It occurs to me that whenever an orchestra ratifies a new contract ahead of time , or Atlanta who wants to take a hatchet to it, there is still an underlying foundational problem in both cases.
Current Events
A (Washington) Post Mortem
Two days ago I tuned into my local MPR station and within 30 seconds had correctly identified the two gentlemen talking – Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. There was something about how they presented themselves which made me immediately think about Watergate and Nixon. I didn’t even get the gist of their topic before I knew who they were. One of them (can’t remember which), when talking about that era, mentioned that he thought they were working for the greatest editor (Benjamin Bradlee) and the greatest owner (Katharine Graham) in the business. Lo how the mighty have fallen.
What is the true deficit in the Met’s financial crisis?
It occurs to me that when an organization bleeds money such is claimed at the Met, the focus is to stop the bleeding, not to fix the actual cause of the bleeding…
The Conscience of the Kings
Those who are not fans of the original Star Trek do not realize what a gift to our society that show was. It gave us our first interracial kiss on TV (Plato’s Stepchildren), a searing look at racism (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield), and profound episodes dealing with what it means to be “human” (Miri, Amok Time, Turnabout Intruder, The Corbomite Maneuver, and a host of others). But my favorite episode has always been “The Conscience of the King,” a terrific look at the aftereffects of dictatorship/fascism on society and on individual lives, with a little Hamlet thrown in for good measure. Some of my colleagues should sit down and watch this.
The Super Bowl; or What’s Wrong With Classical Music
Like millions of Americans, and indeed hundreds of millions of people worldwide, I look forward to the Super Bowl every year, even if there’s not a chance in hell that my Buffalo Bills will be playing in it (again). It’s one of those cultural rituals that interrupts the long and ghastly winter, and it’s a convenient excuse to overdose on wings and guacamole. This year, of course, there is an added reason to look forward to the big game because Renée Fleming is singing the national anthem. And then the haters come out of the closet…
Blah Blah…4000+ empty words and there is a REAL problem with the league conference
Cutting to the chase, the bottom line with the 4000 + words of “thesaurial” prowess from Philip Kennicott, is that we should stop doing what isn’t working now, and go back to what wasn’t working before…Huh?
The Fiscal CLEF!
I was fully prepared to leave the Minnesota Orchestra posts to my partner in Blog Bill, and Drew at Adaptistration, but something I read really ticked me off!…..this is about attitude….
The Elephant in the Hall! – Prepared to be Deducted!
The disarray that is the orchestra world may pale into comparison to what potentially may happen to nearly all arts organizations if we don’t prepare for what the evidence suggests is coming. The arts could be gutted as a result of this election, and it’s bigger than eliminating the NEA, much bigger….