Outrage at B&N Demise

September 8th, 2010

by Sedgwick Clark
A number of people commented to me on my report last week on the imminent demise of the Lincoln Center branch of Barnes & Noble: from Harmonia Mundi’s René Goiffon (“How things have changed since we first met!”) to composer and record company owner David Chesky (“Apple is going to put everyone out [...]

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Disaster at Lincoln Triangle

September 1st, 2010

by Sedgwick Clark
As if record and video companies didn’t have enough problems, Barnes & Noble announced on Monday (8/30) that in January, after 15 years, it would close its four-story superstore across the street from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. The stated reason: high rents. (Surprise!) B&N will try to find a more reasonably rentable location on [...]

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Dumbing Down with New York City Ballet’s Season Brochure

August 31st, 2010

I don’t know how many of you have had the honor of receiving New York City Ballet’s season brochure. When I pulled it out of my mailbox, I briefly mistook it for a Barney’s catalogue. Then I thought Robert Mapplethorpe might have come back from the dead to focus his heated lens on City Ballet’s [...]

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Reunion Revelation

August 25th, 2010

by Sedgwick Clark
Earlier this month a flash flood of e-mails from old high school friends inundated my New Mail box. How old? The subject was our 50th reunion. But—wait a minute!—that’s four years from now. What’s the rush? I have several deadlines to meet before I can deal with this. That excuse kept me from [...]

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The Virtual Pillow

August 24th, 2010

“The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.”—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
That’s how I felt when I began using the Internet.
But I’m [...]

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DIY Cultural Exchange in China’s Interior

August 23rd, 2010

by Cathy Barbash
While the cultural diplomacy “establishment” organizations still appear to favor recognizing large brand name projects over “indies,” (see recent announcement of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy’s International Cultural Engagement Task Force’s selections for recognition at the 2010 U.S. Summit And Initiative For Global Citizen Diplomacy), young Americans continue to create true grass-roots [...]

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Raging Against the Good Night

August 18th, 2010

by Sedgwick Clark
I’ve got this good friend, see, and he’s a composer. In his lighter moments he signs his e-mails Darth Vader. At other times he’s pissed at the plight of modern composers who can’t get a hearing and get noticed—especially American composers and himself in particular. He looks at  orchestra programming and sees many [...]

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Ballet drag

August 16th, 2010

Most drag queens develop their outré identities in backroom clubs and on dimly lit cabaret floors. Chase Johnsey discovered his alter ego in a much more rarified atmosphere: On opera house stages across the globe, performing female leads in Le Corsaire and Dying Swan. At age 18, Johnsey joined Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, [...]

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Five Orchestras in Miseryland

August 11th, 2010

by Sedgwick Clark
An article on AOL early this week by Aaron Crowe profiles the U.S.’s the ten worst cities to live in. The reasons are no surprise: unemployment, climate, crime, foreclosures. In the worst, El Centro, CA, unemployment is 27.5% and the cemetery is in foreclosure. Five cities caught my eye for reasons unspecified in [...]

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Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival: Never a Dull Moment

August 10th, 2010

If you’ve ever sat in the theater watching a dance and wondered how the performers went from working with the choreographer in the studio to being masters of their own movement on the stage, the Emmy award-winning filmmaker Elliot Caplan has made just the documentary for you. It’s called 15 Days of Dance – The [...]

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