Budget Blues
Mar 20, 2013 1:14:44 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2013 1:14:44 GMT -5
Good morning, Sydney Grew! I trust that all is well with you today! There are two equinoxes every year – in March and September – when the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night is nearly equal. Seasons are opposite on either side of the equator, so the equinox in March is also known as the "spring equinox" in the northern hemisphere. However, in the southern hemisphere, it's known as the "autumnal equinox". The vernal equinox 2013 is precisely at 11:02 GMT/UTC (or 11:02am) this morning in Britain. To all those who survived the British winter, congratulations! 'The Times' leads on Budget Day with some editorial comment on Budget Blues: the Chancellor must demonstrate how he will create incentives to get Britain’s businesses to invest.
Writing for BBC News, Stephanie Flanders also reports on damage limitation in Cyprus. Nearly everyone involved in the deal for Cyprus hammered out on Saturday now agrees it was a mistake. What we don't know, yet, is how big. Goodness knows, the European authorities have made mistakes before in their handling of the eurozone crisis.
Some, like the initial reluctance to bail out Greece in 2010, seemed very damaging at the time but were ultimately fixable. Others, like the Franco-German announcement, in the autumn of 2010, that private sector creditors would face haircuts in all future rescue programmes, were a slow burn. There was initially a muted reaction to this from the markets. But once investors had fully digested the consequences, the fears of bondholders effectively forced the Irish into a bailout.
The G20 summit in Seoul at the end of that year was devoted to picking up the pieces. And the German effort to "bail in" the private sector was set back years. Needless to say, the authorities will be hoping that the Cyprus mistake is in the first category, not the last. They are hoping that in a week's time people outside Cyprus, at least, will consider this just another messy bump in the road, in a tiny eurozone country, to which global investors have never previously given a second's thought. Stephanie concludes thus:
Meanwhile, 'The Times' also thunders some Music to Crack Pots By: the V&A may have scuppered one of the great artistic performances of our time. As marriages between music and art go, it had the potential to be whispered in the same breath as Mussorgsky’s 'Pictures At An Exhibition', celebrating the art of Viktor Hartmann, and as David Hockney’s Glyndebourne stage set for 'The Rake’s Progress'. Who dares say that it might not, one day, have stood alongside Chagall’s collaboration with the Ballets Russes, or been compared with Picasso’s costumes and sets for 'Parade', the ballet Diaghilev staged in Paris in 1917, or with Sir Peter Blake’s album cover for The Beatles’ 'Sgt Pepper’s'?
Writing in 'The Independent', Freddie Nathan reports that a leading death metal band have been forced to cancel a one-off performance at the V&A amid concerns for the historic fabric of the building. Napalm Death, who formed in Birmingham in 1981 and count songs such as 'Scum', 'Greed Killing' and 'Mentally Murdered' among their musical repertoire, were due to play a ground-breaking concert in collaboration with the V&A’s resident ceramicist, Keith Harrison. Keith had planned to construct a speaker system that was filled with liquid clay, which would have cracked and fragmented as the sound reverberated inside it, creating a unique live installation.
Napalm Death were chosen to play the special set as it was hoped their deep bass sound would have created the perfect frequency to shatter the tiles and create the artwork. The one-off gig was due to take place this Friday in a disused gallery currently undergoing renovation. But the museum announced today that it had been forced to cancel the event after a safety inspection raised concerns over the potentially damaging effect such loud music could have on the both building and artwork, the organisers reluctantly cancelled the concert. Concern about the preservation and safety of the Victorian structure has been heightened in recent years with the advent of the ‘FuturePlan’, a multi-million pound modernisation scheme designed to bring the museum into the twenty-first century whilst retaining its original splendour.
Independent - V&A forced to cancel Napalm Death gig over fears for historic building
Nevertheless, David Bowie is having a pretty good year, for someone who is "too old to lose it", as he himself once wrote. Bowie, who now qualifies for a pensioner's bus pass, released a surprise single, 'Where Are We Now?', on his 66th birthday in January 2013. That was followed by a critically acclaimed video co-starring Tilda Swinton for a second single, 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)'. And when the album from which those songs are taken, 'The Next Day', was released last week it went straight to No 1 on iTunes. This weekend it is likely to become Bowie's first No1 album in the official UK charts since 'Black Tie White Noise' in April 1993. For the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the return of Britain's foremost pop genius to centre stage has spectacularly paved the way for one of its most eagerly awaited exhibitions. Demand for tickets to 'David Bowie Is …' , which opens this week, is breaking all previous records at the museum. More than 42,000 advance tickets for the in-depth retrospective have been sold, more than double the advance sales of previous exhibitions.
The V&A is hoping that international interest in the show, which runs until August, will take off, according to director Martin Roth, who called Bowie "a true icon". The merchandise is already doing a roaring trade, from coffee-table books to the budget range of the V&A Bowie Paper Doll – the "best dress-up fun you'll have with a pair of scissors". The timing of the exhibition, whose curators have had open access to the David Bowie Archives, is surely no accident, although the release of the new Bowie songs had been described as "the best kept secret in rock" by 'Rolling Stone'. The exhibition opens on Saturday 23 March, and the museum is staying tight-lipped about whether or not the man himself will be attending the preview party tonight. Writing in 'The Guardian', Alexis Petridis concludes thus:
Guardian - David Bowie Is becomes the Victoria and Albert's fastest-selling event ever
Due to unprecedented demand from around the world, everyone reading The Third is cordially invited along! If you cannot make it in person, Neil McGowan, here it is online!
V&A - David Bowie is
Ground control to Major Tom ...
YouTube - David Bowie - Space Oddity Original Video (1969)
The exhibition explores the broad range of Bowie’s collaborations with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film. On display will be more than 300 objects including 'Ziggy Stardust' bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, photography by Brian Duffy; album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Edward Bell; visual excerpts from films and live performances including 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', music videos such as 'Boys Keep Swinging' and set designs created for the 'Diamond Dogs' tour (1974). Alongside these will be more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades. Whatever next?
Telegraph - David Bowie's Space Oddity 40 years on
"When he delivers his fourth Budget today, George Osborne will have extremely limited room for manoeuvre. But it is vital for the economy, and for the electoral prospects of the Lib-Con coalition, that he expound a route to recovery rather than explain defensively the brute financial arithmetic that is holding it back. The Chancellor will be right to assert the need for fiscal discipline. But he needs urgently to create the conditions whereby Britain’s private sector can see the business case for investing. The macroeconomic background could scarcely be more dispiriting ... "
Writing for BBC News, Stephanie Flanders also reports on damage limitation in Cyprus. Nearly everyone involved in the deal for Cyprus hammered out on Saturday now agrees it was a mistake. What we don't know, yet, is how big. Goodness knows, the European authorities have made mistakes before in their handling of the eurozone crisis.
Some, like the initial reluctance to bail out Greece in 2010, seemed very damaging at the time but were ultimately fixable. Others, like the Franco-German announcement, in the autumn of 2010, that private sector creditors would face haircuts in all future rescue programmes, were a slow burn. There was initially a muted reaction to this from the markets. But once investors had fully digested the consequences, the fears of bondholders effectively forced the Irish into a bailout.
The G20 summit in Seoul at the end of that year was devoted to picking up the pieces. And the German effort to "bail in" the private sector was set back years. Needless to say, the authorities will be hoping that the Cyprus mistake is in the first category, not the last. They are hoping that in a week's time people outside Cyprus, at least, will consider this just another messy bump in the road, in a tiny eurozone country, to which global investors have never previously given a second's thought. Stephanie concludes thus:
" ... It is still quite possible that this will turn out to be containable, that the only lasting damage to depositor confidence will be in Cyprus itself. For that to happen, it would help if the European authorities could explain more clearly why this will not set a precedent for the future. It would be especially reassuring if the Germans explained, convincingly, why this does not reflect any toughening in the country's approach to bailouts. But for either of those explanations to be convincing, they probably need to be true. I think Germany, at least, will want to tough it out."
Meanwhile, 'The Times' also thunders some Music to Crack Pots By: the V&A may have scuppered one of the great artistic performances of our time. As marriages between music and art go, it had the potential to be whispered in the same breath as Mussorgsky’s 'Pictures At An Exhibition', celebrating the art of Viktor Hartmann, and as David Hockney’s Glyndebourne stage set for 'The Rake’s Progress'. Who dares say that it might not, one day, have stood alongside Chagall’s collaboration with the Ballets Russes, or been compared with Picasso’s costumes and sets for 'Parade', the ballet Diaghilev staged in Paris in 1917, or with Sir Peter Blake’s album cover for The Beatles’ 'Sgt Pepper’s'?
Writing in 'The Independent', Freddie Nathan reports that a leading death metal band have been forced to cancel a one-off performance at the V&A amid concerns for the historic fabric of the building. Napalm Death, who formed in Birmingham in 1981 and count songs such as 'Scum', 'Greed Killing' and 'Mentally Murdered' among their musical repertoire, were due to play a ground-breaking concert in collaboration with the V&A’s resident ceramicist, Keith Harrison. Keith had planned to construct a speaker system that was filled with liquid clay, which would have cracked and fragmented as the sound reverberated inside it, creating a unique live installation.
Napalm Death were chosen to play the special set as it was hoped their deep bass sound would have created the perfect frequency to shatter the tiles and create the artwork. The one-off gig was due to take place this Friday in a disused gallery currently undergoing renovation. But the museum announced today that it had been forced to cancel the event after a safety inspection raised concerns over the potentially damaging effect such loud music could have on the both building and artwork, the organisers reluctantly cancelled the concert. Concern about the preservation and safety of the Victorian structure has been heightened in recent years with the advent of the ‘FuturePlan’, a multi-million pound modernisation scheme designed to bring the museum into the twenty-first century whilst retaining its original splendour.
Independent - V&A forced to cancel Napalm Death gig over fears for historic building
Nevertheless, David Bowie is having a pretty good year, for someone who is "too old to lose it", as he himself once wrote. Bowie, who now qualifies for a pensioner's bus pass, released a surprise single, 'Where Are We Now?', on his 66th birthday in January 2013. That was followed by a critically acclaimed video co-starring Tilda Swinton for a second single, 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)'. And when the album from which those songs are taken, 'The Next Day', was released last week it went straight to No 1 on iTunes. This weekend it is likely to become Bowie's first No1 album in the official UK charts since 'Black Tie White Noise' in April 1993. For the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the return of Britain's foremost pop genius to centre stage has spectacularly paved the way for one of its most eagerly awaited exhibitions. Demand for tickets to 'David Bowie Is …' , which opens this week, is breaking all previous records at the museum. More than 42,000 advance tickets for the in-depth retrospective have been sold, more than double the advance sales of previous exhibitions.
The V&A is hoping that international interest in the show, which runs until August, will take off, according to director Martin Roth, who called Bowie "a true icon". The merchandise is already doing a roaring trade, from coffee-table books to the budget range of the V&A Bowie Paper Doll – the "best dress-up fun you'll have with a pair of scissors". The timing of the exhibition, whose curators have had open access to the David Bowie Archives, is surely no accident, although the release of the new Bowie songs had been described as "the best kept secret in rock" by 'Rolling Stone'. The exhibition opens on Saturday 23 March, and the museum is staying tight-lipped about whether or not the man himself will be attending the preview party tonight. Writing in 'The Guardian', Alexis Petridis concludes thus:
" ... David Bowie Is ends in triumph anyway. The floor-to-ceiling screens showing live footage are genuinely awe-inspiring, a final room collects together umpteen examples of how his influence has leaked not just into music but everyday life: fashion, packaging, video game design, advertising. As it turned out, the plan about communicating ideas that Bowie outlined in the Beckenham Arts Lab proposal seems to have worked out perfectly."
Guardian - David Bowie Is becomes the Victoria and Albert's fastest-selling event ever
Due to unprecedented demand from around the world, everyone reading The Third is cordially invited along! If you cannot make it in person, Neil McGowan, here it is online!
V&A - David Bowie is
Ground control to Major Tom ...
YouTube - David Bowie - Space Oddity Original Video (1969)
The exhibition explores the broad range of Bowie’s collaborations with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film. On display will be more than 300 objects including 'Ziggy Stardust' bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, photography by Brian Duffy; album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Edward Bell; visual excerpts from films and live performances including 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', music videos such as 'Boys Keep Swinging' and set designs created for the 'Diamond Dogs' tour (1974). Alongside these will be more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades. Whatever next?
Telegraph - David Bowie's Space Oddity 40 years on