“The old theater (built 40 years ago out of a 1930s-era restaurant) was about ready to fall apart. It wasn’t even a question of one or two things that needed to be fixed. That space had long outlived its purpose. But it was a space in which great art was made.”
Tag: 12.06.09
How Stimulus Money Helped The Arts
“When many people think of the stimulus program, jobs in the arts are not what first come to mind. These are not workers building bridges and repairing schools. Furthermore, though they are usually at the bottom of the pay scale, they do indeed pay taxes and contribute to the economy. As for the organizations themselves, the money may seem minuscule but will definitely help keep doors open.”
How Arts Criticism Has Changed
“A critic’s duty, in the second half of the 20th century, was to uphold classical standards against the fripperies of fashion and to convey an ideal of enlightenment to commuters who glanced at a newspaper on their way to and from work. Times change. It is easy to deprecate today’s critics as unworthy of giants’ shoes, but the challenges of the 21st century are of a different order from anything the arts have known since Gutenberg made the quill obsolete.”
Retired Prima Star Ballerina Goes Salsa
“Darcy Bussell, who hung up her pointes two years ago, has been taking dance classes. Latin American dance classes, to be precise. She got to put her new-found expertise to the test last night when she joined Strictly’s judging panel for the show’s final three episodes.”
Dubai’s Cautionary Tale About Having Everything
“In a very real sense, Dubai has been the architect of its own demise. Over the last decade or so, the city’s ruling elite has operated under the principle that there’s no challenge that can’t be met if you throw enough money at it. At times, this approach has worked well – Dubai, remember, solved its hideous traffic problem in less time than it takes your average US city to fix a pothole. But things got out of hand.”
Defining Moment For Book? Words As Simply Text
“This Christmas may well mark the moment when the Nintendo idea of writing – and reading – takes precedence over the DeLillo idea of it. The growth in sales of the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader – which can store thousands of texts, classic and otherwise, and which may eventually provide digital access to every book ever written – suggests that we are at an iPod moment: books, in particular novels, may well be about to face the fate of records and CDs.”
Revealed: Rhode Island School of Design Museum Director Forced Out
“It was on Aug. 3 that RISD, one of the country’s preeminent art and design colleges, tried to announce, in a low-key way, that the director of its 106-year-old museum, fresh off a glitzy expansion, had resigned. In fact, Hope Alswang had been forced out.”
Is It Important Who The Writer Is?
“Readers of fiction want their favourite authors’ life stories to show a bit of leg, and to have an air of romance about them. JK Rowling, for instance, did herself no harm with her tales of writing, broke and unpublished, in the corner of an Edinburgh cafe.”
The Genius Of Jingles
“Devised in his home studio by that secret Darwinian, the jingle-composer, the jingle has one aim, one raison d’être: survival. Wit, prettiness, fluency – none of these signify if the jingle doesn’t attach itself immediately to the host-brain and dig in.”
Do We Need A New Approach To Christmas Season TV?
“How thrilling it would be if BBC2 suddenly put on a Christmas season of films by Jean Renoir or Federico Fellini or Preston Sturges. Or a season of screwball comedies, or French new wave or, I don’t know, past winners of the Palme d’Or. Just one well-chosen film, every night at the same time, after the news, say, for eight days.”