3 main stories and more: Let's take a look. Articles for all the zine by ALDEN SCOTT CROW & Musea.
BIG STORY #1: The "Big 6" (6 companies that control all the music on the planet) are now 5, and the largest Seagrams - who bought Polygram Records in Dec. for 10.4 bil - is now firing anybody in sight including 500 record employees. (Jan. 21) and soon a guesstimated 250 music acts! The new leaner and obviously meaner Co. will be called Universal Music Group (see Corp. Art 10 by going to main page). 2 local bands out are Tripping Daisy & Rev. Horton Heat. Most of the firings are new acts -- so look for UMG to retain the dinosaurs. That leaves a whole lot of pissed off young record execs & musician roaming the streets in the mood for a REVOLUTION IN THE ARTS? (DMN)
ln other Corp. Art news, Viacom has sold its 378 Blockbuster Music Stores to Wherehouse Entertainment for 115 million $$$ - which seems strange when Viacom CLAIMS the music stores generated 590 mill in revenue In `97 alone. IRS I'd check those accountants! (Dallas Observer)
1998 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER IN LIT. SAYS: 76 year old Portuguese writer Jose Saramago (you know what a Nobel Prize writers is - he's any great writer that the media wouldn't touch with a 10-ft pole- too many `Ideas' - until they win) has something to say about that very same media: "I do not have much faith in what the media put out - thought and reflection get minimal space in a newspaper. Half a page at best. And if we speak of television, then there is nothing at all."
THAT 4 LETTER WORD: Has somebody in the mainstream media said that four letter word ZlNE? Yes. Alden Scott Crow says that on CBS Sunday Morning. Jan 10 they were talking about the giant Powell's Bookstore in Portland and they said it covered everything from Aardvarks to ZINES!
2ND BIG STORY: In the fine arts 2 problems exist: Colonialism - robbing poor countries of its arts; and Nazi-looted art. In Dec. the State Dept. & the US Holocaust Memorial Museum sponsored a conference on art 'displaced' during II. Included were 44 countries and 13 non-gov. orgs. All I said they'd try harder. 50% (or 100,000 pieces valued at 10 billion) is still missing. (Art News)
In related news, 6 months ago the AAMD, Assoc. of Art Museum Directors issued a 4-page plan to uncover & ascertain Nazi loot, but little has been done since. (Art in America). Here's an ex. of the problem. Jonathan Petropoulos found this book in a German library just by accident "I came across a 1944 letter in which Buchner thanked Haberstok for sending two lavish volumes documenting the artworks that you acquired for the Furher." I took the letter to the archivist and she set off to the stacks. About 20 minutes later she reappeared with 2 massive red cartons covered in dust. Inside were 2 imposing volumes bound in luxurious red leather with a gold-embossed imprint " A.H" surrounding a swastika and the Reich eagle. Inside were original photos of hundreds of artworks acquired by Hitler from Haberstock and others. This valuable photographic record of Hitler's collection, it turned out was not in the library inventory. We had discovered something the museum didn't know it had. - (Artnews)
IF IT BLEEDS DEPT "According to a recent article in the New York Times on local TV, 72% of news programs open with general news about crime ...(and) the content of these local news programs has become virtually identical from Boston to San Antonio. "If it bleeds, it leads." says a former VP of NBC, Joseph Angotti, "most of that crime coverage is not editorially driven; it's economically driven. It's the easiest, cheapest, laziest news to cover, because all they do is listen to the police radio, react to it, send out a mobile camera unit, spend an hour or two covering it and put it on the air" (World Press Review)
OUR 3rd BIG STORY: The results are in for the National Assessment of Educational Progress 1997 Arts Report Card from the Dept. of Ed. How did we do? "Not only are too many of America's students lagging in the 3 r's most cannot draw, dance, act or play a musical instrument adequately and have not acquired a deep understanding of the arts." The test was given to 6,600 8th graders at 268 public and private (private schools did no better by the way) school. Students received scores in 3 areas responding or analyzing, describing and interpreting works of art; creating original art; and performing or re-creating existing works of art. (Education) Art S. Rev says being stupid is stupid!