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Week of 7/20/08

Rockers Rallying Around Obama
Barack Obama may have trouble with white working-class voters, but he appears to have the rock star vote sewn up tight. A new star-studded rock video paying tribute to the senator is set to hit the internet next week, "an inspirational kind of musical expression that conveys an upbeat, positive tone reminiscent of earlier projects like the 1985 ''We Are the World'' music video." Chicago Sun-Times 07/23/08

NJ Cuts Back On Arts Funding
"Against a backdrop of cutbacks, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts reduced by 12.6 percent its funding for arts organizations, programs and projects on Tuesday... It could have been worse, [though.] Through a statewide lobbying campaign, arts leaders joined with educators and businessmen to convince legislators to restore more than half of the 27 percent funding cut in the budget that Gov. Jon S. Corzine submitted earlier this year." Cherry Hill Courier Post (NJ) 07/23/08

Royal Opera House To Hit The Continent's Movie Screens
"The autumn programme of 16 ballets and operas will be shown in at least 112 cinemas, including the Empire Leicester Square, the Vue and Odeon multiplex chains, and independent venues on the Continent. For the price of a cinema ticket, audiences will be able to watch live shows in 'full surround sound' as they are being performed in the opera house in Covent Garden, where tickets can cost £195 each." The Independent (UK) 07/22/08

Art Of Death (Of Course, It's The Boomers' Turn)
"The death-care industry remains such a strong bastion of quiet conformity partly because the reformers of the baby-boom generation haven't started dying yet. The boomers have insisted on variety and individuality at every threshold of their lives: sex, marriage, parenthood. In their wide demographic wake. But the boomers are myopic reformers. Generally speaking, they have only just begun to think about death, so have only just begun to pressure cemeteries and funeral homes for change." The Stranger 07/15/08

Arts In LA - If The Traffic Doesn't Discourage You, How About The Gas Prices?
But in the City of Angels, at least, "there is no solid proof that $4.50-a-gallon regular is driving culture lovers en masse to buses and trains - or that it's discouraging many from going to concerts, plays and museums." Los Angeles Times 07/22/08

Greece's Olympic Legacy In Disrepair
"It's been more than 10 years since Greece was granted the right to host the Olympics, which cost the tiny Balkan nation in excess of nine billion euros, more than double the original budget. The Games' dubious legacy -- and a warning to future hosts -- is that today, 21 of 22 venues remain shuttered, locked and empty, costing taxpayers millions of euros in annual maintenance fees." Maclean's (Canada) 07/16/08

Venice Population Endangered
"Despite the constant wailing in the media over the decline in the number of Venetians living in Venice--down to 60,000 from 150,000 in the 1950s--the regional government of the Veneto, which has considerable autonomy, has proposed a regional law that that would allow hundreds of private dwellings to be turned into hotel accommodation." The Art Newspaper 07/21/08

Paris As Cultural Backwater
"Today, to France's worry, Paris is no longer the place to be. To the rest of the world, the city - for all its beauty - has become a backwater in many cultural areas. Its temples to the arts are indeed filled. But the worshippers these days are consumers, not creators. They are mainly foreign tourists who come to see the eternal Mona Lisa, post-modern American artists, the French Impressionists and Moliere. The city chemistry that produced rawness, dynamism, change and challenge seems absent." New Zealand Herald 07/20/08

China To Ban "Threatening" Performers
China is tightening the screws on political expression, saying it will ban foreign artists and entertainers who have ever engaged in activities deemed to "threaten national sovereignty." Artists that could theoretically be barred under the terms of the notice could include Hollywood heavy-hitters Steven Spielberg and Sharon Stone. Hollywood Reporter 07/19/08

Philadelphia Creates A Culture Office
Philadelphia yesterday shed its status as the biggest city in the country to lack a cultural affairs office, as Mayor Nutter issued an executive order creating the Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy. Philadelphia Inquirer 07/20/08

Week of 7/13/08

Ticket Disaster Cripples Edinburgh Fringe (At Least For A Little While)
An online ticketing system failure has been described as "an unmitigated disaster on the scale of the BA terminal 5 chaos". The Guardian (UK) 07/17/08

A Darker Side Of HipHop (Academically Speaking)
"By venturing onto the mean streets of hiphop with a dispassionate critique of a multimillion-dollar industry, John McWhorter risks becoming a target of drive-by shootings by enraged academics, book reviewers and bloggers." The Times (UK) 07/13/08

Is There Any Lower To Sink?
"We are living in a golden age of the pseudo-meaningful stunt...The market for everything is becoming awfully crowded. And so the desperation of the hucksters is everywhere in evidence." The New Republic 07/30/08

A Cartoonist Too Far
"Cartoonists are some of the most painstaking, careful, shy and sensitive people on earth, yet we do play with fire, toying with other people's (and of course our own) most deeply held beliefs and most cherished illusions. Is it possible to go too far? Of course it is. Should we go too far? Of course we should." The Guardian (UK) 07/16/08

Everyone's A Critic Now About That Commentitis)
"Now practically anything on the Web collects comments the way a whale collects barnacles. In theory, it's a great thing. We're giving the people a voice! But the reality is that commenting either attracts loathsome people or somehow causes ordinary people to express themselves in a way that is loathsome." Time 07/10/08

Week of 6/29/08

British Culture Secretary Nixes Direct Government Arts Funding
"Culture secretary Andy Burnham has ruled out direct government funding for the country's flagship arts companies, claiming that such a move would undermine Arts Council England." The Stage (UK) 07/01/08

Artists Attack Plan To Name Theatre After Heath Ledger
"Since yesterday's announcement of the decision by Premier Alan Carpenter the issue has become hot, with many attacking the Perth-born actor's personal life and lack of theatre work as reasons why the Northbridge centre should get a different name." Sydney Morning Herald 07/02/08

How An Ancient Culture Sounded
For years, many archaeologists who uncovered ancient noisemakers dismissed them as toys. Museums relegated them to warehouses. But while most studies and exhibits of ancient cultures focus on how they looked, Velazquez said the noisemakers provide a rare glimpse into how they sounded. "We've been looking at our ancient culture as if they were deaf and mute," he said. "But I think all of this is tied closely to what they did, how they thought." Wired (AP) 06/30/08

The Next Generation Of Arts Patrons - Groomed And Ready
"Arts institutions have been cultivating people in their 20s and 30s for years as a way of shoring up future donors. But Sarah Arison and Jenny Coyne are not merely passing through, writing a check and dressing up for a night in order to rub the right shoulders. They are among a small and privileged group who hope, and are being groomed, to do much more: to take over the family business, so to speak -- that business being arts patronage." The New York Times 06/29/08

An Artist Investment (Or Slavery?)
"My friend, a young artist at the start of his career, offered to sell me a 1 percent share in him for $9,000. I would receive a portion of his lifetime earnings but would have no say in the sort of work he did. This seems like a good deal for us both, but it does feel a bit like slavery. Is this agreement ethical?" Denver Post 06/29/08

The High Other Costs Of Going Out To The Arts
There's food and drink of course. And parking. And about those nasty add-on ticket-booking fees... The Times (UK) 06/29/08

       

Updated: July 23, 2008