Language-As-Power "The top 20 global languages - defined in terms of their use as a first or second language - provide an interesting reflection on the fortunes of those languages that have spread by organic growth and those that have expanded by means of mergers and acquisitions. At the top of the league table is Mandarin Chinese, which has 1,052 million speakers, more than twice as many as the next highest, English, with 508 million. Third is Hindi with 487 million and fourth Spanish, with 417 million. Of course, English is a far more global language - though primarily as a second language - than Chinese, the vast majority of whose speakers live in China. But with the present rise of China - and indeed India - it would not be difficult to imagine Mandarin and Hindi becoming far more widely spoken by 2100." The Observer (UK) 03/12/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:42 pm
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Leaders Gather For Israel's Holocaust Museum Opening World leaders are gathering in Israel for the opening of the new Holocaust Museum. "Over 40 heads of state and ministers will attend the opening of the museum which details the annihilation of six million Jews during World War II and also aims to reinforce Israel's message that its existence is essential to prevent a repeat."
Reuters 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:03 am
The Art Of £500 What's the best art you can buy for £500? "My first port of call is that of any lazy bargain hunter - eBay. At the rock bottom end of the price list are an awful lot of paintings of dogs and tulips. Indeed, should I so wish, my budget could get me 50 portraits of golden Labradors; but I suspect my walls would then be petrifying, rather than powerful. At the £500 mark, there are more exotic animals; a family of elephants drinking by a lake; a tiger with a soul-piercing gaze." Financial Times (UK) 03/13/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:54 pm
Will Christo And Jeanne-Claude Move On To Colorado Project? "Since at least 1992, Christo and Jeanne- Claude have pursued "Over the River," a project to cover 6.7 miles of the Arkansas River between Cañon City and Salida with translucent fabric panels 10 to 23 feet above the water. But the controversial husband-and-wife artistic duo set it aside several years ago to focus on "The Gates." After a three-week display that New York City officials estimated drew 4 million people, including 1.5 million from outside the five boroughs, a question arises: Will the couple shift their focus back to Over the River?" Denver Post 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:52 pm
The Google Artist "Since 2000, Dennis Hwang has marked events and holidays--American and international--with drawings on, around and through the Google icon on the site's home page. That's five Valentine's Days. Four Christmases. Four 4ths of July. Four Thanksgivings. The Olympics. The holidays repeat each year; Hwang's drawings never do. His work has reached cult status. There are Web sites and blogs devoted to Hwang and his work." Chicago Tribune (HC) 03/09/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 7:06 pm
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Enhancing That Old Music CD Fans have taken to the "extras" found on DVD's. Now recording companies are trying something similar with music. "DualDiscs are two-faced contraptions that feature a full CD on one side and a DVD packed with extra stuff on the other. They have begun to take off dramatically." New York Daily News 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:54 am
Aussie Government Might Not Reduce Orchestras The Australian government indicates it won't go along with key recommendations in a report that recommended downsizing several of the country's leading orchestras. "The Government is now negotiating with the states over funding so the current size of all three orchestras can be maintained." ABCNews.com 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:00 am
Report: Orchestra Pit Not Dangerous To Hearing Researchers have determined that noise levels in the typical orchestra pit are not dangerous to players' hearing. "The researchers found that the noise exposure of players of all of the instrument groups fell below acceptable 85 dBA (noise exposure level measured in decibels – dB, corrected to the frequency response of the human ear – A) for an eight-hour day recommended by institutions such as the U.S. National Institute of Safety and Health, the International Standard Organization (ISO) and also included in the Canadian Standards Association." EurekaAlert 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:50 pm
Australian States Protest Orchestra Cuts Proposal Australia's state governments are recating angrily to proposed cuts in federal support for the countrey's orchestras. "The cuts would be made at the Tasmanian, South Australian and Queensland orchestras and the redundancies would cost $3 million. Governments in those states say they are appalled by the plan. They say the Federal Government will use the report's findings to centralise the nation's arts resources in Sydney and Melbourne." ABC.net 03/15/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:12 pm
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Words In The Service Of Art (We Think) Filmmaker Ken Burns gives the annual Nancy Hanks speech at the Kennedy Center. It was a fine speech, writes Phil Kennicott, but rather empty. He gave "what may be studied in years to come as an almost faultless rhetorical exercise in the dying language of Art, Greatness and Inspiration. Burns, the avatar of PBS, speaks beautifully about nothing, using a set of tropes and gentle fictions that, when placed together in almost any order (like refrigerator magnet poetry), seem to take you to Parnassus." Washington Post 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 8:37 am
Culture - Looking For Ground Zero What's happened to plans for cultural institutions to take up residence at the site of the World Trade Center? "In the nine months since, those arts institutions have been under pressure to prove themselves all over again. And even as the development corporation in charge of rebuilding ground zero prepares to unveil a design in the next few weeks for a museum complex at the site, it is by no means certain who will occupy it." The New York Times 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 8:17 am
Art (And Artists) Versus Infrastructure Singapore is building an arts infrastructure. That's good, writes Audrey Wong. But what about art? What about the artists? She worries that more attention is going into building up a commercial structure for art than is being spent on developing artists and their work. TodayOnline 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:17 am
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"Rings" To Toronto? Lord of the Rings, The Musical is a $30 million production waiting to happen. But where? Plans were to open in London, but that's been problematic. Latest wod is the show might land in Toronto. Producer Kevin Wallace's problem is that "the musical Rings has been finished and ready to be cast and mounted for some time. Rather than wait indefinitely for a London theatre to come open, he may have finally decided to opt for Toronto." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:46 am
The 24-Year-Old And The Big-Time Play A 24-year-old in Minnesota, tired of seeing what he considers the same old thing on stage, decided to produce his own play. But this is no small production. "He has rented the thousand-seat Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. He has hired union actors, musicians and technicians. He has built his financial structure like a Broadway production, courting three dozen investors to raise a budget estimated at more than $400,000 — more than what all but the largest theaters in the area spend over the course of an entire season. For tickets, he's charging something close to Broadway touring show prices." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 03/14/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:13 am
Seattle's ACT Theatre In Financial Trouble Again Seattle's ACT Theatre finds itself looking at a $450,000 deficit on a $5 million budget. "Over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at belt-tightening possibilities," said company manager Susan Trapnell. "One likely option is about a month of unpaid furlough for Kurt (artistic director Kurt Beattie) and me. Salary cuts for top staff are another possibility." Two years ago, ACT was on the verge of bankruptcy but pulled away from the brink of extinction with emergency austerity and fund-raising tactics. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 03/12/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:19 pm
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Poetry - The Best Of Times? What's it like to be a poet these days? Pretty good, says Billy Collins. "It's a very good time to be a poet. There are lots of prizes and opportunities to read, which wasn't the case until pretty recently." Denver Post 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 8:19 am
In Search Of Big Sales "Despite occasional hot sellers such as ''The Da Vinci Code," book sales have grown little in the past few years, and mass-market paperback sales have declined steadily. One big reason, it seems, is that baby boomers, historically the biggest mass-market buyers, increasingly find those little books too hard to read. Mass-markets are the thick, squareish paperbacks -- mostly entertainment fiction -- that you stick in your pocket or purse and read on the subway, airplane, or beach. It's a tried-and-true format. But something is wrong." Boston Globe 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:51 pm
The Serial Book-Unfinisher Paul Wells finds he never finishes books these days. "It is a dark burden to bear, this business of not finishing books. You start out with all the goodwill in the world. You flip the pages diligently. Your circle of acquaintances expands by a dozen or more as this cast of made-up people enters your life. And before you even find out how it all turns out for them, you set them aside. What's your problem? You feel ungrateful, somehow. The author put his life into these people, and I can't even stick around to see who lives or who dies? And yet, as I stare at the books in my library, I realize I have become a serial book-unfinisher." Macleans 03/09/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:48 pm
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FCC Says Monday Night Football Ad Not Indecent The FCC rules unanimously that a "steamy introductory segment to ABC's "Monday Night Football" featuring actress Nicollette Sheridan jumping into the arms of football player Terrell Owens" last fall was not indecent. "Although the scene apparently is intended to be titillating, it simply is not graphic or explicit enough to be indecent under our standard." Dallas Morning News 03/15/05
Posted: 03/15/2005 7:27 am
Coming Up: TV-Over-Internet Is TV over the internet the next big thing? "Now that broadband networks are bedding down, and it is becoming essential for millions, the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. Software giant Microsoft thinks IPTV - Internet Protocol TV - is the future of television, and it sits neatly with its vision of the connected entertainment experience." BBC 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:40 pm
Christian Group To Sue BBC Over Springer Opera A Christian group wants to take the BBC to court after the broadcaster's January airing of Jerry Springer, The Opera. "The Christian Institute says the programme breached the BBC's charter and broke the Human Rights Act by discriminating against Christians." BBC 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:38 pm
Taylor Resigns As CBC Chair Carole Taylor has resigned as chair of the CBC, a post she has held since 2001. "During her term, she introduced new conflict of interest guidelines for members of the CBC board and put through a new policy on whistleblowers. In her statement, Taylor said the public broadcaster needs improved and stable funding to produce quality work." CBC 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 7:41 pm
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Diana As Dance How to represent your favorite Royal in art? Danish choreographer Peter Schaufuss has chosen ballet for “Diana the Princess.” "This is Diana as she would have liked to be remembered: dashing around for an hour and a half in a tight white catsuit. On every hand, there are men and women literally dancing attendance upon her: Beefeaters, aids patients, paparazzi—the usual crowd. Also present are Her Majesty the Queen and her close family." The New Yorker 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:45 pm
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