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Tuesday, May 10




Ideas

Book Smart? Or Video Game Smart? Are we getting smarter? A popular new book tries to make the case, but Malcom Gladwell wonders what kind of "smart" we're talking about. "Being “smart” involves facility in both kinds of thinking—the kind of fluid problem solving that matters in things like video games and I.Q. tests, but also the kind of crystallized knowledge that comes from explicit learning. The real question is what the right balance of these two forms of intelligence might look like." The New Yorker 05/09/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 7:19 pm

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Visual Arts

Billionaire Cancels Plans For Paris Museum "François Pinault, a billionaire who is France's wealthiest art lover, announced Monday that he was abandoning plans to build a $195 million contemporary art museum on the outskirts of Paris and would instead present part of his vast collection in the Palazzo Grassi, an elegant exhibition space on the Grand Canal in Venice that he recently acquired." The New York Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:20 pm

Renaissance Painters "Corrected" Portrait Features If you could afford to have your portrait painted, wouldn't you want the artist to "correct" some of your imperfections? "Renaissance artists acted like plastic surgeons by changing the shape of noses, chins and jaws in their portraits, new forensic technology has revealed." Discovery 05/09/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 7:12 pm

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Music

Yahoo! A New Music Store Yahoo! launches a discount music download service it hopes will attract downloaders away from illegal downloading. "Yahoo Music Unlimited is more like a cable TV service than a record store, letting subscribers play as much music as they wish for as long as they pay $6.99 a month or an annual subscription of $60." Los Angeles Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 5:15 pm

Adelaide Symphony Gets A Bailout "South Australia's government will give more than $2.1 million to help clear the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's (ASO) debt. The state funding comes amid reports the ASO will get at least $5 million in federal funding in Tuesday night's budget." NineMSN 05/11/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 5:09 pm

Frankfurt Hires Paavo Järvi The Frankfurt Radio Symphony has signed up Paavo Järvi as its new music director. Järvi is also music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The Estonian-born conductor has signed a three-year contract, effective with the 2006-07 season. Cincinnati Enquirer 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 4:31 pm

Aussie Orchestras Get Funding Boost Australian orchestras will get an additional $25 million in funding, says the government. "The extra funding for symphony and pit orchestras announced yesterday is to be spread over four years. It is designed "to help them become independent organisations with responsibility for their own artistic and financial future", Arts Minister Rod Kemp said. The Australian 05/11/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 4:28 pm

What Does Your Cell Phone Ring Tone Say About You? "Ringtones, the catchy electronic snippets of popular songs that echo from sleek wireless phones, have become ubiquitous among teenagers to thirty-somethings. They were the first to adopt the wireless technology that not only announces incoming calls but also chimes out a little something about the owner's personality. But while hits by Usher and Missy Elliott may be all the rage on campus, they probably won't get the same reaction in the workplace." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 7:41 am

Montreal Musicians Picket Symphony Musicians of the Montreal Symphony were out walking a picket line Monday as the orchestra went on strike. "The union said orchestra management has demanded that musicians work more consecutive days than the labour law permits, for example, and has made insulting salary offers. Management at the symphony, which has a $3.4-million deficit, said in a statement Monday it regrets the strike and blamed the union for not allowing non-monetary changes to the contract that would have allowed for a resumption in recording and touring." Canada.com 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 7:18 am

Cleveland Orchestra Signs Up With Miami It's official - the Cleveland Orchestra has signed a ten year deal to play annual three-week residencies in the new Miami Performing Arts Center. "The visiting orchestra will be strengthening its existing relationship with the New World Symphony, based in Miami Beach, as well as establishing one with the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, putting students at both institutions together with world-class musicians. The Florida Philharmonic was likely to have been the resident orchestra at the PAC, until the Philharmonic went bankrupt." Miami Herald 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 7:10 am

  • Cleveland In Miami - Why? "As part of the overall strategy for the Cleveland Orchestra, it will make us an even more international institution. Alongside New York, Miami is probably the most international city in America today." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/10/05
    Posted: 05/10/2005 7:05 am

Hall: An Honest Opera House Peter Hall is directing at Glyndebourne: "I think this is a much more honest opera house now than Covent Garden. I just went to see Rheingold and paid £175 for my ticket. That's a disgrace. This is our national subsidised opera. They should have double the subsidy and cheaper prices. Here, it's a private enterprise and people pay what it needs to charge, but no one's making money out of it. The artists work here for less than they normally get because the conditions are the best." The Guardian (UK) 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:02 pm

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Arts Issues

Why Iranian Art Is So Interesting Today "As the borders closed and new boundaries were established by the government, artists had no choice but to look inward to their imagination, to transform this isolation into an artistic resolution. Consequently, we have seen an outpouring of artistic production in literature, film, theatre, visual arts and music. We find bold attempts by artists who have not only challenged the authority, but have pioneered an authentically Iranian, non-Western aesthetic; which, while remaining mindful of the crippling social, political and religious realities of their country, aims at transcending national boundaries, to become universally significant." The Art Newspaper 05/06/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 7:53 am

Curiouser And Curiouser (And That's Good For The Arts) Curiosity, says Robyn Archer, is the key to healthy arts audiences. "Anyone who approaches art, or virtually anything, only wishing to defend their own tastes, anyone who won't look at something because they fear it won't be to their liking, anyone who bags something before they've seen it, might as well be dead already. They've lost their sense of curiosity. They're winding down." The Age (Melbourne) 05/09/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 8:01 pm

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People

Mark Boyle, 71 Boyle was a creative original. "With Joan Hills, his partner since 1957, he took part in Britain's first "happening," which scandalised Edinburgh in 1963, developed early light shows for rock groups like Soft Machine, toured America with Jimi Hendrix and, in his lifelong project, worked with Hills and their children, Sebastian and Georgia, on events, assemblages and their extraordinary "earth pieces" – lifelike facsimiles of the surface of the Earth." Glasgow Herald 05/08/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 5:18 pm

Celebrating Arthur Miller Theatre world lumninaries gather on Broadway to celebrate the life of playwright Arthur Miller, who died in February at the age of 89. "Some of the most poignant words spoken at the memorial were, not surprisingly, Mr. Miller's own. Daniel Day-Lewis, who is married to Mr. Miller's daughter Rebecca, read from an essay in Mr. Miller's collection "Echoes Down the Corridor," and Estelle Parsons read the speech Linda Loman gives at her husband's funeral in "Death of a Salesman." Joan Copeland, Mr. Miller's sister, read from "The American Clock," a Miller play inspired by Studs Terkel's "Hard Times," in which she starred on Broadway in 1980." The New York Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:43 pm

Did Schiller Lose His Head? "As Germany prepares to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the literary giant Friedrich Schiller this week, the celebrations are overshadowed by an embarrassing row over whether the skull inside Schiller's coffin is really his. Schiller, the author of Wilhelm Tell and other celebrated plays - died on 9 May 1805, aged 45. His body was put in a mass grave in the local cemetery. Some 21 years later, Weimar's mayor, Karl Leberecht Schwabe, decided to dig him up. Faced with a choice of 27 skulls, Schwabe put them all on a table and picked the biggest, declaring: 'That must be Schiller's.' " The Guardian (UK) 05/08/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:08 pm

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Theatre

Spamalot Leads Tony Nominations "Monty Python's Spamalot" leads this year's Tony nominations with 14. "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Light in The Piazza" got 11 each. The Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's drama of uncertainty set against the backdrop of a Catholic school in the Bronx, received eight nominations.
Yahoo! (AP) 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 6:25 am

Sydney Theatre - Jumbo Jet On A Card Table The Sydney Theatre Company posts a small surplus. But it's not enough says the company's director. "When you make a profit of $12,000 on a turnover of $22 million, you are landing a jumbo jet not so much on a tennis court but a card table. The fine line between survival and the awful alternatives is becoming finer, and to be only able to do that when we have, in fact, played through our highest ever box office and raised our largest ever amount from private support is a worrying trend." Sydney Morning Herald 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:51 pm

Two New Names On Broadway The Shuberts rename two of its Broadway theatres for two longtime lawyers for the company. "In an industry in which having one's name placed on a marquee is considered the highest of honors - usually reserved for playwrights, impresarios, owners and composers - the decision to rename the theaters was met with skepticism from the Broadway community, a tough crowd if ever there was one." The New York Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:30 pm

Play Factor - Competing For the West End A new British TV reality series aims to find a young playwright and get his or her work in the West End. "The programme, called The Play's The Thing, will be in the spirit of Operatunity and Musicality, previous reality arts shows from Channel 4. Novice playwrights are invited to submit scripts, which will be whittled down by Sonia Friedman, an agent and a director. The series will follow the winning writer as he or she develops the play, and go behind the scenes as the production is prepared from raising the investment to opening night." The Guardian (UK) 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 8:13 pm

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Publishing

The Lexicographer's Columbus "This year marks the two hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of Samuel Johnson's magnificent Dictionary of the English Language, the most ambitious and idiosyncratic single-person etymological effort ever attempted. Accolades have accumulated over its reigning period of influence. Unabashedly entertaining it is, indeed. The current generation of professional lexicographers is taught to dissect words in a vacuum, to trace their etymological history with Protestant precision. Doctor Johnson is their Columbus. He is also an anti-model." The New Republic 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 8:01 am

Encyclopedias - "Second-Class Literature' "Encyclopedia entries are among the lowest form of secondary literature. It might be okay to “look something up” in an encyclopedia or some other reference volume. But read them? For pleasure? The implication that you spend much time doing so would be close to an insult — a kind of academic lese majesty." InsideHigherEd 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 7:47 am

This Year's PEN Winners This year's PEN award winners have been announced. Winners include Sam Harris' "The End of Faith," for best nonfiction debut, and "Forms of Gone," by Yerra Sugarman, for best poetry. Yahoo! (AP) 05/09/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 10:00 pm

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Media

Ford Boosts Public TV, Radio Public broadcasting in America gets a big funding boost from a major new initiative from the Ford Foundation. "The initiative will funnel $50 million over five years to a baker's dozen of public television, radio and other media organizations. A major focus of the effort will be to spur the creation and distribution of public affairs programming, particularly programs dealing with international affairs. The Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio will receive the largest grants, $10 million and $7.5 million respectively." The New York Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 5:10 pm

HBO Heads To The Theatres HBO has begun making movies for theatrical release rather than for its TV network. "Making movies for theaters would seem counterintuitive for a premium cable channel, but it's a strategy that HBO Films is following on select titles to burnish its reputation and direct attention to projects that may otherwise be overlooked." Backstage (AP) 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 6:56 am

Gamer - Hollywood Ties Itself To Video Games Hollywood movies are increasingly thinking video games. "For studios, they represent a lucrative opportunity to introduce "catalog" products to a new generation of players and broaden a gaming universe that is already red hot. According to the NPD Group, a New York-based sales and marketing research firm, video-game software accounted for $7.3 billion in revenues in 2004, and sales rose 23% in the first quarter of this year. Games such as "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith," released last week, are developed in conjunction with the film. And recently the DVD world began cashing in too, offering simplified versions of video games as "extras" with films such as "Hulk" and "Van Helsing." Los Angeles Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/10/2005 6:31 am

The Mystery Of Hollywood's Missing Audiences Hollywood is starting to wonder what happened to its audience. It's been "11 weeks in a row of declining movie attendance and revenue compared with last year, adding up to the longest slump since 2000 and raising an uncomfortable question: Are people turning away from lackluster movies, or turning their backs on the whole business of going to theaters?" The New York Times 05/10/05
Posted: 05/09/2005 9:15 pm

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