| September/October 2006
Film & Television | Literature
| Performing Arts | Visual
Arts |
Film & Television
G1 - The True Cost of Motion Picture Piracy to the U.S. Economy
Siwek, Stephen E.
IPI Policy Report no. 186, Released September 29, 2006
Motion picture piracy costs the film industry billions of dollars in lost revenue, but this is only a fraction of its impact on the total U.S. economy. Combining the latest data on worldwide movie piracy with multipliers from a respected U.S. government model, this study by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that motion picture piracy costs American workers significant losses in jobs and earnings, and costs governments enormous lost tax revenue. Stephen E. Siwek is a principal with Economists, Inc., and is a specialist in financial and cost analysis. Fulltext
Literature & PUBLISHING
G2 - The Art of Reading Philip Roth
Furman, Andrew
Poets & Writers, Sep/Oct 2006 v34, #5; pp21-26
The article focuses on novelist Philip Roth. He has received many
awards for his books. In his recent novel, "The Plot Against
America," Roth imagines a successful run by Charles Lindbergh
for the U.S. presidency and the ensuing havoc wrought upon the
nation's Jews. Roth has often posed "What if" questions
in his works. He seemed to establish early in his career that
kind of questioning as a requirement for a thoughtful Jewish writer
in the twentieth According to the author, Roth is "a dynamic
and uncompromising craftsman who ought still to inspire emergent
writers." Andrew Furman is chair of the department of
English at Florida Atlantic University. Fulltext
G3 - The Art Book's Last Stand?
Lyon, Christopher
Art in America, September 2006. v94, #8; pp47-54
The oversize art book, extensively illustrated with large color illustrations, is a distinctive feature of post-World War II culture in the U.S. The purpose of such books was to reach beyond the specialized audiences of scholars, collectors and others with a financial or professional interest in art to engage an extensive new readership hungry for culture... Drawing on interviews with numerous industry insiders, the author perceives a mounting crisis in art book publishing and discusses the future of the Art Book. Christopher Lyon is executive editor at Prestel Publishing, New York. Fulltext
Performing Arts
G4 - Political Stagecraft
Green, Jesse
New York Times Magazine, Sep 10, 2006, pp24-28
Jesse Green profiles Allan Buchman, the artistic director of Culture
Project, which is redefining political theater with raw documentary-style
productions that want to be more than plays. Culture Project's
Impact Festival, which ran for six weeks starting Sep 12, 2006,
was billed as a citywide arts festival focusing on human rights,
social justice and political action. Jesse Green frequently
writes about theater for the New York Times Magazine. Fulltext
G5 - And Everything Was Ragtime
Reel, James
Strings, August /September 2006 v21,#2, pp32-38
This article profiles William Bolcom, probably string music's
greatest living rag composer, whose choral adaptation of Wiliam
Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience won him a Grammy
Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition earlier this
year. He has written concert music, ranging from solo piano to
grand opera, from thorny to lyrical, but he i's best known for
his "Graceful Ghost" rag, a tuneful, wistful work that
"fits perfectly into the rag tradition without being at all
derivative." James Reel is a staff writer for
"Strings". Fulltext
G6 - All in the Family
Odell, Jennifer
Downbeat,September 2006, pp30-35
"This special issue of Downbeat, edited by Branton Marsalis, pays tribute to the musical traditions of New Orleans one year after Hurricane Katrina and floods devastated the city. In the lead article, Odell sets the scene, focusing on the city's musical families who have passed down New Orleans jazz traditions from generation to generation. Brass bands, Dixieland, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, and funk all grew out of the roots of these musical dynasties, which embody the history and the future of New Orleans. Since many family members are still unable to return home, the question as to whether or not they will ever be able to rebuild their homes and neighborhoods remains open. Other feature articles in this issue focus on New Orleans musicians Harry Connick, Jr. and Dr. John, the legacy of New Orleans drummers, and the architecture of the city's musical culture." Fulltext
Visual Arts
G7 - Fabric of Their Lives
Wallach, Amei
Smithsonian, October 2006, v37, #7; pp66-76
The article chronicles the history of the quilting tradition in
Gee's Bend, Alabama. The quilts are traveling around the United
States and stopping at art museums in an exhibit called "The Quilts
of Gee's Bend." The quilts sell for as much as $20,000. The Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston and the Tinwood Alliance organized a second
exhibit entitled "Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt,"
and features quilts from the 1930s to the 1980s. The Gee's Bend
quilting tradition may go as far back as the early 1800s, when
the community was the site of a cotton plantation owned by Joseph
Gee. Women slaves pieced together strips of cloth to make bedcovers,
and along the way, they developed a distinctive style.
Critic Amei Wallach writes on culture and the arts for such publications
as the New York Times, Art in America and Vanity Fair. Fulltext
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