When God Was Dead: A Look Back Remember that notorious 1966 issue of Time magazine whose cover read simply, "Is God Dead?" The article covered "what may be the last theological craze in history," an intellectual movement "to turn Nietzsche's proclamation of the deity's demise from frightful blasphemy into the basis of a new kind of faith." - Obit Mag 11/05/09

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The Brainwave Sofa (We're Not Kidding) "The couch's lumpy, bumpy shape is a three-dimensional version of a brain scan, specifically a three-second recording of designer Lucas Maassen's alpha brain waves as he closed his eyes and thought of the word 'comfort'." - Wired 11/04/09

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The Red Shoes Restored, With Shoes Redder Than Ever Manohla Dargis: "This born-again version of The Red Shoes, digitally resuscitated from battered prints and negatives, … is essential viewing because even if you think you have seen the movie before its restoration, if you're under 60, you probably haven't seen it anywhere near its original Technicolor glory." - New York Times 11/06/09

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Bangarra Dance Theatre At 20 Founded in 1989, Bangarra is now the flagship performing company of Australia's (and perhaps the world's) aboriginal peoples. "When you sit down and see a Bangarra show, you don't realise you've just been given a 50-minute history lesson, you just feel like you've been taken on a journey and it comes back to you in waves.'' - The Age (Melbourne) 10/30/09

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The Future Of College "What is the future of this thing called college? What became quickly and painfully obvious in their deliberations is that the center will not hold. In something of an irony, higher education leaders acknowledged here Thursday that the very system that put them in the position to run the nation's colleges and universities is no longer fit to groom their successors or the rest of the U.S. work force." - InsideHigherEd 11/05/09

email this story | Posted 11/06/09@07:43AM

Who "Advises" The President On The Arts Want to get appointed to the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities? It's a star-studded group. Here's a little something to think about... - Politico 11/06/09

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Durham, NC, PAC $1M In Black, Gives $400K To City Eight months after opening, "the Durham Performing Arts LLC [has] made a profit of $1,004,265, of which 40 percent, or $401,706, is to be shared with the city, which owns the building." (Who says the arts aren't an economic engine?) - The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) 11/05/09

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EU To Give Teeniest Tiniest Protection To Those Accused Of Illegally Downloading Media "Some members of the European Parliament felt nobody should lose their connection until after they had been prosecuted in a court for illegally downloading content. The new rules take the form of an amendment to a much wider revision of all Europe's telecoms regulations." - BBC 11/05/09

email this story | Posted 11/06/09@07:32AM

Disney Moves To Give Mickey Mouse A Little 'Tude "For decades, the Walt Disney Company has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass, fearful that even the tiniest tinkering might tarnish the brand. … Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future." - New York Times 11/05/09

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Time To Close The Rock Hall Of Fame? "The Hall of Fame is a notoriously top-down institution, with an elite group of insiders making up a nominating committee that pre-selects their own idiosyncratic idea of the worthy candidates. So all of us lowly peons are only allowed to vote for 5 out of 12 possible candidates, which judging from this year's nominees makes for slim pickings." - Los Angeles Times 11/06/09

email this story | Posted 11/06/09@07:48AM

Pianists As Super Heroes (Okay, Virtuosos, Then) "Today's virtuosos and super-virtuosos are reluctant members of the club. Many of the younger generation are shunning the repertoire and the older ones are shunning the label. So why are pianists wary of being associated with this tradition?" - The Times (UK) 11/05/09

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Honolulu Symphony Fails To Make Payroll "The chairman of the Honolulu Symphony's board of directors [said] that as of last Friday, the symphony did not have enough money to make its payroll. … He refused to confirm whether the orchestra will file for bankruptcy or postpone part of its season. The symphony has already put off two concerts this weekend." - KITV (Honolulu) 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@10:16PM

Rolando Villazón Says His Voice Is Back "In a new video that was posted on his official website last month and has since been making the rounds on YouTube, [the tenor] declares that his [vocal cord] surgery was a success and even provides a brief vocal demonstration for his fans." He says he will return to the opera stage next year. - Los Angeles Times 11/05/09 (includes video)

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@10:11PM

Vancouver Opera Celebrates Its Golden Anniversary It's been an eventful 50 years for opera in the City of Rainshine: a legendary 1963 Norma with Sutherland and Horne; Sutherland's husband, Richard Bonynge, as boss during the '70s; a lively Britten-and-Janacek phase; and plenty of the argument, strife and money troubles that are endemic to the art form. - Vancouver Sun 11/04/09

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Real-Life Dead-Baby Mystery Becomes Serialized Radio Opera "Baby Kintyre, a radio opera by composer Dean Burry to be broadcast in serial over five Saturdays starting Nov. 7 on CBC Radio 2, … takes its inspiration from a real 1920s Toronto household where a baby was wrapped in newsprint and buried between the floorboards of an attic … only to be discovered more than 80 years later." - The Globe and Mail (Canada) 11/05/09

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Francisco Ayala, Spain's Literary Lion, Dead At 103 "Considered one of 20th-century Spain's most distinguished intellectuals, Mr. Ayala was routinely mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Besides being a novelist, he was a poet, critic, essayist, lawyer and academic sociologist. Much of his work was banned in Spain during the Franco era." - New York Times 11/05/09

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George Zoritch, 92, Ballet Russe Leading Man He was "an international star in the rival Ballet Russe companies who stood out for his matinee-idol looks and bold stage presence and who later became one of American ballet's respected teachers." - New York Times 11/06/09

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Susan Graham In Bed With Renée Fleming (With Her Ex-Boyfriend Watching) "[With] Renée and me, there's no barrier … We can do anything with each other and we don't care. … One of the reviews said we seemed giddy in bed together, and we really were." (She's talking about playing Octavian to Fleming's Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at the Met; the ex-boyfriend is conductor Edo de Waart.) - San Francisco Chronicle 11/04/09

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The Bookless Libraries? "The scientists have mostly gone online with their library needs. Cutting-edge scholars in the humanities are building new disciplines and online environments are are, in effect, libraries themselves; they are diffuse, collaborative, non-hierarchical, always changing." - InsideHigherEd 11/06/09

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Julie Taymor's Spider-Man Hangs In The Balance The producers of the long-anticipated musical are to meet with director Taymor and other creative team members to discuss the show's now-considerable cash flow, logistical and scheduling problems. - New York Times 11/05/09

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Cirque Du Soleil Creating Elvis Presley Tribute "Today, the Montreal-based Cirque said the show will be titled 'Viva ELVIS' and that it will premiere in December at its permanent home" in Las Vegas. "Choreographer Vincent Paterson … describes the production as 'an abstract biography of Elvis Presley' that will incorporate some 'acting moments' spoken in English." - Los Angeles Times 11/05/09 (includes video preview)

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Why Not? Art Under The Big Top "Paris' Pompidou Center plans to fill a colorful circus big top with Picassos, Matisses and Calders instead, creating a roving museum to take its masterpieces of modern art to France's culturally deprived rural regions and rough suburbs." - Gogle (AP) 11/05/09

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Dia Art Foundation To Return To Manhattan In 2003, the contemporary art hothouse opened a big new space in a converted Nabisco factory up the Hudson in Beacon, NY; not long afterwards, Dia closed its exhibition space in New York City. But now, "Dia [has] announced that it will be building a new home in Chelsea, which is now the downtown hotbed of Manhattan art galleries." - Time 11/05/09

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Why Are Autumn Leaves More Boring In Europe? North America is, of course, famous for the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows its trees display in the fall, and East Asia offers its own arboreal spectacular (think of all those Japanese maples). Why do the leaves of Europe offer mostly yellow and brown? The answer, it turns out, has to do with ice ages and mountain ranges. - EARTH Magazine 11/03/09

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