Los Angeles Declares Digital Piracy A "Public Nuisance", Passes Big Fines
"The county retains the right to shutter a property for up to a year for violating ordinance 13.90.010 and also gives local authorities the right to bring a civil action to 'temporarily restrain, preliminarily enjoin, and/or permanently enjoin the person or persons intentionally conducting, or knowingly maintaining or permitting the public nuisance from further conducting, maintaining, or permitting such a public nuisance.' Property owners who knowingly permit such activity can also be dinged $1,000 for each counterfeited work produced on the property." Wired 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:24PM

Tale Of The Toe Toe shoes are a major budget expense for ballet companies. The San Francisco Ballet provides 120 pairs of pointe shoes for each of its 40 female dancers. The American Ballet Theatre in New York City sets aside $350,000 for pointe shoes per season, about $7,500 per ballerina. Arizona Daily Star 05/09/08

email this story | Posted 05/09/08@09:47AM

Aussie Opera Takes A Chance On New Alice In Wonderland For a company that is only two years old and slowly emerging from the shadow of the cash-strapped Victorian State Opera, which folded in 1996, surely it would have been a safer bet to stage a popular work such as La Boheme. Richard Gill is adamant on this point. If opera as an art form doesn't take risks, it will die. "Opera has been sitting in a 19th-century museum for too long." The Australian 05/10/08

email this story | Posted 05/09/08@09:37AM

Doubts Over Australian Sale Of Picasso "Why sell the painting in Australia and not, say, New York or London? And why auction a work valued at between $5million and $7million at a time of international art market uncertainty and local nervousness about the economy?" The Australian 05/100/08

email this story | Posted 05/09/08@09:31AM

Shocker: Staatsoper Picks Woman Concertmaster "The Wiener Staatsoper, most of whose orchestra members comprise the Vienna Philharmonic, appointed a woman as its concertmaster. Albena Danailova, of Sofia, takes first chair in September. According to custom, if all goes well for two years, she will then move into the position permanently." Musical America 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/09/08@09:06AM

The Problem With Cannes "It is a festival that sometimes appears to be suffering severe personality disorder, uncertain whether it exists to celebrate art or commerce. When the two worlds collide, confusion often ensues. Parties and photo opportunities risk distracting attention from the once-important fact that there are films to be shown." The Independent (UK) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/09/08@05:49AM

Columbus Symphony To Shut Down "Out of money and having failed to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra's board of trustees said today that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October." Columbus Dispatch 05/09/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@10:27PM

America's New Embassy In China To Feature A-List Art "When the new American embassy opens in Beijing just before the start of the summer Olympics in August, it will display work by at least 18 American and Chinese contemporary artists, including Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rausch-enberg, Betty Woodman, Martin Puryear, Maya Lin, Yun-Fei Ji, and Hai Bo." The Art Newspaper 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:31PM

Andrew Lloyd Webber Warns About The Viability Of West End Theatres "The difficulty for commercial theatre owners is that such expenditure yields no economic benefit in terms of the operational viability of their buildings. Not one more seat becomes available for sale as a result. Indeed, improving the audience experience whilst retaining the architectural qualities of the building normally means losing seats, which commercial theatres can ill afford to do." The Stage 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:30PM

Los Angeles Declares Digital Piracy A "Public Nuisance", Passes Big Fines "The county retains the right to shutter a property for up to a year for violating ordinance 13.90.010 and also gives local authorities the right to bring a civil action to 'temporarily restrain, preliminarily enjoin, and/or permanently enjoin the person or persons intentionally conducting, or knowingly maintaining or permitting the public nuisance from further conducting, maintaining, or permitting such a public nuisance.' Property owners who knowingly permit such activity can also be dinged $1,000 for each counterfeited work produced on the property." Wired 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:24PM

Whoopi Goldberg To Host Tonys She's hosted the Oscars four times. "The 62nd annual Tonys, which honor the best of the 2007-08 Broadway season, will be broadcast live 8-11 p.m. EDT on CBS." Yahoo! (AP) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:22PM

Filmmaker Tries To Finance Movie By Donations Over The Web An aspiring Canadian filmmaker "launched a Web site earlier this year to raise C$1 million ($988,457) and is selling frames of his yet-to-be-made film over the Internet for C$10 a piece. In return, investors will receive a credit in his movie, advertisement rights on his site and a cut of the profits if the film makes money." Yahoo! (Reuters) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:19PM

How We "Remember" Things That Never Happened "There are two distinct types of memory: Verbatim, which allows us to recall what specifically happened at any given moment, and gist, which enables us to put the event in context and give it meaning." A new study has surprised researchers with the finding that "verbatim and gist memory are separate, parallel systems. So separate, in fact, that 'there is some evidence' they occupy different sections of the brain." Miller-McCune 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:13PM

Are Wine Buyers Stupid? (The Study Says...) "In recent months American wine drinkers have taken their turn as pop culture's punching bags. In press accounts of two studies on wine psychology, consumers have been portrayed as dupes and twits, subject to the manipulations of marketers, critics and charlatan producers who have cloaked wine in mystique and sham sophistication in hopes of better separating the public from its money." The New York Times 05/07/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:11PM

Song Banned From Pre-Tony Telecast CBS' flagship affiliate in New York has "nixed a musical number from Broadway tuner "Passing Strange" from its pre-Tony special after the net's standards and practices department declared the song We Just Had Sex inappropriate for broadcast." Variety 05/06/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:08PM

The Scourge That Is MP3 "Are MP3s degrading music? Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Coldplay don't seem to think so, as each have distributed their music, for free, online and it's worked out tremendously. For other bands, the 'leaked album' has proven a true scourge." And then there's the sound quality issue... The Guardian (UK) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:06PM

LSD As A Cultural Expression "For the LSD era there was something mythic about this initiation. Epic heroes have always descended into the underworld to emerge, however scarred, bearing new forms of wisdom. That was also the LSD archetype: descend into madness and emerge enlightened, seeing the world anew." The New York Times 05/05/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@07:02PM

The Bossa Nova At 50 "We should have been a wonderful, democratic country. Instead we had 21 years of military dictatorship, something we are still paying for. So bossa nova represents a different way of life; a culture more sophisticated than the one we have today." The Times (UK) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:58PM

A Plan For More Book Reviews? "In smaller towns, newspapers have rarely paid much attention to reviewing books or much else, for that matter, using national press services when needed. That's not likely to change. Suddenly, however, a white knight has emerged on the scene to fill that void of reviews at the hometown paper. I'm just not sure he's riding the right horse." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/04/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:54PM

Chicago's About Face Snags Prominent Director "About Face Theatre is expected to announce Thursday that Bonnie Metzgar will be the new artistic director of the company. And the Chicago theater scene will have snagged another new recruit of national stature, especially in the field of new plays." Chicago Tribune 05/07/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:48AM

When The Sponsor Becomes The Subject You've probably seen the Dove soap company's "Campaign for Real Beauty," featuring everyday women posed like models. But would you recognize it as a play? A Toronto playwright has accepted a commission from the company, and insists that the resulting stage work has nothing to do with selling soap. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:40AM

Boosting Arts Audiences On Philly's Agenda "The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance believes it can help double audience participation at area arts events over the next 12 years. And the Pew Charitable Trusts has put up $5 million to help finance an elaborate marketing effort - called Engage 2020 - to push for that goal, officials intend to announce today." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:35AM

Airport Books Get Special Cover Consideration "Publishers, especially the purveyors of what some derisively refer to as 'airport books,' actually want you to judge their books by the covers. They've arranged the jackets with that very plan in mind... Imagery, fonts, type sizes and color palette conspire to telegraph whether the stuff inside is concerned with code-crackers and shoe phones, spirits and trapdoors or rich widows and pool boys." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:31AM

Soprano Frances Yeend, 92 Acclaimed soprano Frances Yeend, a regular on New York stages in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s has died aged 92. "Her last performance with the Met was in 1963, as Gutrune in Wagner's Götterdämmerung... Most recently Ms. Yeend was an emeritus faculty member of West Virginia University in Morgantown." The New York Times 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:22AM

American Buyers Active At Sotheby's "Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and modern art on Wednesday proved to be a solid if unexciting evening... Unlike at [Tuesday's] Christie's sale, which was dominated by European buyers, at Sotheby's Americans took home 67 percent of the work, and Europeans bought 27 percent." The New York Times 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:19AM

Obscenity Charges Dropped Against Indian Artist "A court in the India has dropped legal proceedings in three cases against one of the country's best-known and controversial artists. MF Husain has been accused of obscenity in at least seven cases filed against him in a number of Indian states... In dropping criminal proceedings against the painter, the Delhi court said the painting was not obscene." BBC 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:15AM

GG Architecture Prizes Announced Canada's Governor General's Medals for excellence in architecture were announced this week, with structures in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and east Toronto being recognized. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:13AM

Schiller Remains Still A Mystery "Who is buried in Friedrich Schiller's tomb? Several people, apparently, but none of them the famous poet and playwright, according to new research. After two years of painstaking DNA research, experts have determined that none of the remains billed as those of Schiller belong to the German writer." USA Today (AP) 05/06/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:11AM

Welser-Möst Pulls Out Of Zurich Opera Production Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst has disengaged himself from a Zurich Opera production of Die Fledermaus, citing artistic differences with the opera's director. What could Welser-Möst be objecting to in the staging? Well, the vampires, for a start... Chicago Tribune (AP) 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@06:05AM

Kennedy Not Welcome At Classical Brits "Maverick violinist Nigel Kennedy says he has been 'prevented from performing' at the Classical Brit awards... Organisers confirmed that 'artistic differences' with Kennedy had 'proved insurmountable', while the star's manager said he was 'dumbfounded'." BBC 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@05:51AM

Modernist Architect Dies At 92 "Victor F. Christ-Janer, a member of a group of influential architects who built Modernist homes and offices in New Canaan, Conn., died on March 24 at the home he designed for himself there. He was 92." The New York Times 05/08/08

email this story | Posted 05/08/08@05:21AM

Russia To Spend $177 Million To Restore Pushkin Museum The Russian government says it will spend more than $177 million US to restore the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow's largest museum of European art. CBC 05/07/08

email this story | Posted 05/07/08@06:19PM

One Toronto Theatre Giant Sues Another Giant "Claiming conspiracy, fraud, a breach of the Competition Act and irreparable harm, Toronto theatre impresario Aubrey Dan is seeking an injunction to block the sale of the Canon and Panasonic Theatres to his downtown rival, David Mirvish." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/07/08

email this story | Posted 05/07/08@06:16PM

Bossa Nova Composer Luiz Bonfa with Caterina Valente in 1965

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How We "Remember" Things That Never Happened - Miller-McCune 05/08/08
Are Wine Buyers Stupid? (The Study Says...) - The New York Times 05/07/08

Tale Of The Toe - Arizona Daily Star 05/09/08
The Bossa Nova At 50 - The Times (UK) 05/08/08

LSD As A Cultural Expression - The New York Times 05/05/08

The Problem With Cannes - The Independent (UK) 05/08/08
Los Angeles Declares Digital Piracy A "Public Nuisance", Passes Big Fines - Wired 05/08/08
Filmmaker Tries To Finance Movie By Donations Over The Web - Yahoo! (Reuters) 05/08/08

Aussie Opera Takes A Chance On New Alice In Wonderland - The Australian 05/10/08
Shocker: Staatsoper Picks Woman Concertmaster - Musical America 05/08/08
Columbus Symphony To Shut Down - Columbus Dispatch 05/09/08
The Scourge That Is MP3 - The Guardian (UK) 05/08/08

A Plan For More Book Reviews? - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/04/08

Andrew Lloyd Webber Warns About The Viability Of West End Theatres - The Stage 05/08/08
Whoopi Goldberg To Host Tonys - Yahoo! (AP) 05/08/08
Song Banned From Pre-Tony Telecast - Variety 05/06/08

Doubts Over Australian Sale Of Picasso - The Australian 05/100/08
America's New Embassy In China To Feature A-List Art - The Art Newspaper 05/08/08

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