Now that I've recovered from an evil virus that prevented my posting for a few days (I'm talking about my own health rather than that of my computer), I can finally get round to linking to CultureGrrl's piece on the cultural policy of the presidential candidates in the US. Well, such matters are, frankly, so low on the list of current priorities as to barely register, but it's of some interest to note that McCain makes Jeremy Hunt and Ed Vaizey, the Conservative shadow culture people, look like paragons of artistic sensitivity and supportiveness.
Meanwhile, John Adams, the composer of sometime controversial works such as The Death of Klinghoffer (performances of which were cancelled in the wake of 9/11 because some asserted that the opera, about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, romanticised and validated its Palestinian terrorist characters), believes that he is now "blacklisted" in the US. He receives unpleasant grillings at airports and believes he may be being followed by the security services. He talked about this on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters yesterday and Vanessa Thorpe reported the story in this morning's Observer. Adams' Dr Atomic opens at the Metropolitan Opera, New York tomorrow – the production is by Penny Woolcock, and it will find its way to the London Coliseum in February.
Incidentally, that work – Dr Atomic, about Robert Oppenheimer's invention of the atom bomb – is, unsurprisingly, sensitive stuff in New York. Artist David Altmejd was commissioned to produce a large and spectacular installation to cover the facade of the building, but the Met backed off as Altmejd's idea recalled a face with its centre blown out by a bomb.
