Recommended Sites

A selective guide to arts commentaries in print and websites elsewhere…

ArtWorks: On his regularly updated blog, former Broadway producer Rocco Landesman— President Obama’s new head of the National Endowment for the Arts— posts policy reports, commentary on his visits to other cultural communities (including Philadelphia) and recommendations for how the arts in America can survive and grow.(Jim Rutter.)

Keeping abreast of reviews: The website Metacritic provides statistical averages of reviews for new movies, music and books. Theatergoers can find similar analysis about the latest Broadway openings at Stagegrade (a cleaner, more user-friendly upgrade of the earlier Critic-O-Meter,). As each new Broadway or Off-Broadway show opens, Stagegrade collects the commentary of critics across the nation and then calculates a median grade for each production. The newly designed site even enables users to search for the opinions of their favorite reviewers, including scores derived from articles by the Inquirer’s Howard Shapiro and BSR’s Toby Zinman. (J. R.)

Open Culture. Want to know where you can take college level economics at no cost, or find six different websites where you can learn Arabic for free? How about a collection of e-books or “smart” movies that you can download to your computer without paying a dime? Openculture.com bills itself as the “best free educational and cultural material on the web.” Updated daily with blog entries that detail everything from the debate about open source vs. digital copyrights and “cultural tweets of the week” to short science entries. including one on Google Earth’s new historical function, which lets users see what their favorite spots on a map looked like through history. (J.R,.)

Critical Mass. Collectively, American publishing houses churn out over 65,000 new titles each year. If you’re stuck for a new read and interested in what the members of the National Book Critics Circle consider worthy of their valuable reading time, you might want to peruse the daily updates at Critical Mass. Its posts include features about publishing and literary culture as well as troves of reviews; note especially “30 Books in 30 Days,” a month-long dissection of the finalists for their upcoming awards. (J.R.)

Andante.com. This website offers a one-stop clearinghouse for classical music lovers. The smorgasbord includes news, reviews, essays,  interviews and of course music itself; you can also search recordings by composer, performer and genre. It’s based in Paris but written in English. www.andante.com.

PhillyFunGuide. This website sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance probably offers the region’s best-organized guide to local cultural offerings. Especially noteworthy is its weekly listing of half-price ticket offerings. Downside: The site lacks critical evaluations (as you might expect of an organization that’s leery about passing judgment on its own members), but it does occasionally provide links to reviews published elsewhere.

Classical Music: Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Organizations (Pa. and N.J.) This comprehensive website offers links and descriptions of dozens of music organizations, broadcasters and related sources. It’s the brainchild of Richard Greene, who originally launched it as a guide to black classical musicians and subsequently expanded its reach. astro.temple.edu/~rgreene/BlackComp/9_philadelphiamusic.htm

artblog. This continuing conversation about visual arts in Philadelphia between Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof is personal, passionate and fun, and covers plenty of ground as well. Updated daily, or close to it. www.fallonandrosof.com/artblog.html.

Inliquid.com. This not-for-profit organization showcases an extensive collection of work by local, national and international artists. It’s also an excellent source for what’s happening weekly in the Philadelphia visual arts world. www.inliquid.com/xindexx.html.

ArtsJournal. A comprehensive and well-organized daily Internet digest of arts and cultural journalism from more than 200 English-language newspapers and magazines and publications. (Stories from sites that charge for access are excluded.) The site, based in San Francisco, also includes a blogging corner where professional critics can argue with amateurs. Editor is Douglas McLennan, formerly an arts columnist and arts reporter with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Weekly. www.artsjournal.com.

"Arts & Letters Daily." A good national daily clearinghouse of news, commentary and debate on arts and culture, sponsored by the Chronicle of Higher Education. www.aldaily.com

signandsight.com. Arts, essays and ideas from German media. In effect it’s a fresh gathering of insights into European eggheads. And the whole site is in English.

Spector’s Art Jaw. In theory, artists prefer to let their work speak for itself. But Art Jaw counter-intuitively invites Philadelphia visual artists, critics, teachers and students to discuss who they are, what they do and how they got where they are today. Operated by Spector, the  South Street neighborhood gallery. www.artjaw.com.

Modern Symphony. This new web magazine devoted to serious music is difficult to navigate, often naive in tone and heavy with reprints. It fills a void nevertheless, and can only grow more sophisticated with the passage of time. www.modernsymphony.com.

Black Composers. An impressive rejoinder to anyone who believes that African-Americans lack interest or facility in classical music. Richard Greene’s site provides an exhaustive guide to black composers of serious music and their recordings, plus a good deal more, with special emphasis on Philadelphia. www.blackcomposer.com.