School Ditches Books For Computers A public school in Arizona ditches textbooks and gives each of its students iBook computers instead. "Students get the materials over the school's wireless internet network. The school has a central filtering system that limits what can be downloaded on campus. The system also controls chat-room visits and instant messaging that might otherwise distract wired students. Students can turn in homework online. A web program checks against internet sources for plagiarized material and against the work of other students." Wired 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 9:46 pm
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Art Out Of Doors New York City's Percent for Art program "has become the largest public art program in the city since the Great Depression. There have been more than 200 projects completed in schools, parks, police precincts and branch libraries. Incrementally, usually without much fuss, they have enlarged the city's visual topography." The New York Times 08/19/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 9:34 pm
Lego My Art... A couple of artists have made a career of copying some of Brit Art's most famous works... in Lego. "After experimenting with a Lego take on Damien Hirst's formaldehyde shark, the pair have now graduated to their own mini-exhibition of modern art at the Walker gallery in Liverpool. Among the interpretations on display are Tracey Emin's knicker-strewn bed, Salvador Dalí's surreal lobster phone, and a rendering of the Turner Prize-winning transvestite potter, Grayson Perry, in one of his trademark doll outfits. The Guardian (UK) 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 6:22 pm
A New Start For The Getty? Does the appointment of Michael Brand to run the Getty Museum signal a fresh start for the Getty, which ha had a very rough year? "Although it is unclear where Dr Brand will take the mammoth institution, there are indications that he wishes to shift the Getty's gaze to the west and the south, and away from the traditional centres of world art to the east of Los Angeles." The Guardian (UK) 08/19/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 6:18 pm
Copenhagen Curator Charged With Art Theft The curator of a Copenhagen museum has been charged with stealing more than 100 items from the museum. "He allegedly stole the items while working at the Danish Museum of Art and Design between 1999 and 2002. Small 'pocket-sized' porcelain, glass and metal items were taken, a museum spokeswoman said." BBC 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 4:40 pm
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Marin Alsop On Getting Past The Controversy Of Her Baltimore Appointment ''You know, when it started getting like this weird personal thing, I really tried to dissociate from it, because it did feel very, very personal. I insisted on having a private meeting with the musicians, and I said, 'Look, I have some really hard feelings about this, but I'm willing to put them aside if you're willing to meet me halfway.' " Boston Globe 08/19/05
Posted: 08/19/2005 7:27 am
Rare Violin Returned A rare 18th Century violin has been returned to its owner a year after having been stolen. "The violin, which is dated to around 1740, was recovered when an unsuspecting dealer took it in to Bonhams auction house, which checked it against an insurance company list of stolen items." The Guardian (UK) 08/19/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 7:03 pm
Here's A Stunning Stupendous Headline To Match! Julian Lloyd Webber wants to know why classical music performances are described with such breathless adjectives. "Pick up any brochure for the new concert season and you will soon discover that the entire classical world (and presumably its audience) are apparently staggering around in a perpetually stunned condition - which could, of course, account for the stunning predictability of these pre-concert blurbs. Next season, how about a moratorium on the following words: stunning, sensational, dynamic, young, exciting, amazing, breath-taking, magnificent, inspirational, brilliant, astounding and best loved?" The Telegraph (UK) 08/19/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 6:39 pm
A Talk With Franz Worse-Than-Most Conductor Franz Welser-Most has heard all the insults, and they don't seem to bother him. "There's an untouchability about Welser-Möst, which goes with the magical suddenness with which he appeared on the scene." The Telegraph (UK) 08/19/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 6:37 pm
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Thorne Named To Head Pritzker Martha Thorne, an associate curator at the Art Institute of Chicago has been named executive director of the Pritzker Prize for architecture. "Thorne's ascent to the paid, part-time Pritzker post marks the first time since the award was established in 1979 that it will be administered from Chicago, the hometown of the prize's sponsor, the billionaire Pritzker family. Previous executive directors -- including the late Brendan Gill, the New Yorker magazine's architecture critic, and the immediate past executive director, Bill Lacy, former president of Purchase College -- have been from the New York area." Chicago Tribune 08/19/05
Posted: 08/19/2005 7:32 am
Vaness Cancels After Car Accident "Soprano Carol Vaness has withdrawn from a new production of Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue this fall at New York City Opera because of injuries suffered in a car accident earlier this summer, the company announced." PlaybillArts 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 5:18 pm
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The Art Of Advertising Broadway How do you advertize a Broadway show? "Theater has lagged behind other industries in tapping ways to attract audiences. The reason it is slow is because there's a ceiling on how much money we can make. The rule of thumb for what a Broadway show should spend each week on advertising is about 10 percent of a production's weekly potential gross. For "Wicked," which has a gross potential of more than $1.15 million each week, that would translate into more than $100,000." Yahoo! (AP) 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 5:11 pm
A Free Night At The Theatre The Theatre Communications Group is coordinating a free night at the theatre in three cities on October 20. One of theatres' "biggest concerns was how to reach people we can't now reach. Subscription patterns are at a perilous moment, in part because we don't live that way anymore. We thought, 'What can we do collectively to bring in new audiences?' That's when someone said, 'How about a free night of theatre?' "
Backstage 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 5:01 pm
Comedy - Dumbing Up The Fringe Has comedy dumbed-down the Edinburgh Fringe, ruining what used to be a great theatre festival? Stewart Lee (writer of Jerry Springer, The Opera)says not: "Comedy can respond to events with a speed that theatre cannot match. And even apolitical absurdity is an appropriate response to mass panic. We laugh in the face of death." New Statesman 08/22/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 4:54 pm
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Eagerly Awaited French Novel "Outed" By Critic Who "Found" A Copy The most eagerly awaited book in France this year is by Michel Houellebecq, the enfant terrible of modern French writing. But the book has had an early entry into public by a critic who claims he found a copy of the book on a park bench. "M. Rinaldi's account of how he came by the book was, therefore, treated with some scepticism. The headline above his review read 'A Houellebecq fallen from a lorry'. M. Rinaldi, one of the best-known and most acerbic literary critics in France and an outspoken enemy of Houellebecq's writing, claimed he had found the review copy by pure accident." The Independent (UK) 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 6:30 pm
So Who Needs To Read Books Anyway? Why was everyone so apalled with Posh Spice confessed she'd never read a book? "Since when did a regular quota of suitably serious reading matter become obligatory? And who decides what's worthy anyway? If Victoria Beckham swallowed a regular dose of sugary chick lit or violent slasher chillers, for example (well, they're books too), would it somehow make her reading habits more acceptable than the fact that she happens to "love fashion magazines"?" The Guardian (UK) 08/19/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 6:25 pm
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Will Movie Studios Pull TV Ads? Movie studios are reassessing their TV advertising. "Network TV has been part of Hollywood's sales formula for many years, as studios desperate to launch expensive blockbusters blitzed the national airwaves in an effort to reach the broadest possible audience. But many studio executives now are calling that formula into question, having watched this summer as it failed to pay off amid a string of box-office laggards. The diminishing effectiveness of such ads is to some symptomatic of a broader problem in Hollywood." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (WSJ) 08/19/05
Posted: 08/19/2005 9:25 am
CBC Locks Out Employees The CBC has locked out 5,500 unionized workers after prolonged negotiations failed to produce a contract. "Viewers of CBC Newsworld awoke yesterday morning to a prolonged period of dead air on their screens, and a lengthy set of Canadian music on the CBC's Radio 1, in place of the top-rated Metro Morning program. Taped material was continually spun throughout the day on the radio service, punctuated by brief hourly news reports by unfamiliar announcers. Each report was followed by a taped apology for the absent programs, which it blamed on a "labour dispute." Toronto Star 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 9:23 pm
Australian Government To Pull "Offensive" Programming? The Australian government is considering a move to allow it to pull programs off television it they are judged offensive. "If anyone stopped for five seconds to think about giving the minister the power to willy-nilly take programs off TV, off radio, off pay TV… (it's) probably not a good idea." The Age (Melbourne) 08/18/05
Posted: 08/18/2005 5:24 pm
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