Has Paris Nightlife Gone To Sleep? "According to an online petition entitled "When the Night Quietly Dies," which was organized by a group from the techno and electronic music scene, the City of Lights is in danger of becoming the "European Capital of Sleep." Among the complaints listed in the petition are the closure of leading bars, strict rules on noise and smoking regulations."

Der Spiegel 11/20/09

email this story | Posted 11/20/09@08:01AM

And What Is Art For, Anyway? The Independent offers a debate on the question, with entries from, among others, theatre director Simon McBurney, novelist Lionel Shriver, Serpentine Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones, and nine thoughtful readers. (Says Shriver, "This assignment is a formula for sounding like a prat.")

The Independent (UK) 11/19/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@09:53PM

Live Online, Seeking Better Data On Arts' Economic Impact On Friday, "an assortment of academics, federal bureaucrats, and staffers from private think tanks and research organizations will assemble in Washington, and in cyberspace at www.nea.gov." The forum is an attempt "to broaden and improve the statistical evidence" that what artists do "is not just fluff and filigree, but part of the dollars-and-cents fiber of the country."

Los Angeles Times 11/19/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@05:58AM

What Are The Rules For Being A Good Critic? "Bloggers are wondering just that this week as Charles Spencer, the Telegraph's chief theatre critic, kicked the discussion off … 'The critic's obligations can be summed up very briefly,' he writes. 'Arrive sober, stay awake, stay to the end and don't take a bribe unless it is big enough to allow you to retire in comfort for the rest of your life'." Is that really all?

The Guardian (UK) 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@10:31PM

Armenia's New Arts Center: 'A Mad Work Of Architectural Megalomania' Michael Kimmelman on the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan: "Imagine an Art Deco version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon stretching nearly the height of the Empire State Building, its decorations coded with Armenian symbolism. Did I mention the artificial waterfalls?" What the Center will house, however, is a different question.

New York Times 11/19/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@09:48PM

What's The Etiquette For Spoilers? In this era of live blogging and TiVo time-shifting, "[p]eople are, if anything, more insistent on keeping their bubbles of cultural innocence intact. Heaven forbid they should learn that, in a romantic comedy that opened three weeks ago, the guy gets the girl in Act 3."

Chicago Tribune 11/20/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@07:16AM

Panicking Over A 2012 Apocalypse? NASA Says You Can Relax What with the movie, the Mayan calendar, and the solar-galactic-alignment thing, one NASA astronomer has "been getting about 20 letters and e-mail messages a day from people … scared out of their wits," seriously wondering if they should euthanize themselves and loved ones before the end of the world less than three years hence. So the agency "felt it was prudent to provide a resource."

New York Times 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@10:15PM

Get Ready For Graphics Transmitted Right Onto Your Contact Lenses "A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display" - graphics transmitted right onto the lens and into its wearer's field of vision. Uses might "include subtitles when conversing with a foreign-language speaker, directions in unfamiliar territory and captioned photographs."

New Scientist 11/12/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@10:02PM

Tampa Bay PAC Gets A New Name (And Several Million Dollars) "Thanks to what was billed as the largest individual philanthropic gift made to a cultural institution in the bay area, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center will be renamed the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts." The donation is thought to be upwards of $20 million.

St. Petersburg Times (Fla.) 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@09:56PM

Studying Aboriginal Art To Death "Modernity both exalts and threatens remote Aboriginal societies, yet there is no path of retreat back to some gilded pre-contact time. In fact, the academic penetration of the north is now at its height, our knowledge of the Yolngu, the clan groups round Oenpelli and the people of Groote Eylandt is incomparably greater."

The Australian 11/16/09

email this story | Posted 11/16/09@08:51AM

Copyright Bomb Set To Disrupt Music, Publishing Industries "At a time when record labels and, to a lesser extent, music publishers, find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented contraction, the last thing they need is to start losing valuable copyrights to '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s music, much of which still sells as well or better than more recently released fare. Nonetheless, the wheels are already in motion."

Wired 11/14/09

email this story | Posted 11/15/09@11:57PM

A New Approach To Selling Tickets Online "Teams are focused on season tickets, big theater groups are focused on subscriptions, that kind of stuff. We are really focused on viral social-marketing technology that will allow music venues and promoters to sell tickets."

The New York Times 11/14/09

email this story | Posted 11/15/09@09:27AM

Where's The Arts Audience? Probably Playing Video Games "How many video game addicts also do drama? Probably very few. Away from central London, professional theatre and music struggle to compete with multi-channel television, video games, pubs, clubbing and IT networking, a situation exacerbated by 25 years during which arts and culture have been downgraded in the curriculum, and the chance of being enthused decreased by the daunting documentation and fear of litigation that deters schools from organising trips."

The Guardian (UK) 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@06:02AM

How The Arts Coped With Life Behind The Iron Curtain "The cultural responses to totalitarianism and the censorship of the arts differed from country to country. But one common thread through the undergrounds of the Eastern Bloc was that artists wanted their ideas to spread and be considered by the general population. A freedom of speech, however constrained, was very much fueled through the arts."

The New York Times 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@05:10AM

Most Late-Night TV Watchers Are Women, The Writers Men "In the 1980s, [David] Letterman pioneered the kind of college-age male humor that dominates late night. But now, his audience is almost 55 percent women; [Jay] Leno's is more than 53 percent, and [Conan] O'Brien's just over one half. Yet the writing room and sensibilities of the show itself remain largely male."

The New York Times 11/12/09

email this story | Posted 11/12/09@06:47AM

Royal Opera/Ballet's Manchester Plans Uncertain Due To Ambassador-Live Nation Merger The Royal Opera House plans a full-fledged northern branch at Manchester's Palace Theatre, which was owned by Live Nation; new owner Ambassador Theatre Group may or may not want to proceed with the deal. Says ATG's CEO, "At a time when everybody is tightening their belts, we need to all be sure we can find the money to do it."

The Stage (UK) 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/11/09@09:41PM

How Doomsday Lost Its Scare Power "The arts, through sheer ubiquity, are making doomsday way too familiar. And frankly, there was a time when large-scale disaster unsettled -- when each time a movie or book or TV movie gave it serious thought, the moment could be unnerving." Not any longer.

Chicago Tribune 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/11/09@07:18AM

Worker Killed During Kansas City PAC Construction "A construction accident at the future home of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts killed one man and critically injured a second this afternoon. A portable boom lift with a basket on top toppled over about 1:45 p.m. … Both workers were in the basket before it plummeted about 50 feet to the pavement."

Kansas City Star 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@10:01PM

Does Information Really Want To Be Free? A survey of 100 people on the street, opining on whether and how much they'd pay for digital music, news and books. Fourteen of them said they'd pay for subway musicians if they had to.

New York Magazine 11/08/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@07:26AM

Same-Sex Couples Come To The Fore As Arts Donors "It's no surprise that gays and lesbians are strong supporters of the arts. What has changed in recent years is that they are choosing to be recognized as couples. Quietly in some cases, more publicly in others, these philanthropists are providing vital support and spurring the organizations to recruit other like-minded couples...."

Boston Globe 11/10/09

email this story | Posted 11/10/09@06:19AM

We're All In Crisis, And That's Not Necessarily A Bad Thing "Crisis is sexy. Crisis shakes you up. And if it changes our habits when it comes to looking at art, reading about it, or even making it, then that's probably good, too. Artists, if they're any good, are engaged in a war against habit, complacency and indifference."

The Guardian (UK) 11/09/09

email this story | Posted 11/09/09@08:19PM

Philanthropy Isn't Working -- But We Can Fix That "Much of current philanthropic giving, by foundations and individuals, neither meets the needs of our charitable organizations nor addresses some of our most urgent public needs. ... Here are nine changes that would go a long way toward making philanthropy do what we all claim we want it to do."

Wall Street Journal 11/09/09

email this story | Posted 11/09/09@07:09PM

Rocco Landesman In Peoria (Or: Humble Pie! Yum!) The NEA chairman's unflagging ebullience during "a grueling day of arts appreciation" reflects "his natural tendency to play the extrovert.... But it should be remembered that he hasn't come all this way simply to launch his national cultural crusade, under the NEA slogan he dreamed up: 'Art Works.' He's also here because being off-the-cuff can land you in the soup."

Washington Post 11/09/09

email this story | Posted 11/09/09@06:11PM

Britain Wonders If Its Comedians Have Gone Beyond The Pale "After decades of standing close to the edge, pushing the envelope and tearing down barriers, Britain's comedians find themselves … [facing] a surge of online outrage that can have broadcast executives fearful for their jobs and theatre managers pulling out of contracts."

The Independent 11/07/09

email this story | Posted 11/08/09@01:14PM

Breaking How Many Barriers? Female Scribe Copies Torah Scroll In Public In an open gallery at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, calligrapher Julie Seltzer uses a turkey feather quill to write out on parchment a new copy of Judaism's most sacred object, meticulously following age-old rules - despite the fact that those rules say she shouldn't be doing this at all.

New York Times 11/08/09

email this story | Posted 11/08/09@10:23AM

Nine Ways Of Looking At The Fall Of The Wall "Twenty years ago tomorrow, the Berlin Wall came down. The [New York Times] Op-Ed editors asked nine poets - Eastern European, American, Russian and German - to write new works inspired by that event."

New York Times 11/08/09

email this story | Posted 11/08/09@12:55AM

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

email this story | Posted 11/06/09@07:19AM

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

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@10:20PM

Foundation Giving To Fall More Than 10%, Farther In 2010 "Despite the reduced resources however, more than three-quarters of the survey respondents said the field of philanthropy would become stronger and more strategic as a result of having weathered the financial crisis."

Crain's New York Business 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/05/09@05:20AM

The Dreaded Early Morning Lecture Class, Now On Commuter Trains "Passengers on the 9:00 am train from the suburban community of Modiin to Tel Aviv put away their morning tabloids and iPods to listen to a talk from Professor Hanoch Gutfreund [of Hebrew University of Jerusalem] on 'Einstein's love letters.' The lecture was the first of the university's 'scientists on the rails' programme."

Agence France-Presse 11/04/09

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@10:29PM

'From Sanctuary To Snake Pit': A Photographic History Of The Insane Asylum Today the very term "insane asylum" conjures up images of the squalid, cruel institutions portrayed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Titicut Follies. "But asylums started out as philanthropic dreams," comfortable, well-appointed places of refuge and healing. (Consider the very term "asylum.")

New Scientist 10/30/09 (slide show)

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@10:09PM

UK Culture Secretary Warns Of Tory Threat To The Arts Britain's culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, "said Tory culture policy was totally aligned with the commercial interests of Rupert Murdoch's News International and predicted the central tenet of British cultural policy - the arm's length relationship between the arts and government - is about to be swept away."

The Guardian (UK) 11/03/09

email this story | Posted 11/04/09@07:42AM

Seattle's Giant Magnet Lets Longtime Director Go "Giant Magnet, formerly known as Seattle International Children's Festival, has let go its executive director of 14 years. ... The 23-year-old organization is known mainly for its nearly weeklong festival featuring performers -- theater artists, puppeteers, dancers, musicians -- from around the world."

Seattle Times 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@06:50AM

Deforestation Caused Demise Of Ancient Peruvian Culture "In large part because of the huarango [tree], the Nazca flourished from the time of Christ to about AD 500. They are renowned not just for their geoglyphs -- the giant drawings, whose purpose remains a mystery -- but for their pottery and textiles."

Los Angeles Times 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@05:42AM

Rocco Landesman's Offensive Play "In a freewheeling conversation..., Mr. Landesman was true to form--brashly candid. But his provocative words in both [a recent Brooklyn] speech and our discussion suggest that he doesn't see what's looming between him and the goal--political opponents, waiting to tackle him."

Wall Street Journal 11/03/09

email this story | Posted 11/03/09@05:19AM

Boldface Names Join Obama's Arts Advisory Panel Yo-Yo Ma, Edward Norton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Forest Whitaker, Anna Wintour and Alfre Woodard are among those tapped for the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a largely ceremonial panel.

Washington Post 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@06:11PM

The Trouble With Boards "Most board members I meet are scared and frustrated and most staff members believe their board members are not being as generous or as helpful as they should be during this crisis."

Huffington Post 11/02/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@07:23AM

Las Vegas Dreams Crash "Over the last two decades, no other American city grew as quickly as Las Vegas. In 1980, it had 460,000 inhabitants; now it has 2 million. But now, the recession has blasted open one of its deepest craters here in this city surrounded by the Mojave Desert. Las Vegas now has the country's highest rate of home foreclosures, and more than 70 percent of homeowners here owe more on their mortgages than their houses or condos are worth. Since 2006, the average home price has dropped by a half."

Der Spiegel 10/30/09

email this story | Posted 11/02/09@01:13AM

José Antonio Abreu Makes The Basic Case For Arts Education "The distribution in the world of arts education is tremendously unjust. When arts education takes the place in our society that it deserves, we will have much less delinquency and violence, and much more motivation towards noble achievement."

The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/31/09

email this story | Posted 11/01/09@08:47AM