“The venerable tradition of American protest music still generates heat on the rally circuit, as Dylan’s constant reinvocation proves. Still, political music is marked by the same tension that always feeds pop music: the desire to connect to a legacy versus the impulse to try something new. The activist songbook includes major contributions from punk and hip-hop as well as folk-rock. Benefit concerts and albums have become part of the star-making machinery.”
Tag: 12.23.02
Anyone Can Conduct, Right? Punk Rocker Leads Royal Philharmonic
A British TV show called “Faking It” picked a punk rocker out of a pub and spent four weeks teaching him how to conduct a symphony orchestra – the Royal Philharmonic. “His first hurdle was learning to read music: ‘I didn’t do that well at school. So at first I just saw little black dots. The experts said, ‘There’s no right way to conduct but there’s a wrong way.’ I found it incredibly confusing.”
Rome’s New Center For Music
Rome’s first new concert hall in 70 years opens. “Designed by Genoese architect Renzo Piano, who also worked on the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the three concert halls, open-air arena and recording studios in 20 acres of parkland replace the city’s previous auditorium, the Augusteo, destroyed by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1934.”
The Movies That Own You
“An obscure contract clause is reshaping show-business deal making, sometimes ruining the very relationships it is supposed to cement. Called an option, this contract term legally obligates actors and directors to work in a number of subsequent films, often at below-market rates, as a condition of employment in an initial movie. Used for years with little acrimony to bind performers to sequels, options are turning some contract talks into what look more like hostage negotiations.”
Where Rudeness Is A Status Symbol?
Bad behavior among Hollywood execs who have any power, is rarely punished. “This is Hollywood, the only business in the world where people seem to confuse rudeness with power. People think that being rude and demeaning is somehow a show of importance when, to me, it just suggests that you’re dealing with a lot of spoiled brats whose mommies didn’t give them enough time-outs.”
San Francisco’s Poor Record of Public Art
Why is San Francisco’s public art so mediocre? In an arguably arts-oriented town, the level of public art that gets up is timid, cautious, or just plain mediocre.
Another Chance To Get It Right
But maybe the 60-foot-high monumental new outdoor sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen can reverse the city’s “embarrassing record” on choices of art in public places…
Access To Art – Requiring A Commitment To Buy…
The artist you like doesn’t produce much work. And people are clamoring for it. So how do you get a piece of the action? “A gallery’s waiting list is no first-come, first-served, restaurant-type arrangement. Getting on the list requires collectors to demonstrate a ‘commitment’ to the dealer’s gallery in the form of consistent, long-term buying.” That takes a certain amount of work…
Will Tate Use Profit to Save Painting?
Last week the Tate was mounting a campaign to raise money to prevent the sale and eexport of Joshua Reynolds’ “Portrait of Omai”. Then the museum came into a £14.6 million profit in a deal that recovered two Turners stolen from the museum in 1994. So will Tate use the money to rescue the Reynolds? Er…
Cyberspace Artists Run Afoul Of Internet Rules (What Rules?)
“For some digital artists, these are perilous times. With the Internet’s rise have come increased concerns about everything from online privacy to digital piracy. Naturally artists are addressing these matters in Internet-based works. So an online project about copyright violations inevitably violates some copyrights, and a work that warns how a computer could be spying on you could very well be spying on you.”