WTC Office Park Design Unveiled "Design guidelines intended to give three-dimensional form to the World Trade Center redevelopment project - but not quite as exactingly as a draft prepared last year - are now being circulated for comment among planners, architects and officials." The plans focus on the 5-building office park that will surround the Ground Zero site, an aspect of the plan which lacks the glamour of the Freedom Tower and PATH station which garnered so much attention when they were unveiled several months ago, but which will have much to do with defining the eventual look and feel of the area. The New York Times 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 7:03 am
Protests Over Governor-General's Award "Some protests were logged yesterday with the Canada Council for the Arts, which recently selected the controversial artist Istvan Kantor (a.k.a. Monty Cantsin) as a winner of the Governor-General's Award for Visual and Media Arts. Kantor gained notoreity (and a lifetime ban from the National Gallery in Ottawa) for one specialty, using his own blood to paint on gallery walls." But Council officials insist that the number of protests they've heard is minimal, and that media interest is out of proportion to the actual size of the controversy. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 6:48 am
Hubble Paints A Van Gogh "Scientists say the latest image from the Hubble space telescope bears remarkable similarities to Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, one of his most famous paintings and renowned for its bold whorls of light sweeping across a raging night sky." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 12:25 am
The Koolhaas Effect - Architecture Of The Unconventional Architect Rem Koolhaas is involved in aa series of unconventional projects across the globe. "His unorthodox choice of project reflects an impatience with the rules of a profession that he entered only late in life." Financial Times 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 12:08 am
Iraq Exploration Will Rewrite The History Books There are so many archaeological sites in Iraq, and the technology for exploring them has progressed so much that if they are researched in the next decade, they will rewrite what we know about the history of the region. "A decade of research in Iraq could rewrite the books of archaeology, no question. There is just a phenomenal amount of history in this country and much of it is yet to be discovered. But over time it will be and we'll have to totally rethink what we know." Reuters 03/04/04
Posted: 03/04/2004 11:48 pm
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LUCIANO PAVAROTTI - Live in New York at the Met! Bid on two (2) Orchestra Seating tickets to see Pavarotti in Puccini's "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on Saturday, March 6, 2004. This is one of the great tenor's final performances in a full opera at the Met as he begins a worldwide farewell tour! BID NOW! |
RIAA Head: Piracy "Killing" Music Biz The head of the Recording Association of America says online piracy is killing the music business. "He told a conference in London that a 31% decline in music sales between 1999 and 2002 was primarily due to piracy. 'More music is being consumed than at any time in history, it's just that less of it is being paid for'." BBC 03/04/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 5:49 am
- Kazaa: The Recording Industry's Killing Us! "The makers of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing software, failed to quash a court order Thursday that allowed the music industry to raid its Sydney-based offices, prompting a furious response from its chief executive. In February, the music industry was granted an Anton Piller order... allowing it to raid 12 sites across Australia to seize documents and data. Sites raided included the offices of Sharman Networks, the home of its chief executive, several universities and other companies that were believed to be holding information relating to Kazaa. Following the raids, Sharman cried foul. It made an application to have the order invalidated by Australia's federal court." Wired 03/04/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 5:48 am
How To Make A Marxist Turn In His Grave It's difficult to imagine the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara being pleased with the idea of his face being plastered all over posters, t-shirts, umbrellas, and other assorted trinkets. But at some point in recent years, the famous portrait of Guevara was usurped by the bizarre and irony-proof world of high fashion, and now, the face represents nothing more than any other hot look of the current season. "How did an avowed Marxist become, literally, the poster boy for conspicuous capitalist consumption? Is it Che's story that fascinates, or has his memory been usurped by that sole image, one that speaks to a life many know little, if anything, about?" The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 6:39 am
Spawning A New Era Of Copyright Law Author Neil Gaiman has won a major court victory over copyright and intellectual property issues relating to the characters in the comic book Spawn, which Gaiman claimed included characters from his Sandman series, used without his permission. "Intellectual property experts predict the appellate decision will have broader influence on joint authorship issues, giving everyone who participates in a creative work a potential copyright claim." Chicago Tribune 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 6:23 am
Keeping The Arts Alive In A War Zone Israel is not an easy place to live at the moment, with violence and terrorism seemingly around every corner, and little prospect for short-term improvement. But somehow, Israel's artistic and cultural scene continues to thrive, despite (maybe because of?) the political and ethnic strife. "Cultural life in Israel has always been rich and vibrant, even in times of crisis... This is not simply a boost to the morale; it is something Israelis need." Miami Herald 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 6:01 am
UC Davis PAC - And Where Are The Students? The Mondavi performing arts center at the University of California at Davis has a been a success with audiences. But there's one thing - in its first season, the Mondavi center sold only 13 percent of its tickets to students. And why are students saying away? California Aggie (Davis) 03/04/04
Posted: 03/04/2004 10:53 pm
Disney Faces Pressure To Can Eisner Disney's Michael Eisner has already lost his position as board chairman, and several prominent board members are putting serious pressure on the company to remove him as CEO as well. Eisner's detractors say that he has lost the confidence not only of his own employees, but of institutional investors around the world. "They contend that he has done little since the mid-1990s to boost the company's stock price and earnings to acceptable levels, as ABC television ratings have languished and few hits have emerged from the Disney animation factory." Los Angeles Times 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 6:43 am
- Previously: The Top Mouse Takes A Hit "In a remarkable vote of defiance against a once unassailable executive, shareholders owning an estimated 43 percent of the Walt Disney Company declined on Wednesday to support the re-election of Michael D. Eisner, the chairman and chief executive, to the board. The mounting shareholder dissent prodded the board to strip Mr. Eisner of the chairman's title Wednesday night and give it to George J. Mitchell, Disney's presiding director and a former senator. Disney board members hope the split of the chairman and chief executive titles will pacify investors disgruntled about an underperforming stock price and Mr. Eisner's autocratic management style." The New York Times 03/04/04
Immortal - Haitink At 75 Bernard Haitink turns 75. "The great Dutch conductor has been around for so long and has been so prominent - first as head of the London Philharmonic, then in charge of Glyndebourne and Covent Garden, in addition to his regular guest work with a range of orchestras - that it is hard not to think that he must somehow be immortal." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 12:20 am
The Award For Crassest Use Of Overtime Goes To... Last week, just before a performance of the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof was scheduled to begin, the sister of theater legend Jerome Robbins, who was attending the show, collapsed and died in the aisle. The show was delayed for nearly an hour, as paramedics attempted to revive Sonia Cullinen, but the performance eventually went on. But where most in attendance saw an unavoidable tragedy, the musicians playing in the Fiddler pit apparently saw a chance to grab some extra cash, and demanded multiple units of overtime pay to compensate them for the delay. Michael Riedel reports that the pit orchestra wanted the stagehands' union to join them in requesting overtime, but were turned down. New York Post 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 6:55 am
Five New NY Theatres Five new theatres are opening in manhattan. "All are in Midtown. Combined, they represent the continuation of one of the city's broadest theatrical building booms in decades, perhaps the most active period since the landmark Broadway venues were erected back in the 1910s and 1920s." Backstage 03/04/04
Posted: 03/04/2004 11:32 pm
Should Critics Canvas The Audience? This winter an actor wrote to the Washington Post, complaining about negative reviews and suggesting that critics ought to pay more attention to the reactions of audiences to a play. So "what is the critic's role in relationship to the reader? Isn't he, at least in part, a consumer advocate and, as such, shouldn't he acknowledge audience response and, by extension, the fact that his aesthetics might not be in sync with popular sensibilities (if that is indeed the case)?" Backstage 03/04/04
Posted: 03/04/2004 11:26 pm
In The Theatre - Brand Loyalty? Product placement is rampant in the movies and getting more blatant all the time. But inserting brands into plays as advertising endorsement has been rare. But that could be changing... Backstage 03/04/04
Posted: 03/04/2004 11:13 pm
Book Critics' Circle Prizes Announced Edward P. Jones has taken the top fiction prize at the National Book Critics' Circle Awards, for his acclaimed novel of slave life on a Southern plantation, The Known World. Non-fiction winners included Paul Hendrickson and William Taubman, and a lifetime achievement award was presented to Studs Terkel. Washington Post (AP) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 7:13 am
The Well-Read Accountant It's World Book Day. And who's celebrating most? Accountants. Why? A new survey in the UK for World Book Day reveals that "accountants spend more time reading books for pleasure than any other profession." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 12:39 am
Print It Danno! (The Prices, We Mean) UK authors are protesting a plan to stop printing the prices of books on the books themselves. "The idea is that instead of being published with a suggested price, books should be published like eggs, as it were, so that the retailer alone would decide what to charge. But books are not like eggs. Every time we buy eggs, we are looking for the same thing we had last time; but every time we buy a book, we're looking for something different. So when it comes to looking at the cost, we have nothing to go by, at the moment, except the recommended retail price." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 12:35 am
Tsing Loh Fired From KCRW The new American crackdown on broadcast "obscenity" has claimed its first public radio personality. Commentator Sandra Tsing Loh, who is known nationally for her contributions to Public Radio International's Marketplace and This American Life, has been fired from her regular position at Los Angeles-area station KCRW after using an expletive in one of her Sunday monologues. Loh claims that the word was supposed to be bleeped out in editing, but the station claims it was a deliberate attempt to flout broadcast standards, and, in a telling statement, called the firing "a precautionary measure to show the station has distanced itself from Loh in case the FCC investigates the matter." Los Angeles Times 03/04/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 5:35 am
Ballet San Jose Back From The Brink "Silicon Valley electronics retailer John Fry has stepped in to rescue the financially battered Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley with a $1 million contribution and an extraordinary commitment to take over the board chairmanship. The gift is the largest single contribution in the ballet's history and comes after a recent audit showed its deficit hovering at $1.5 million... The $1 million check was hand-delivered by Fry late Wednesday. According to [company CEO Charles] Hart, the ballet began writing checks to its creditors Thursday." San Jose Mercury News 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 5:54 am
Viva Paul Taylor The Paul Taylor Company opens its new season in New York, and the company looks reborn, writes Tobi Tobias. They are "dancing as if an ardent, intensified study of echt Taylor style had reanimated it." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 03/05/04
Posted: 03/05/2004 12:50 am
The Case Of the Stolen Ballet Akiva Talmi claims that the press agent he trained has stolen the ballet company in tiny Pittsfield, Mass that he spent 30 years building. Now there's the matter of the 75-city tour and the presenters that are confused... Albany Times-Union 03/04/04
Posted: 03/04/2004 11:07 pm
