“Curiosity about history and intellectual curiosity are indissoluble. You don’t have the option of separating them, although you may think you do. Definition of intellectual curiosity: the investigation of phenomena that are beyond your immediate familiar experience. Without such curiosity about the power of music of the past, there is an impoverishment of aesthetic perceptions, and a malnourishment of the ear and the brain, that precludes the creation of great music.”
Tag: 12.10.07
San Francisco Symphony Surprise: A Surplus
The orchestra finishes out its year with “an unexpected surplus of $454,000 on an operating budget of $58.3 million – a far cry from the $1.7 million deficit the organization was projecting just a year ago.”
Falling Dollar Draws American Musicians Abroad
“With the dollar plummeting against such currencies as the pound, euro and Canadian dollar, U.S.-based bands now have the incentive to tour internationally, particularly in Europe.”
Hollywood Looks To Have Its First $10 Billion Year
“The big achievement for the year — record revenue — was offset by uncertainty as the Writers Guild of America went on strike over scribes’ desire to get in on the ground-floor of whatever revenue might result from Internet programming.”
Film Critics’ Favorites – No Audience, But Plenty Of Prizes
“In the past five days, five groups — the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Washington. D.C. Film Critics Association and my crowd, the New Yorkers — have convened to choose the most notable movies and moviemakers. And it all starts here, with critics fighting over which hardly seen movie they want to call the best of the year.”
Cyrano Takes Broadway Box Office
Last week the Rialto revival of “Cyrano de Bergerac” starring Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner vaulted into the boffo sales bracket. The show also broke the record for any single performance (play or musical) at the Richard Rodgers theater.
Study: Human Evolution Speeding Up
A new study overturns “the theory that modern life’s relative ease has slowed or even stopped human adaptation. Selective pressures are still at work; they just happen to be different than those faced by our distant ancestors.”
Despite Big Losses, Miami Basel Art Fair Sponsor Will Continue
“UBS, Europe’s largest bank by assets, posted its first loss in almost five years in the third quarter, including $4.66 billion in markdowns on fixed-income securities and leveraged loans.”
A Survey Of Book Critic Ethics
“Book reviewers are largely divided between those who believe in something you might call the ‘objective’ book review, and those who don’t — attitudes toward specific practices in the field follow almost syllogistically from one premise or the other.”
Confessions Of An Arts Judge
“Awards are all wrong until you win one. Or you judge one. Over the past few years, for some reason (am I on a list?), I’ve been on the judging panel for several awards.”