Opinion
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Federal Support for the Arts Under Attack
Five Boston Museum Directors Express Concern
By: - Feb 24th, 2017Five Boston museum directors have signed a letter of concern over reports that the National Endowment for the Arts is under threat of being abolished, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Under the conservative agenda of the Trump adminsitration this is an attack on the arts in America. Guarding the Trumps in NY, DC and Palm Beach for a week is on a par with endowment support.
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Opera Love in Santa Fe
Exploring a Theme
By: - Aug 25th, 2016Love is the theme connecting the five productions of the Santa Fe Opera 2016 Festival. Leading off one week of the season was Don Giovanni, where an attempted rape and then a murder jumpstart the opera. The Don is a questionable subject for the discussion of love, as the Don mows down woman after woman in his quest for the Guinness Book of Records first place position as the world’s best, or most effective, seducer. Yet love triumphs.
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Other People
Why Infinity Is Not
By: - Sep 13th, 2015The infinity of time and space is not. The only limitation is an ability to understand. For all else there's God.
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The Mount
Booklaunch at Edith Wharton's Berkshire Home
By: - Jun 10th, 2015On a perfect June evening a booklaunch, my first, on the terrace of Edith Wharton's The Mount in Lenox. Witty exchanges with director Susan Wissler. Reading Gonzo poems from Shards of Life. Elegant gathering with Berkshire friends and neighbors, artists, writers and citizens of the world. Superb food and fine wine. Guests exploring the formal gardens. Signed a ton of books.
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Eric Rudd Announces for North Adams Mayor
Artist/ Developer Runs Against Incumbent Alcombright
By: - May 15th, 2015After establishing the former Contemporary Artists Center in the Beaver Mill the artist, Eric Rudd, developed the artists/ loft Eclipse Mill. He is now announcing his second campaign for mayor. The first some time ago was against John Barrett III and now he opposes Mayor Dick Alcombright. It is speculated that Barrett, who after being defeated sat on the city council, may join the race. The artists and potential voters who Rudd appeals to tipped the balance when Alcombright defeated Barrett. In fact he blamed them for running him out of a generation spanning dominance of North Adams politics. This could indeed be interesting.
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John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden in Metabookâ„¢
New Digital Book Publisher Puts a New Spin on a Modern Classic
By: - Apr 03rd, 2015The publishing conundrum. How to attract readers tied to their mobile devices and induce them to read a book. Ken Siman and his partners Christian and Benjamin Alfonsi have produced a packed multimedia edition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil for iphones and ipads. Is this the answer to book reading in the 21st century?
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Where Does Grand Opera Fit in the 21st Century
Peter Gelb is Not Answering the Question
By: - Mar 19th, 2015The New Yorker editor and Columbia's Bloomberg professor of business journalism, James Stewart, splendidly describes internal negotiations at the Met last summer as Peter Gelb, the general manager, tried to cut salaries and expenses by 16 % and the orchestra, chorus, stagehands and other smaller unions struggled for their lives. On the larger issue of the Met's survival at all, Stewart falls short.
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A Tale of Two Halides
Empty Calorie, Mineral Deficient, Low Fiber, Nutritionally \Non-dense Food
By: - Mar 03rd, 2015Among other insights our science correspondent reveals that "Forty and fifty years ago, Iodine, in the form of Sodium Iodate, was routinely added to American bakery products, both as a dough conditioner and a nutritional supplement. Then, of course because it was cheaper, Big Food started adding Bromates instead. These not only contain no Iodine, but are also capable of displacing it. Our FDA likes to say that all the Bromates (which are banned in the EU and UK) in dough will become the less-toxic Bromides in the processes of flour “ripening,†rising, and baking.'" It is likely that you didn't know that.
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How We Live
Thinking of Yeats
By: - Feb 18th, 2015Our friend the poet Stephen Rifkin often sends insightful and provocative e mails. It has been an ongoing and absorbing dialogue. I asked if he could expand a recent one into an op ed piece. Looking inward he was inspired by Yeats.
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Euro English
Toward Universal Language
By: - Feb 09th, 2015The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
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Super Bowl Inspired Fast Eddy
Arts Critic Reveals Passion for Sports
By: - Jan 31st, 2015As a critic and journalist New York based Edward Rubin, known to friends and colleagues as Fast Eddy, has a finger in many pies. On the eve of the Super Bowl he reveals a deep and abiding love of sports. Much of this passion was inherited from his sporting father. Hey, who knew?
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The Clark and Mass MoCA Stiff Locals
Negligible Off Season Free Admissions
By: - Dec 18th, 2014As of January One the Clark will no longer be free during the off season. It is offering token free days but adult admission is full freight at $20. Add another $10 to see special exhitions. Which is still more generous than Mass MoCA which has a single annual free day. It sends the wrong PR and marketing message to the local community. What price can you put on being a welcoming good neighbor?
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Words Matter
The Value of Education
By: - Nov 16th, 2014People who make money are successful. They are sometimes well educated, and sometimes not, but they are smart. They are smart enough to be successful in the way most of us value success.
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Boston Mayah Walsh on the Arts
Reply to Larry Stark
By: - Sep 16th, 2014Veteran Boston theatre critic Larry Stark wrote an open letter to Boston Mayor Martin Walsh. He stated his disappointment that campaign promises to the arts community were soon forgotten. We posted his original letter which is linked in this reply from the Mayor's spokesperson longtime arts advocate Joyce Linehan.
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Unexamined Life Isn't Worth Living
But Not By IQ Tests
By: - Sep 09th, 2014Schools used to assign children to classes based on their IQ test scores. Then schools decided it was better for children to be in heterogeneous, or mixed IQ, classes. They would get a better feel for life because many people are not so fast. Now experts may be reconsidering. It is one of the truisms of fashion, and there are intellectual fashions, too, that they change. Here Rifkin again rebuts Zaig.
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Outside The Machine
Waxing Philosophical
By: - Sep 03rd, 2014There has been a lively response to the provocative series of think pieces by the Berkshire artist David Zaig. Here the Berkshire poet Stephen Rifkin debates Zaig's contentions. They often sit at the same table during weekly Monday night Chinese dinners in North Adams. Rifkin recently gave a poetry reading at the Rudd Art Museum where Zaig is currently exhibiting his work.
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Vaccination Followup
Poor Former Dr. Wakefield
By: - Aug 31st, 2014In this sidebar to the Vaccination Divide we discuss the contoversies surrounding the research of Dr. Andrew Wakefield who uncovered links between autism and a particular type of gut inflammation. Eventually his findings were discredieted and his liscense to practice medicine was revoked. But he is correct that aluminum toxicity is capable of doing real damage.
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Defining an Artist
Honorific vs. Generic
By: - Aug 30th, 2014Anyone who hangs a few pictures in a coffee shop is a self proclaimed artist or photographer. Is anyone who makes art an artist? Does posting comments to Facebook make one a critic? Does posting snap shots of your cat or kids qualify as art? Despite decades as a successful commercial and fine arts photographer the Berkshire based Benno Friedman, during an extensive interview, explains why he hestitates to call himself an artist.
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Open Letter to Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh
My Theatrical Response to Disaster in Ferguson
By: - Aug 29th, 2014Back in the day Larry Stark was the theatre critic for Boston After Dark which elided as The Boston Phoenix. He has covered theatre for decades currently with his website Theatre Mirror. Following up on campaign promises Stark in an open letter has questions for Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "To put it bluntly Mayor, I voted for you Only because I thought at the time that your commitment to The Arts was genuine."
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Exhibit in Grant Park Addresses Ferguson
Unspeakable Times Are Soothed by Chicago's Statues
By: - Aug 25th, 2014The figures are iron and aluminum, but to me and many others they stood for black and white. People of all colors are walking and seated in the Georg Solti Park in Grant Park, Chicago. These sculptures invite quiet contemplation of the state of race relations in this country this August.
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The Vaccination Divide
Exploring the Pros and Cons
By: - Aug 25th, 2014Faith based and other concerned parents have opted not to vaccinate their children. This can result in outbreaks in formerly widely preventable diseases. There are concerns that vaccinations may in fact induce dangerous side effects inluding an inclination for autism. Our science correspondent, a firm advocate of vaccination, explores the issues and risk factors.
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NY Times Zings Mass MoCA
Mixed Report on $25.4 Million from Commonwealth
By: - Aug 22nd, 2014Twelve days after breaking news the New York Times has reported on $25.4 million in Commonwealth funding for the $50 million renovation of the final phase of build out for Mass MoCA. While damning the museum with faint praise the Times drags up an eight year old controversy of a botched installation by Christoph Buchel. The reporter probed far and wide for on and off the record smears of the museum and its critical reputation.
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A Welcome Settlement at the Met
The Unions and Management Both Give Ground
By: - Aug 21st, 2014From inside the Met: "Both sides gave in. This is heartening. The three big unions took income reductions, even though they are not the massive reductions Gelb wanted. One of the good things is having some oversight on Gelb's spending. A big concern house-wide has been Gelb's tendency to over-spend without thinking things through." It appears that by settling with unions there will not be the anticipated lockout and the Metropolitan Opera will launch its season on schedule. We dig below the surface of this news for an understanding of long term implications for the Met and the struggle to sustain opera as an expesnive and viable cultural resource.
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What's Up at the Metropolitan Opera?
An Insider's View
By: - Aug 10th, 2014The jury is still out on when the Metropoitan Opera season will actually start. The bulk of the rehearsals for the Marriage of Figaro have already been completed, so it may be possible for the House to be ready for opening night. One rumor circulating is that Gelb will plan his lockout during the scheduled rehearsal time for Death of Klinghoffer, so that he can cancel the production. This would mean that he could extricate himself from that publicity disaster and blame the unions for it. An independent budget analysis is supposed to be completed by August 11th. It will be interesting to see how negotiations go forward after that.
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A Psychiatrist Appointed President of BSO Board
Dr. Paul Buttenwieser to the Rescue
By: - Jul 17th, 2014When Dr. Paul Buttenwieser, the newly-appointed President of the BSO's Board, stepped down from the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, he performed on the piano at a sold-out fundraiser. He had studied piano as a young man in New York. He is a descendant of the Lehman banking family, which of course adds materially to his board credentials. But that he is a competent enough pianist to perform with Yo-Yo Ma in a sold out fundraiser is also an important credential.
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