With big-screen simulcasts of the Bard from the National Theatre and the Donmar, and with a history of impressive televised adaptations of stage productions from previous decades, asks Michael Billington, “when will the BBC high-ups realise they are neglecting a cultural goldmine?”
Tag: 12.15.10
Pierre Huyghe Wins $25K Smithsonian Contemporary Artist Prize
The Paris-born 48-year-old installation artist is the ninth winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s award, “which recognizes an artist younger than 50 who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity.”
Can Today’s Playwrights Do Farce?
“[A]lthough directors, actors and audiences still love the genre, 21st-century playwrights don’t seem to be drawn to it. … It may be that good farce has to be written in the theatre the way Feydeau did it, requiring a semi-permanent ensemble of actors to try out ideas. … Others argue the genre was the product of a vanished era of bourgeois respectability: we are no longer bound to keep up appearances.”
Is Your E-book Spying on You?
“Most e-readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, have an antenna that lets users instantly download new books. But the technology also makes it possible for the device to transmit information back to the manufacturer.”
Madison’s Overture Center Saved From Closure
The Madison City Council, “despite concern over the impact on employees, voted 14-5 for a deal between the city and Overture officials on ownership and operations that will allow Overture and donors to erase a $28.6 million bank debt that has threatened to close Overture and imperiled its reputation.”
The New Spins Actors Put on Overly Familiar Words
“‘Wahuhrah, wahuhrah …’ exasperated pause, ‘words.’ That, more or less, is how Rory Kinnear pronounces the immortal redundancy ‘words, words, words’ in Nicholas Hytner’s new production of Hamlet for the National Theater in London. Those words (words, words) have of course been uttered more times than any calculator could compute.”
Critic Alex Ross, Listener
“A bold appointment aged 28 by the then editor, Tina Brown, in 1996, he has lost none of his freshness in the years since. This may be ascribed, in part, to writing fortnightly rather than, as he would have to do in the daily press, weekly or thrice-weekly – a hamster’s wheel that can grind down even the most gifted of reviewers into somnolent fashioners of clichés.”
Radio Deal For Six-Second-Long Movie Reviews
“Russ Leatherman, better known as Mr. Moviefone, has struck a deal with the Elvis Duran Group to turn his online “6 Second Reviews” into a radio segment. The segment is exactly as advertised: movie reviews that last six seconds.”
We See The Protests. But Where’s The Protest Music?
“The last few months have proved one thing beyond doubt: that British teens and twentysomethings are far from apolitical. Some questions do, however, linger: as students go on the march and hostility to the cuts spreads, where are the musical voices channelling this new mood?”
Are Liner Notes Getting To Be A Thing Of The Past?
“Now with record companies pinched for cash and doing fewer re-issues (boxed sets are a natural home for enhanced liner notes), and more music being bought digitally, liner notes are in danger of being considered a frill.”