Tag: 12.20.02

Hip Hop Nations…

“Hip hop has become one of the most influential U.S. cultural exports. In virtually every city on the planet, there are hip hop communities that not only have adopted the percussion-heavy music and spoken-word vocals, but have appropriated the sartorial and attitudinal style of the black and Latino youth who created the genre. Some 25 years after its birth, the genre has become a $5 billion industry but remains troubled at home.”

America’s Major Culture Groups To Meet For First Time

For the first time, America’s major arts service organizations will gather together. The American Symphony Orchestra League, Opera America, Dance USA, Theatre Communications Group, Chamber Music America, Chorus America, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, American Composers Forum and Music Critics Association of North America will hold conferences in June 2004 in Pittsburgh.

Spielberg Vs. New Technology

Director Stephen Spielberg loves his special effects – but surprisingly, he’s not happy about the technical revolution in the movie business. “His objection is truly Luddite: it is to the idea that this technology represents progress at all. The digital moving image, unblemished by scratches, hairs, burn holes or splice marks, may mesmerise techies, but purists such as Mr Spielberg believe that it robs movie-making of its artistry. Spielberg shudders at the notion of atomised viewers calling up a film on their laptops at the touch of a button, home and alone. Mr Spielberg prefers the idea of strangers huddled together in the dark, watching a flickering image on the screen.”

Frankfurt Book Fair To Munich?

It’s difficult to imagine the Franffurt Book Fair not being in Frankfurt anymore. But that’s just what might happen, say the fair’s organizers, who are thinking of moving it to Munich. “In October fair management made a very public effort to get the Frankfurt hotels to revamp their often outrageous pricing policies. During the fair, most hotels double and triple rates and require six-day minimum stays.”

Stolen Turner Pictures Recovered

Two paintings by JMW Turner belonging to the Tate that were stolen eight years ago, have been recovered in Germany. “The paintings, both 19th Century biblical works insured for £24 million and now worth about £50 million, were taken while on display in Frankfurt, Germany. Described as two of Turner’s most significant paintings, the works were found intact but without their original frames.”

Santa As A Work Of Art

Where did the popular image of Santa as a jolly old man come from? “What most people don’t realize is that Santa’s origins were very commercial from the beginning. He was created by mass media artists and invented by Americans in the beginning of the 19th Century. Haddon Sundblom painted a series of portraits of Santa between 1931 and 1964 for Coca-Cola advertisements that helped to shape the modern image of the jolly character known as Santa Claus.”

Seattle – Where Is The Outrage?

Does any art outrage Seattle? “While attendance at museums and galleries is among the highest in America for a city of its size, Seattle can’t boast of doing much to fan whatever outrages it encounters.” Shows that cause impassioned debate in other cities seem to pass through Seattle without a ripple of controversy. “In Seattle, people don’t tend to get mad at art, even if they find it personally offensive. They either like it because it’s offensive, because they like the way it’s done or they go, ‘whatever,’ and move on to the next thing.”