Ideas

NBC Study: Measuring The IP Industry Trying to make its case for protecting copyrights, NBC Universal commissioned a study to measure the economic impact of the "intellectual property" industry on the US economy. "The report estimates that growth in U.S. gross domestic product from 2002-2010 would be reduced from $3.1 trillion to $2 trillion without the contribution of the IP industry. 'Digital piracy is an issue that goes far beyond illegal downloading of music or movies. Theft and counterfeiting of intellectual property of all types is a serious and growing problem for the U.S. economy. This study provides important empirical evidence of just how much is at stake'." Backstage 11/08/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 5:05 am

Venice As If You Were There (You Are) "Nearly 14 million visitors troop through Venice each year, turning parts of the 1,500-year-old former island republic into a clichéd tourist destination. Locals grumble that day-trippers have transformed the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's into an Italian Disneyland. But outlying neighborhoods like Castello see few tourists. The nearly two-hour tour, dubbed History Unwired, features five recordings by local residents - ranging from a glass blower to a ska musician - along with flash animations, maps, and movie clips, all uploaded onto a PDA. Three Bluetooth sensors peppered along the route trigger a virtual tour of a Venetian home and two art installations, one projected on a building, another on hanging laundry." Wired 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 4:45 am

Click here for more Ideas stories...

Visual Arts

Turners By Rail The four artworks shortlisted for the Turner Prize are being sent on a tour of rail stations. "A mini-tour of UK train stations will give travellers the chance to comment on the works vying for the big prize. Commuters will be able to write their thoughts on the work - good or bad - on a giant wall." BBC 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 4:39 am

Did Italian Police Offer Deal To Art Smuggler To Give Up Museums? A Rome prosecutor is said to have offered reduced jail time to an antiquities smuggler if he would testify against big museums like the Metropolitan and MFA. "If you accuse the Metropolitan and Getty and the Berlin Museum, Boston, Cleveland, Copenhagen and Munich -- one piece each - - I can make this go away,'' prosecutor Paolo Ferri said two weeks ago, according to the smuggler, Giacomo Medici. Bloomberg.com 11/08/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 4:34 am

Rehabilitating The Hated Car Park "Car parks are architectural scum, lower down architecture?s evolutionary scale than Travelodges. If your nearest [parking garage] was demolished you?d no more bat an eyelid than if you?d stood on a cockroach... Sounds like just the job for Rem Koolhaas, who likes nothing better than a bit of Modernist dystopia to turn on its head. In theory, with all those spirals, all that concrete, a car park should be a gift for an architect. Koolhaas has been busy regenerating Almere, a faded Dutch Alphaville from the 1950s, though not for the trim, cappuccino-sipping bike riders that give most modern urban planners wet dreams. Koolhaas is rebuilding his new new town around that great modern evil: the car." The Times (UK) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 8:24 pm

Art Market Back On The Upswing "Over the past two decades, the Impressionist and modern art market has seen demand reach dizzying heights and then collapse, and supply fluctuate from feast to famine. But last week it had a solid, confident air as buyers spent almost £165 million at Christie's and Sotheby's main New York sales. Helped by a bumper crop of estate sales and the controversial decision of several American museums to sell works to fund new purchases, there was plenty to tempt buyers, who reacted enthusiastically." The Telegraph (UK) 11/08/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 8:14 pm

Politician vs. History vs. Profundity When the UK's new culture minister approached the "comments board" for this year's Turner Prize finalists, he was surely remembering the uproar that ensued three years ago, when then-minister Kim Howells scrawled a profane condemnation of the prize and its organizers, sparking a general uproar (and quite a bit of muttered support from a public that had grown to loath the conceptual art-heavy Turner.) There can be no question that current minister David Lammy did not repeat Howells' mistake. But in his caution, he may have forgotten to say anything at all. The Guardian (UK) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 7:51 pm

Click here for more Visual Arts stories...

Music

Opera's Little Label That Could (And Does) In an age when classical recording on the major labels is in the dumps, smaller labels are increasingly finding a niche and turning out high-quality product. But is such a thing really possible when we're talking about opera recordings, the most mind-bogglingly complex of all studio recording enterprises? Apparently, it is. "At a time when major record labels have all but quit making full-length opera recordings, [a small, independent label called] Opera Rara has never been busier, resurrecting forgotten works and putting them on disc to exacting musical and technical standards. Small but persistent, the company is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year." International Herald Tribune 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 7:12 pm

Woman To Conduct Vienna Phil It's been nearly a decade since the Vienna Philharmonic was ordered by the Austrian government to begin accepting women into the orchestra, and after complying with the letter of the law by making its part-time female harp player a full member, the Phil has continued with its all-male hiring practices. But this weekend, an event which would be yawn-inducing to most other ensembles will make history in Vienna, when Australian conductor Simone Young will become the first woman to lead the Phil. 7 News (Australia) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 6:52 pm

Three Familiar Names Shortlisted For Composer Prize "Harrison Birtwistle, Michael Nyman, and John Tavener are among the composers on the shortlist for the British Composer Awards, which was announced on November 4 by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters. The awards, which are presented in association with BBC Radio 3, will be handed out at a ceremony at Ironmonger's Hall in London on December 9." PlaybillArts (NY) 11/08/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 6:45 pm

Giving Whole New Meaning To "Crossov

Arts Issues

Medals of Arts to Marsalis, DePriest, Duvall, & Dolly "President Bush will honor authors, musicians and historians from New York and elsewhere on Thursday with the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal. In an Oval Office ceremony with his wife, Bush will present the Medal of Arts to author Louis Auchincloss of New York, symphony orchestra conductor James DePriest of Portland, Ore., jazz musician Paquito D'Rivera of Bergen, N.J., actor Robert Duvall of Plains, Va., arts advocate Leonard Garment of New York and film animator and artist Ollie Johnston of La Canada, Calif. Also to receive Medals of Arts are jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis of New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and dancer and choreographer Tina Ramirez of New York. Singer and actress Dolly Parton will receive the medal at a later date." Newsday (AP) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 6:47 pm

Click here for more Arts Issues stories...

People

Poet Nadia Anjuman Murdered A prominent Afghan poet has apparently been beaten to death by her husband in what is known in Afghanistan as an "honor killing." The United Nations has condemned the murder of Nadia Anjuman, and the poet's husband and mother have both been arrested in the case. While not technically legal, "honor killings," in which women are beaten to death by male relatives to save the family from some imagined disgrace, are still widely accepted in many parts of Afghanistan. CBC 11/08/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 8:33 pm

Concerns Raised Over One Of Opera's Brightest Lights Mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is one of the sought-after stars of the classical music world, and her appearance on a concert program is a sure audience draw. But over the last year, Lieberson has become a chronic no-show, canceling engagements at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and the San Francisco Opera. Officially, Lieberson's representatives say that she is suffering from a "lower back injury," but details have been few, and speculation is rampant that the cancer which attacked the singer five years ago may have returned. The New York Times 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 6:57 pm

Click here for more People stories...

Theatre

Chicago Theatres To get Regulatory Break The City of Chicago is creating a new ordinance to ease licensing on theatres. "The new rules will cut much of the red tape associated with current applications for Public Place of Amusement licenses, whose guidelines would continue to govern larger theaters. "This will make it a lot less cumbersome for theaters to go through the licensing process. It is just much more sensible and user-friendly to look at small spaces in a different way from movie theaters, bowling alleys and nightclubs." In November 2003, inspectors from the city's Revenue Department abruptly closed down a number of off-Loop theaters and cited them for an array of previously unknown violations. Chicago Sun-Times 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 5:12 am

Will Buffalo Theatre Lose Its Funding? Buffalo artists are protesting a county funding plan that would cut loose one of the city's cultural biggies - the Studio Arena Theater. "The all-volunteer county Cultural Resources Advisory Board recently came out with that surprise decision. The plan offered by the committee - which after due deliberation makes recommendations on how much and who gets funds the county sets aside for cultural organizations - is for the $3.5 million tucked away for "the culturals" to be distributed among five prime institutions, instead of six that included Studio, which was the case in 2005." Buffalo News 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 4:29 am

Click here for more Theatre stories...

Publishing

Bergen Wins 2005 Giller Prize David Bergen beat out four other finalists Tuesday night to take home the 2005 Giller Prize, Canada's preeminent award for fiction. Bergen's novel, The Time In-Between, finished ahead of books by Joan Barfoot, Camilla Gibb, Lisa Moore, and Edeet Ravel in the lavish award ceremony broadcast across Canada. Bergen receives CAN$40,000 in prize money. CBC 11/08/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 7:25 pm

Click here for more Publishing stories...

Media

Senator Prude To Hold More Hearing On TV Content The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee plans later this month to hold more hearings on pogramming it feels is "indecent" and to "determine how to proceed on potential legislation to limit such material." Yahoo! (Reuters) 11/08/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 4:50 am

Click here for more Media stories...

Dance

New York's Signature Dance Workshop Turns 40 "Dance Theater Workshop is hardly the only important center for dance in New York City - a town that, despite complaints about rents and impoverishment and the diaspora to the outer boroughs and challenges from other world cities, seems actually to be in the midst of a bustling renaissance of creative excitement. But if not alone, the workshop has become increasingly important... Week in and week out, Dance Theater Workshop has become an increasingly reliable brand name for what is new and exciting in dance today." The New York Times 11/09/05
Posted: 11/08/2005 8:18 pm

Click here for more Dance stories...

---