidy – but also, in some places, optimism about a rising public need to seek solace in a music download or a trip to the cinema. Lean times, many observers point out, tend to lead to a surge in creativity.”
Tag: 10.21.08
Jordanian Poet Arrested, Charged With Harming Islam
“Jordanian police arrested a local writer Tuesday for incorporating verses of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, into his love poetry, a judicial official said. The poet, Islam Samhan, published his collection of poems, ‘Grace like a Shadow,’ without the approval of the Jordanian government, and authorities say it insults the holy book, the official said.”
A Song For A Dime (If Your Browser’s Handy)
“The major record labels plan to start selling digital songs today for a dime apiece. The catch: You can’t carry them with you on an iPod. … The Web song is stored online and can be listened to only through a computer’s Web browser.”
$10 Million In Grants Aimed At Ending Workshop Hell
“[T]he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recently awarded nearly $10 million to playwriting organizations and theaters in the hopes of getting more fresh voices before an audience.” The “grants are a result of a three-year study into the particular problems new plays encounter” — the most notorious being, as any playwright could tell you, workshop hell.
Financier Puts Record-Setting Degas On Auction Block
“Henry Kravis, co-founder of the leveraged-buyout firm KKR & Co. LP, has asked Sotheby’s & Co. to auction an Edgar Degas work in his collection estimated to fetch more than $40 million, according to two New York dealers. … He has locked in a ‘guarantee’ from Sotheby’s to receive an undisclosed amount regardless of the sale’s outcome.”
Wall Street Wealth Is No Longer A Sexy Story Line
“As they have watched their 401(k)’s shrivel in recent weeks, entertainment executives have started to grapple with how best to reflect the global economic crisis in movie and television story lines, or whether to bring the topic up at all.”
Reports Of Art Market’s Death Somewhat Exaggerated
It was a rough weekend at the contemporary art auctions, yes, but “the art market, while diminished, is by no means dead and buried.” After all, “big profits were still being made.” On the other hand: “One record that was set was the time in which these auctions – usually long-drawn-out affairs – were completed due to lack of bidding.”
How To Weather Economic Storm? Dickens Will Tell You.
In reading Charles Dickens, the closer we get, “the more we start to recognise: the scramble for credit, financial scandal, panic. … And not only can we find parallels in his novels with the current crisis, we can also learn from them how to survive and triumph over it.”
Literary Agent Pat Kavanagh Dies At 68
“British writers were yesterday coming to terms with the death of the doyenne of the London literary scene, Pat Kavanagh, paying tribute to her strength of spirit, tenacity and straight-talking. Kavanagh, 68, who was married to the novelist Julian Barnes, was at the summit of her profession, representing writers including Ruth Rendell, Margaret Drabble, Robert Harris, Joanna Trollope, Andrew Motion, Clive James, and Wendy Cope.”
Hadid’s Chanel Pavilion A Creature Of A Different Age
The Chanel Pavilion in Central Park “certainly oozes glamour. Its mysterious nautiluslike form … reflects the keen architectural intelligence we have come to expect from its creator, Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect who lives in London. Yet if devoting so much intellectual effort to such a dubious undertaking might have seemed indulgent a year ago, today it looks delusional.”