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Michael Miller's Blog (12)

Do Americans Really Need a "Secretary of the Arts"?

Just as I began to put my mind to this commentary, the results from the first of this year's old master sales, The Scholar's Eye: Property from the Julius Held Collection Part I, at Christie's began coming in—a most gratifying confirmation of the time-honored forces of the market in the arts: 85% of the modestly estimated works sold, a… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on January 28, 2009 at 2:30am — No Comments

The Wagner Cult on Record: Tristan und Isolde, by Huntley Dent

Mild und leise. Plenty of otherwise gentle people lose their grip on civility when Wagner’s name is mentioned. I was standing in line at the post office explaining to a friend why I thought Wagner was greater than Bach. I felt that we were in a safely uncivilized location, but no. The woman in front of us turned around and said, “I totally disagree with everything you’re saying.” I had been foolish. The cult of Wagner, which swept half of Europe

… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on November 18, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Wagner Cult and Conductor Cult, by Michael Miller

It is only too obvious that the worldwide economic collapse will affect all sectors of the global economy and therefore most aspects of our lives. Most arts organizations are already well along in addressing this murky, complex, and constantly shifting situation have announced cuts ranging from the relatively minor to cancelled or postponed performances, exhibitions, and building projects. Their managers know that things will be different in three months or six months, and probably not for the b… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on November 15, 2008 at 2:30am — No Comments

And Now We Are One...and We Have a Network!

Today we mark the first anniversary of The Berkshire Review for the Arts. Our group of writers and critics has grown considerably since then, and so has our traffic. While we were fortunate to attract a sizable group of readers from the beginning, it has grown over the course of 2008 to an average of over 103,000 “hits” and 72,000 pages read per month, peaking at over twice that in June. While I am celebrating the anniversary by redesigning the site to handle our in

… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on October 3, 2008 at 1:41am — No Comments

Reflections on the Elgin Marbles, by Huntley Dent

Rescue or looting? It’s disturbing to visit the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum, I find, because the eye notices their wreckage and beauty at the same time. One empire, the Ottoman, ignored the Parthenon as art, affixing a minaret to it and using it as a mosque. This neglect was probably better than the pillaging that another empire, the British, did after 1801,… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on October 3, 2008 at 1:24am — No Comments

The Elgin Marbles: Another View, by Michael Miller

Every stay in London should begin and end with a visit to the Parthenon Sculptures, or Elgin Marbles, if you like. Years ago my father and I cherished this ritual[1] on our annual visits. Last fall, my son and I unconsciously fell into the same pattern. After my father’s death, I spent periods in London pursuing post-doctoral research… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on October 3, 2008 at 1:20am — No Comments

New on the Berkshire Artsblog: On The Lord of the Rings, The Musical! by Huntley Dent

[Ed’s note. J. R. R. Tolkien detested movies, and he didn’t know what pop culture was, beyond perhaps Ivor Novello and the music hall. He would have been perfectly aghast to learn that he and his Lord of the Rings trilogy would become the most extreme sort of Hollywood epic and that he himself was destined to become a not only a pop culture icon, but a New Age guru as well. Even when I first learned about Lord of the Rings back in the 1960’s, it was as an esoteric highbrow indulgence. Today Hunt… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on July 17, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

Of the Fourth of July, UNESCO's Buddy Bears, and Atheists

Remember the U. N.? UNESCO, anyone? While lower Manhattan appears to have become the playground of incompetents, real estate manipulators, and egomaniacial poseurs, they have sponsored an amiable world tour of painted bears, one more variant of a popular shtick in public art, but one which seems, if you examine Joanna Gabler's photographs, to have provided a fair share of fun, comfo… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on July 8, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

Cutbacks in Classical Music Coverage Worry Critics, by Michael Miller, from BFA, 6/12/07

When a "regular" disappears for a while, one always wonders... At Berkshire Fine Arts we don't bother with markers for vacations or the like. It serves no purpose anyway. When I read "Paul Krugman is on vacation." in the New York Times, I still worry. In fact, I took an informal sabbatical to finish a lingering translation project. I wish I could say that I was writing a book or protesting against one of the seemingly endless procession of abuses in the world, but I was simply working.… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on May 18, 2008 at 1:30am — No Comments

I blinked... [more arts critics eliminated at major papers]

...and now I have several items of bad news to report. Absorbed in the intricacies of first-year Latin and stunned by the Karajan Renaissance, I missed a few weeks of music world news. It seems to happen in the spring, whether it is in Atlanta or Minneapolis. Cutting costs right and left, managers in the traditional print media have been busy firing critics once again. Last May the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cut back on arts re… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on May 5, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

Oh no! He's not back again, is he? [revised] On the Karajan Centenary, by Michael Miller

Wax Effigy of Karajan in the Miracles Wax Museum, Vienne

Herbert von Karajan, Wax Effigy in

… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on May 2, 2008 at 1:30am — 3 Comments

Bad Art vs. "Bad Art" by Michael Miller

Many art dealers and some curators find any number of artworks randomly passing under their noses in endless variety on an almost daily basis. One can go from a putative Michelangelo to a catalogue of the work of some obscure short-lived Soviet abstractionist to, for example, a certain Ohio artist, who d… Continue

Added by Michael Miller on April 18, 2008 at 1:30am — No Comments

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OED Word of the Day (Click on entry, not "More..."!

Christmas-box: OED Word of the Day

Today's word from the OED has the following earliest quotation: 1611 COTGR. Tirelire, a Christmas box; a box having a cleft on the lid, or in the side, for money to enter it; used in France by begging Fryers, and here by Butlers, and Prentices, etc.