Will Podcasts Replace Tour Guides? "Aiming to replace the traditional tour experience of following the tour guide with the red umbrella, audio walking tours allow travelers to have an expert guide downloaded to their iPod or MP3 player. Audio tours run about 30 to 90 minutes and cost up to $15. A printed map usually comes with it, and you can preview samples to see whether they fit your style." Chicago Tribune 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:24 pm
Oxford To Ban Prodigies? Oxford University is considering banning child prodigies from the school and declaring a minimum age of 17 for admittance. "Despite an almost perennial flurry of headlines on children barely in their teens being offered places, the university is considering an unprecedented blanket rule on minimum ages for undergraduates." The Observer (UK) 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 5:53 am
Click here for more Ideas stories...
Artifact Looting Continues In Iraq "We were outraged at what happened and more so at what's continuing to happen at the sites. Numbers of impoverished Iraqis are willing to pillage for antiquities in order to feed their families. It's 200 people a night with equipment. Look at Umma: It's like a lunar landscape [from the digging.]" Seattle Times 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 9:46 am
LA's New Center What's happened to Los Angeles? It suddenly has a center. "Downtown LA, previously considered a cultural wasteland, has emerged as a cultural centre: an arena for the more mature works of some of LA's, and the world's, finest architects, as well as for the architecture of the next generation." the Telegraph (UK) 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 9:06 am
LA Times: Getty Has A Problem The LA Times weighs in on matters Getty. "The Getty has long held an exalted place in the art world, with its diverse collections, incomparable setting and unmatched wealth. But these most recent disclosures show the foundation to be exceptional in an entirely different way. They bring back unpleasant memories of the tales of corporate greed earlier this decade, when it seemed that every scandal could be traced to an 'imperial CEO' and his all-too-compliant board." Los Angeles Times 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:18 pm
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
Chicago - A Tale Of Two Festivals "Like a summer earthquake, Millennium Park has tilted the playing field of Chicago-area classical music festivals, and Ravinia is clearly feeling the shock waves. The city of Chicago's stunning $475-million cultural playground and outdoor recreation center -- home to the Grant Park Music Festival since its opening in July 2004 -- has been pulling in capacity crowds to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion for most of the Grant Park Orchestra's 30 concerts this season. At the same time, Ravinia continues to grapple with a decline in pavilion ticket sales to the 22 Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts it presented." Chicago Tribune 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 10:25 am
- Ravinia, Grant Park See Increased Audiences Chigao's Grant Park Festival has had a great summer, with solid crowds. "The rush to become a member of the Grant Park Music Festival, which guarantees access to 2,000 of the pavilion's 4,000 fixed seats, began last season. In 2004, the festival stopped taking memberships six weeks before the Pritzker Pavilion opened, fearing they couldn't accommodate so many new members. This summer, the festival sold out its basic and premium memberships, priced at $60 and $150 per person respectively. With 3,764 members, 30 percent more than 2004, it stopped taking new members in mid-June." chicago Sun-Times 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 10:12 am
Dedicated Cleveland Chorus Raises Money To Work The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is traveling with the orchestra in Europe to festivals this month. But costs for the chorus's travel aren't covered by the hosting organizations. "Not even bread will be supplied to the 152 choristers - of the total personnel of 165 - who will travel this month" and so fundraising is required... The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 10:05 am
Try Anything... Orchestras Reinventing Symphony orchestras look desperate to pull in new audiences. "As audiences seem to grow older and the public turns its attention away from concertgoing, orchestras around the country are adopting a wide array of methods, from the trivial to the thoughtful, to bring more people into the concert hall. They are hunting for the neophytes, the dabblers and mainly the ungray. This fall, a slate of innovations will be on display for the first time..." The New York Times 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:58 am
Summer Concert Ticket Prices Down Last summer's low concert attendance at American pop concerts caught the eyes of promoters. So ticket prices came down a bit this summer. "From May through July, the median ticket price at shows seating more than 5,000 was $25, according to an analysis of data from Billboard Boxscore. That price, based on the least expensive seats at each show, was $2.75 less than the same time last year. Prices for the most expensive tickets dropped by $3.50 (median $49.50)." USAToday 08/19/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:39 am
Will The Internet Save Classical Music? "In the virtual absence of classical radio in America, the Internet can provide what radio does for other musical genres, namely a “free” means of hearing new and unfamiliar music, which if you like, you’ll go out and buy. But with the element of radio removed from the market structure, there are almost no places to randomly hear Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony or Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” while driving home from school or work. The Net provides direct access. With the stuffiness removed from the classical experience, people can hear just how glorious Stravinsky really is." Kansas City Star 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:38 pm
Has The iPod Peaked? Okay, so Apple rules music downloads and players. "Today, Apple commands 80 percent of the MP3 player market and 75 percent of online music sales. But even as analysts predict another massive holiday sales season for the company this year, many believe Apple's reign will last only another 12-18 months before the playing field levels out." Yahoo! (Billboard) 08/20/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:04 pm
Click here for more Music stories...
Unemployed Aussie Artists Feel Left Out Unemployed Australian artists complain that they're discriminated against by government unemployment programs because they're artists. "The fundamental problem was that there was no box to tick that said 'I am an artist'. So right from the outset people were made to feel invisible." The Age (Melbourne) 08/22/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:29 am
International Body Advises On Content of NY Freedom Center "A global network of human rights museums is urging the International Freedom Center to downplay America in its exhibits and programs at Ground Zero. The outrageous request is the latest controversy to torment the Freedom Center, whose leaders have tried to dispel the perception that it would be a home for America bashers." Earlier this month the Freedom Center was told to give assurances that exhibits would glorify America. New York Daily News 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:49 pm
- Making A Mockery Of 9/11 Memorial? So the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience warns of what should go in the Freedom Center at Ground Zero? "The coalition's annual report... certifies that 9/11 families were right to warn that the Freedom Center was being taken over by bash-America propagandists. It also shows, again, that Gov. Pataki had no clue what he was doing in giving the Freedom Center and a second cultural group, the Drawing Center, a franchise at Ground Zero." New York Daily News 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:44 pm
Click here for more Arts Issues stories...
Governor Rescues Soprano Part way thyrough a performance of Handel's Laudate pueri Dominum in Sydney Saturday night, soprano Miriam Allan suddenly colllapsed onstage. "A doctor jumped on stage and took charge, one witness said. The doctor was none other than the NSW Governor, Professor Marie Bashir, a psychiatrist. Allan had been sick with flu all week, but did not want to miss Saturday night's Musica Viva 60th anniversary concert." Sydney Morning Herald 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:54 am
Some Protest Hunter S's Blast-off Hunter S. Thmpson's ashes were blasted off into space Saturday, but some of his admirers weren't happy about the show. "I am pretty sure it isn't how Hunter would have done it," said longtime friend George Stranahan. The writer's ashes were fired from atop a 15-story tower modeled after Thompson's logo: a clenched fist, holding a peyote button, rising from the hilt of a dagger. It was built between his home and a tree-covered canyon wall." Yahoo! (AP) 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:56 pm
Click here for more People stories...
Olympic Comedy Chicago is home to the granddaddy of sketch comedy troupes - Second City. But Improv Olympics, ecelbrating its 225th anniversary, would like some credit too. "So is I.O. a cliquish training camp with too many mediocre shows or a unique, bonafide, overlooked Chicago cultural institution? Maybe all of the above." Chicago Tribune 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 9:10 am
Click here for more Theatre stories...
Print-On-Demand Changing The Book Business Print-on-demand books are becoming a big presence in the book marketplace. "Unlike previous self-published books, PODs are digitally printed, which makes them cheaper and quicker to produce. Since 1997, when the technology became widely available, print-on-demand companies have taken over a big chunk of the book industry. Out of the 195,000 titles printed last year, one of every four was a POD." Dallas Morning News 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:33 pm
The Further Adventures Of Peter Pan (A Stronger Wendy, and Peter Becomes Hook?) Geraldine McCaughrean, who won in a worldwide competition to write a sequel to Peter Pan has revealed a few details of her plans. "McCaughrean says she has rewritten the final pages of Peter Pan to help transport readers back to Neverland, to a setting 25 years after the boy who never grew up apparently vanquished his pirate foe. She hints that the character of Wendy will be a stronger, more modern woman, while - in a remarkable twist - the immortal Peter may be transformed into his dastardly nemesis, Captain Hook. While some aficionados may be shocked by the revelations, experts are excited and insist McCaughrean is doing justice to Barrie's modern interests in issues of gender and humanity's struggle with inner demons." Scotland On Sunday 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:14 pm
A Short Story Booker? The UK's National Short Story Prize is the world's richest. "In what organisers hope will one day grow to the size and prominence of the Booker Prize, the competition aims to honour the country's finest writers of short stories so is only open to authors with a previous record of publication who are either UK nationals or residents." Scotland On Sunday 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:07 pm
For Those Midnight Couscous Emergencies Need a book fix in the middle of the night? If you're in Paris, now you can go to one of five book vending machines. "Stocked with 25 of Maxi-Livres best-selling titles, the machines cover the gamut of literary genres and tastes. Classics like 'The Odyssey' by Homer and Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' share the limited shelf space with such practical must-haves as '100 Delicious Couscous' and 'Verb Conjugations'." Yahoo! (AP) 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 11:36 am
Plain Beauty - From Book To Screen Why do filmmakers cast pretty women for movies of great novels? "Books link readers directly to the interior lives of their heroines, but the camera needs the beauty out on the surface, where the audience can fall in love with it faster. In novels, other characters are wooed by wonderful minds, and infer beauty from what's within. On film, a plain face has to work so much harder to persuade people. It's so much easier to start with the lovely, but it loses so much. The great women novelists of the 19th century had no great interest in the great looking; among the first to trade on their brains rather than their appearance, they created characters who also had greater interior than exterior worth." The Age (Melbourne) 08/20/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:27 am
Click here for more Publishing stories...
CBC's Ragtag Labor Dispute Lineup With Canada's CBC employees locked out of their jobs, the network is filling air with a ragtag lineup of reruns and shows produced by management. Oh yes, and apologies for the disruption in regular service. "By Thursday, the tone had shifted, as had the voice, to a young woman offering her regrets the way your grade school teacher might have offered juice and cookies." Toronto Star 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:45 am
The Top 30 TV Ads Of All Time ITV and Marketing magazine compiled the list. "Food and drink companies dominate 18 of the 30 commercials. The advertising industry still reveres the ten commercials filmed between 1978 and 1983 which featured Leonard Rossiter decanting his glass over Joan Collins. Also in the chart is the Carling Black Label spoof of the Dambusters' bouncing bomb raid and two entries from John Smith's beer." The Scotsman 08/21/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:37 am
Marginalized Thinking? The BBC is getting protests about its decision to move the daily "Thought for the Day" program to 6:50 in the morning. Protesters say the move will "marginalise" the program. The Scotsman 08/18/05
Posted: 08/22/2005 8:33 am
So Movie Sex Is Only OK If It's Fake? Michael Winterbottom's new film features real actors having real sex on screen. And that's evidently a problem. "The sex is real and quite explicit, and the minor furor surrounding the film -- censorious editorials in the UK and Australia, the British-based Christian Coalition for Traditional Values condemning the film as 'a rank piece of soulless pornography' -- comes from the unaccustomed conjunction of fake characters, real congress, and a ''real' movie." Boston Globe 08/21/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:28 pm
LA - Is TV Replacing Movies? LA's movie business might be down, but TV production is booming. Some "132,000 workers riding the biggest boom ever in Los Angeles television production, one that is rapidly turning Tinseltown into a TV town. While Hollywood's nomadic film business has gravitated toward cheaper U.S. and foreign locales, television production has become the bedrock of the Los Angeles entertainment economy. Producers are responding to a demand for original programs from broadcast networks and a mushrooming number of cable channels. Reruns are being shunned in favor of fresh shows that continue to earn money for years when shown again or sold on DVD." Los Angeles Times 08/19/05
Posted: 08/21/2005 6:01 pm
Click here for more Media stories...
