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Wednesday, January 4




Ideas

Mapping The Strange World of American English "Imagine looking at a map of the United States that is divided not into states but into dialects -- a map that doesn't tell you what a state's capital is, but how a region's residents pronounce their vowels." That's the aim of the newly released Atlas of North American English, a hefty tome that also comes with a multimedia CD-ROM and retails for over $600. "The atlas identifies about 16 dialects across the U.S. and southern Canada. Not all of them are unique, but each has distinguishing characteristics. The atlas is a monumental achievement in the already distinguished career of co-author William Labov, who is considered the founder of sociolinguistics, or the study of social influences on language use." Chicago Tribune 01/04/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 6:08 am

Movies As Social Activist? (Not Now) "Does political cinema mirror life? How much impact can a movie have on its audience? To what extent is it able to influence the way we think about politics? The relationship between cinema and politics, often troubled, has recently become far too distant." New Statesman 12/19/05
Posted: 01/03/2006 8:51 pm

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The pain felt on both sides The Los Angeles Times, 12/25/05
WHAT'S GOIN' ON? Straight Up 12/27/05
Artist gives data a global dimension Christian Science Monitor 12/23/05
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Visual Arts

The Louvre's Record Year (WithThe Help Of The Da Vinci Code?) The Louvre saw a record 7.3 million visitors in 2005. The previous record of 6.7 million visitors was set in 2004. Officials attribute the increased numbers in part to the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, and expect the forthcoming movie will result in even more visitors. CBC 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 6:31 pm

The Art Of Ads "The Advertising Icon Museum, to open in the fall of 2007, will feature hundreds of toys, dolls, display figurines, cereal bowls, coffee mugs and ashtrays depicting almost a century's worth of fictional characters hawking everything from food and beer to household appliances and financial services. Electronic and printed displays will walk visitors through the evolution of commercial advertising in the United States and the importance icons have had in reaching customers, first in printed ads and later from the television screen." Kansas City Star (AP) 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 6:05 pm

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Music

Berklee Goes Bluegrass Boston's Berklee College of Music has long reigned as America's preeminent conservatory for non-classical musicians. Jazzers and rockers alike have emerged from Berklee, which has always cultivated an image that falls somewhere between the sophistication of Wynton Marsalis and the populist appeal of Sting. Now, the school is branching out to include a genre it has long disdained - bluegrass. "Berklee administrators credit interest in bluegrass to a growing appetite among students for a range of musical styles, spurred by the Internet. It also parallels the growing popularity of the style nationally." Appointing a new president with a Deep South upbringing didn't hurt, either. San Francisco Chronicle 01/04/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 6:52 am

Who Will Lead Dallas? The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's music director search is in full swing, and Scott Cantrell believes he has a handle on who might be a front-runner and who definitely isn't: "Philippe Jordan, a Swiss-born 31-year-old with movie-star good looks, made his Dallas debut with richly expressive performances of Brahms and Strauss... having his mug on billboards wouldn't hurt ticket sales. Claus Peter Flor, the DSO's principal guest conductor since 1999, keeps molding one stunning performance after another... Yan Pascal Tortelier got finely finished playing from the orchestra, in spite of a strange baton technique." And the up-and-coming Andrei Boreyko is making his Dallas debut later this year. Dallas Morning News 01/03/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 6:19 am

Mozart's Skull? (We'll Know Sunday) Scientists have been testing a skull found in an Austrian basement to see whether it belonged to Mozart. "Researchers said yesterday they would broadcast their findings on Sunday as part of a year of celebratory events marking the composer's 250th birthday." The Guardian (UK) 01/04/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 7:31 pm

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Arts Issues

Center For Arts And Culture Closes The center had an 11-year run. "The continuously declining availability of general operating support in the current funding climate is a common plight and growing threat to the long-term sustainability of the arts and the nonprofit sector at large. Unfortunately, the Center has proven not to be immune to it this year." Backstage 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 5:58 pm

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People

Elliott Carter's 80 Years Of Music Elliott Carter's music is "still more highly regarded across Europe than in the US, yet he has always been in an important sense an American composer. He has regularly drawn inspiration from US writers such as Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, John Ashbery and Hart Crane..." The Guardian (UK) 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 7:27 pm

Columbus' Mr. Theatre Dies At 93 Roy Bowen, known as "Mr. Theater" in Columbus, Ohio, has died of pneumonia in New York City. "Bowen led Players Theatre Columbus and Ohio State University’s theater program for about a decade each, when those institutions represented just about the only games in town." Columbus Dispatch 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 5:44 pm

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Theatre

Can Hitler Be Funny... In Israel? The Producers may be a global box-office smash, but there are still certain places you just wouldn't expect a musical centered around a fictional work of theatre called "Springtime for Hitler" to show up. Israel, for instance. But there it is on the marquee: The Producers will be making its Tel Aviv debut this month - in Hebrew, no less. "In a nation created out of the Holocaust, where at least a quarter-million survivors of the catastrophe still live, it is -- to say the least -- a bold artistic and commercial move." The artistic director of the theatre where the show will be staged says that Israelis are a "mature" audience with a good sense of humor, and doesn't expect any problems. Chicago Tribune (Cox) 01/04/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 6:13 am

An Underlying Malaise In British Theatre? "On the surface, British theatre is in its healthiest state in years. But is this buzz of activity hiding a creative slump, in which celebrity and 'ticking boxes' are prized over innovation?" The Guardian (UK) 01/04/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 7:37 pm

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Listen. Learn. Then lead. Los Angeles Times 1/1/06
A MYSTICAL MIX OF THEATRE AND VISUAL ART The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/02/06
Havel's actress wife makes return to Prague stage The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/02/06
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Publishing

Are Real-World Indictments The New Crime Novels? "This is a golden age for the turgid and stultifying, a wave of indictments, plea bargains and 'informations' interspersed with three Supreme Court justice nominations in a five-month period, with all of the poetic briefs, memos and opinion-writing those can yield." What are we talking about? Why, those delightfully lurid and informational indictment documents now being handed down in Washington with almost as much frequency as new Scott Turow books, of course. In fact, the interest in such legal docs is so intense as to provoke the question: are these court filings now officially a form of entertainment for wonks and news junkies? And if so, could they even be considered... gulp... literature? Washington Post 01/04/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 6:59 am

Byron manuscript Found The only known manuscript of a poem by Lord Byron has been found in the archives of University College London. The original, which had been assumed lost, was found in an 1810 edition of The Pleasures of Memory by Samuel Rogers. BBC 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 6:23 pm

Smith Wins Whitbread Ali Smith has won this year's Whitbread Award for her first full-length novel, The Accidental. "The Scottish writer beat authors including Salman Rushdie and Nick Hornby to the title." BBC 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 6:08 pm

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Media

Has iPod Killed The Stereo Star? "In a surprisingly short period of time, the hi-fi as we know it has been rendered obsolete, tossed into the dustbin of history. According to the U.S.-based Consumer Electronics Association, sales in 1999 for individual audio components -- CD players, tuners, etc. -- exceeded 270,000 units. By 2003, that number had shrunk to roughly 20,000 pieces, barely enough to sustain a niche market. Where once the mark of musical sophistication was huge speakers and a stack of components, now it's an iPod and bookmarked file-sharing sites on a PC." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/04/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 6:29 am

Whither TV? It's been fifty years since television came to Australia, and with the internet age in full swing, some are suggesting that the medium will likely have lost much of its allure (and its power over the public consciousness) fifty years from now. But as cultural forces go, none in recent memory can match TV for sheer reach across all swaths of public and private life. "It seems to survive despite its own vagaries and its speciousness on occasions... It's a completely voracious medium, but it suits people that, one, don't sleep and, two, are fairly quick with ideas." The Age (Melbourne) 01/05/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 5:30 am

The Popcorn Economy It's tough sledding owning a movie theatre these days. Hollywood squeezes you for every dollar they can get from ticket sales and forces you to show long preview reels that lengthen screening times; advertisers clamor for access, and will pay handsomely for it, but they insist on having the volume turned up to insane levels in order to insure that the audience can't ignore the commercials; and then there are those damnable "serious" filmmakers, who insist on making movies that run longer than 128 minutes, or worse, giving their films engaging plotlines that encourage moviegoers to stay in their seats rather than heading to the concession stand to refill their barrel of popcorn and vat of pop. Slate 01/02/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 5:22 am

BBC Opens Archives Online The BBC is making thousands of historic video clips available on the web. "The scheme allows people within the UK to watch, download, edit and mix the clips and programming for non-commercial programming. The release of these reports, offered as The Open News Archive, means the BBC has now doubled the number of programme extracts it originally made available through an initial trial with Radio 1 Interactive." BBC 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 6:14 pm

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Dance

Bright Sheng To Take Up Residence With NYC Ballet For the first time in its history, New York City Ballet has named a composer-in-residence. Bright Sheng, the Chinese-American composer who has collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on the wildly successful Silk Road Project, will compose two new works for the ballet over the next three seasons, and several of his existing works will also be choreographed. The appointment is part of NYC Ballet's artist-in-residence program, which has previously focused on conductors, choreographers, and costume designers. PlaybillArts 01/04/06
Posted: 01/04/2006 5:40 am

Back To The 60s Are the 1960s back in dance? "It was 40 years from the 1920's, the previous great liberating decade, to the 60's, and 40 years from the 60's to now. Maybe the societal shifts that provided so fertile a climate for the 60's are about to burst forth again; you can't repress youthful energy and optimism forever." The New York Times 01/04/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 8:46 pm

Pumped On Swan Lake Acrobat shows in China have been on the decline. By contrast, "Swan Lake" is hugely popular there. Now an acrobatic troupe has produced a version of the ballet classic, and it's a hit. "Surprisingly, its acrobatic version of "Swan Lake" has taken China by storm, filling houses in more than half a dozen cities, including more than 30 sold-out performances at the Shanghai Grand Theater, where it premiered last March." International Herald Tribune 01/03/06
Posted: 01/03/2006 5:52 pm

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