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Friday, September 10, 2010

current top story
Big Ratings, Bigger Controversy for Ramadan Soap Opera
The serial Ma Malakat Aymanukum (a Quranic phrase meaning "what your right hands possess" or "what is rightfully yours"), broadcast nightly on Syrian TV during the holy month, directly tackles such touchy subjects as the veil, corruption, religious extremism, "honor killings" and the violent repression of women. AP 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:54PM

publishing
So South Africans Don't Read? So South Africa, where illiteracy runs high, stands accused of a deeply unliterary culture. Stephen Johnson, managing director of publisher Random House Struik, told the Mail & Guardian: "Books and reading are simply not on the national agenda at all. It's shameful." The Guardian (UK) 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:42AM
issues
Do Ancient Mummies Have Right To Privacy? "Anatomist Frank Rühli and ethicist Ina Kaufmann of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, argue that this is disturbing because research on mummies is invasive and reveals intimate information such as family history and medical conditions. And, of course, the subjects cannot provide consent." New Scientist 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:26AM
media
Will 3D TV Catch On? Not Judging By Early Surveys "Aside from the cost of buying 3D sets at a time the technology is just becoming available, the glasses required to watch them are a major hindrance. Fifty-seven per cent of people surveyed cited the glasses as a reason they were not likely to buy a set. Nearly nine in 10 people worry that it will constrain them from multitasking while the TV is on, the survey said." CBC 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:22AM
music
The Art Of Starting A New Orchestra In A Tough Economy Ask the genial Carlton Woods about creating an orchestra in hard economic times, and he hardly lifts an eyebrow. "If you wait for all the stars to align properly, you'll probably not start anything," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:00AM
media
Emmy Rival Sets TV Awards Date "The Paley Center for Media -- formed in March to explore opportunities to create an awards alternative to the Emmys, reportedly encompassing all dayparts and genres -- has scheduled its first awards program for May 2012 in New York City, the organization announced on Wednesday." The Wrap 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@06:54AM
visual
Vatican Says High Tourist Volume Is Damaging Sistine Chapel "Signs of danger for the frescoes, which include Michelangelo's "The Last Judgement" behind the altar and the nine scenes from the Book of Genesis he painted on the ceiling of the chapel, were detected this summer during a routine dusting." CBC 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@06:48AM
music
Jazz at Lincoln Center to Tour Cuba "The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will take its first trip to Cuba next month as part of a cultural exchange with the Cuban Institute of Music, the company will announce Thursday." Wall Street Journal 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:59PM
theatre
What Makes for Good Children's Theater? "It is absolutely possible to create work for young people that is artistically thrilling for both kids and adults." Joe Giardina, director of education at the New Victory Theater in New York, offers suggestions to performers and parents alike. ("Don't ignore age recommendations.") New York Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:57PM
dance
Carreño to Retire From ABT "José Manuel Carreño, the veteran American Ballet Theater dancer, has announced he is retiring in August 2011." The Cuban-American star, who has just announced plans to lead a new dance festival in Sarasota, will continue to perform as a guest artist. New York Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:51PM
dance
Hip-Hop Dance Crew Gets Long-Term Vegas Gig "The Monte Carlo casino-resort has replaced longtime Las Vegas Strip headline magician Lance Burton with … Jabbawockeez, the first-season winner of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew" competition." AP 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:41PM
visual
LACMA-Watts Towers Deal Stalls Over Liability "The city's bid to enlist the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as a key player in conserving the Watts Towers has hit a snag as LACMA seeks a guarantee that it won't be held financially liable for any damage to the folk-art masterpiece that might result if its work on the towers were to go awry." Los Angeles Times 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:38PM
visual
The Ansel Adams Real-or-Fake Showdown "Works from the three leading players in this summer's big art-photography controversy will be hung in a Los Angeles gallery on Saturday for a brief exhibition aimed at giving folks a chance to see what the hubbub is all about, and decide for themselves." Los Angeles Times 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:37PM
media
Google to Go Where Web TV Went Before "CEO Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow full Internet browsing via the television, would be free, and Google would work with a variety of program makers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers." Reuters 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:27PM
media
David Hare on Mad Men: It's Not About the '60s "But surely the reason that the alcohol, the sexism, the insecurity, the duplicity, the bare-faced lying and the status anxiety at work have taken such hold on the public imagination is because they so perfectly match our own experiences. Has anything really changed?" The Guardian (UK) 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:24PM
music
Pasadena Playhouse Gets a Resident Opera Company "For 14 years, the Intimate Opera Company was on the move, appearing around the San Gabriel Valley in places including a bookstore-coffee shop, a retirement community and a hotel ballroom. No more. The company says it's becoming the 'opera company in residence' at the Pasadena Playhouse." Los Angeles Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:22PM
people
Ingmar Bergman's Truth and Lies The filmmaker claimed that he never kept any of his papers or effects; in fact, he carefully collected them at his Baltic island retreat. "There's always a germ of truth in everything he says," says a curator. "People tend to interpret his movies as straight autobiographies when, in fact, he took a tremendous amount of creative license." Los Angeles Times 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:21PM
people
Godard Might Show Up to Accept His Oscar After All "The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday it had received 'a cordial, handwritten note' from 79-year-old Godard in response to its notification that he would receive a statuette." The note "indicated that, schedule permitting, he would come to Los Angeles for the November 13 Governors Awards event." Reuters 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:19PM
theatre
British Musicals Become a Global Export Industry "The appeal of a blonde-wigged and warbling Elle Woods shimmying through Legally Blonde in the Philippines, say? Or the interest in seeing Billy Elliott's gritty northern mining town replicated in South Korea? Major British productions no longer just travel back and forth across the Atlantic; they're franchised across the planet." The Guardian (UK) 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:18PM
theatre
America Exports Civil War Reenactment to Britain "It's hard to say whether American re-enactors would allow a digital camera on the 19th-century battlefield. But in the U.K., rules are a bit more casual. Because there's little personal connection to the Civil War, the British can have more fun with it." NPR 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:17PM
visual
Artists Do the Curating at Reopened Israel Museum "What do Marcel Duchamp's readymades have to do with a Chinese mandarin's robe? And what is the link between the crowns of African kings and a synagogue in South America? These are some of the questions raised by three contemporary artists who were asked by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to select pieces from its vast collections to create their own special exhibitions." International Herald Tribune 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:14PM
visual
Some Looted Iraqi Antiquities Recovered - As Others Disappear "Gold earrings made for an Assyrian queen, a sacred 4,000-year-old statue, and 540 other looted pieces of Iraq's ancient history were formally returned to Iraq on Monday … [But] a previous shipment of 632 stolen pieces recovered in the US [went] missing after being delivered to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office last year." Christian Science Monitor 09/07/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:12PM
people
Zaha Hadid, Superstar "[The] media has mythologised her as a diva who sometimes uses a megaphone in her Clerkenwell [London] office, and who hobnobs with A-list friends such as Karl Lagerfeld. She encourages it, playfully: today her toenails are the colour of Greek lemons, to match [her] chic canary-yellow coat." The Independent (UK) 09/06/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@08:54PM
music
Bang-on-a-Can Marathon Exports Itself to Philly BoaC executive director Kenny Savelson: "It's a melting pot. We're a bit like mad scientists putting all of this in a room with the audience and creating a new experience." BoaC co-founder Julia Wolfe: "Philadelphia is such a beautiful old historic city that, in a way, it's more radical to bring this into that environment." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@08:23PM
media
Big Ratings, Bigger Controversy for Ramadan Soap Opera The serial Ma Malakat Aymanukum (a Quranic phrase meaning "what your right hands possess" or "what is rightfully yours"), broadcast nightly on Syrian TV during the holy month, directly tackles such touchy subjects as the veil, corruption, religious extremism, "honor killings" and the violent repression of women. AP 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:54PM
media
Iraqi Version of Candid Camera Just Makes People Angry "In this Baghdad version of Punk'd, famous Iraqis - actors, singers and sports figures - are … [stopped] at a routine checkpoint. Hidden cameras then capture the reaction as soldiers accuse the passenger of carrying a homemade bomb. … But this is Iraq, not MTV. Here, it gets ugly fast." NPR 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:52PM
issues
No More Mehtas? Dwindling Parsis Try to Rebuild Their Numbers Zoroastrianism, possibly the world's oldest surviving religion (and the faith that gave us the Mehtas, the Tatas, and Freddie Mercury), is down to 140,000 adherents worldwide. They don't accept converts or intermarriage. In an attempt to keep from disappearing, the Parsi community in Mumbai has launched a campaign that includes speed dating and fertility clinics. BBC 09/07/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:50PM
ideas
What Do We Lose When Languages Die? "For one thing, there is the complex matter of why an indigenous community might choose to abandon its mother tongue for English (or Spanish or French or Portuguese, as the case may be). … [L]anguage death could be seen as just an extreme form of language change - a natural process that has been going on for thousands of years." Obit Mag 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:48PM
music
NPR's Editorial Position on Klingon Opera "Yes, we realize that Klingons are actually human actors dressed up with prosthetics and make up and that the opera in question is more an artifact of extreme nerdery than a genuine work of an alien culture. Still, due to a gnawing fear of retaliation by people who have access to home-made weapons that look like they could chop off our blog-writing hands, we are treating it as the latter." NPR 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:46PM
ideas
Where Is the Great American Rabbi? "The Jewish world of the 21st century has very few, if any, rabbis and scholars universally accepted as 'great' or 'sagely' who are admired even by those outside the specific sect, stream, or group on which the rabbi in question presides." Is this an issue of personnel or of the changing nature of Judaism? Slate 09/07/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:40PM
music
Where's the Great (Classical) Jewish Sacred Music? With all the great Jewish musicians the world has known, why does Judaism have no sacred repertoire to match the enormous body of religious classical music that Christianity has spawned? Miles Hoffman has some ideas. New York Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:39PM
people
Roald Dahl: the Shlimazl Behind the Monster "Dahl had an idyllic childhood until the age of 3, when his older sister suddenly died and was followed, weeks later, by her heartbroken father. This was the beginning of a toxic tsunami of bad luck that would toss Dahl around for the rest of his life. … [It's] sometimes hard to know … whether to root for Dahl or for whatever angry hell-demon seemed so determined to bring him down." New York 09/06/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:21PM
publishing
Attention, Starving Book Critics! WSJ Launching Book Review Section "The book review will be a pull-out section that will be inserted in one of the newly created sections for The Weekend Journal that will launch later this month." New York Observer 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:09PM

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Today's Headlines (by topic)

ideas
What Do We Lose When Languages Die? - Obit Mag 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:48PM

Where Is the Great American Rabbi? - Slate 09/07/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:40PM

more Ideas...

dance
Carreño to Retire From ABT - New York Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:51PM

Hip-Hop Dance Crew Gets Long-Term Vegas Gig - AP 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:41PM

Dance In The White House. Real Dance. I Mean... - Boston Globe (AP) 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:52AM

more Dance...

issues
Do Ancient Mummies Have Right To Privacy? - New Scientist 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:26AM

No More Mehtas? Dwindling Parsis Try to Rebuild Their Numbers - BBC 09/07/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:50PM

more Issues...

media
Will 3D TV Catch On? Not Judging By Early Surveys - CBC 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:22AM

Emmy Rival Sets TV Awards Date - The Wrap 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@06:54AM

Google to Go Where Web TV Went Before - Reuters 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:27PM

David Hare on Mad Men: It's Not About the '60s - The Guardian (UK) 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:24PM

Big Ratings, Bigger Controversy for Ramadan Soap Opera - AP 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:54PM

Iraqi Version of Candid Camera Just Makes People Angry - NPR 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:52PM

more Media...

music
The Art Of Starting A New Orchestra In A Tough Economy - The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:00AM

Jazz at Lincoln Center to Tour Cuba - Wall Street Journal 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:59PM

Pasadena Playhouse Gets a Resident Opera Company - Los Angeles Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:22PM

Bang-on-a-Can Marathon Exports Itself to Philly - Philadelphia Inquirer 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@08:23PM

NPR's Editorial Position on Klingon Opera - NPR 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:46PM

Where's the Great (Classical) Jewish Sacred Music? - New York Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:39PM

Hooked On That New Conductor High - Washington Post 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@08:50AM

Financially-Ailing Philadelphia Orchestra Gets A $4.5 Million Boost - Philadelphia Inquirer 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:57AM

more Music...

people
Ingmar Bergman's Truth and Lies - Los Angeles Times 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:21PM

Godard Might Show Up to Accept His Oscar After All - Reuters 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:19PM

Zaha Hadid, Superstar - The Independent (UK) 09/06/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@08:54PM

Roald Dahl: the Shlimazl Behind the Monster - New York 09/06/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:21PM

more People...

publishing
So South Africans Don't Read? - The Guardian (UK) 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@07:42AM

Attention, Starving Book Critics! WSJ Launching Book Review Section - New York Observer 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:09PM

Confessions of an Ex-Bibliophile - Slate 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:08PM

Canadian Literary Magazines Lose Government Funding - The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@08:31AM

World's Most Expensive Book Being Auctioned Again - BBC 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:45AM

more Publishing...

theatre
What Makes for Good Children's Theater? - New York Times 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:57PM

British Musicals Become a Global Export Industry - The Guardian (UK) 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:18PM

America Exports Civil War Reenactment to Britain - NPR 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:17PM

more Theatre...

visual
Vatican Says High Tourist Volume Is Damaging Sistine Chapel - CBC 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/10/10@06:48AM

LACMA-Watts Towers Deal Stalls Over Liability - Los Angeles Times 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:38PM

The Ansel Adams Real-or-Fake Showdown - Los Angeles Times 09/10/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:37PM

Artists Do the Curating at Reopened Israel Museum - International Herald Tribune 09/08/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:14PM

Some Looted Iraqi Antiquities Recovered - As Others Disappear - Christian Science Monitor 09/07/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@09:12PM

Belvoir Castle Selling Poussin To Fund Its Future - BBC 09/09/10
email this story | Posted 09/09/10@07:49AM

more Visual...