Wednesday, January 25
Study: Almost Half Of UK Workforce Fails Basic Reading, Maths "There are about 12 million people in employment with literacy skills and 16 million with numeracy skills at level 1 or below - equivalent to the the levels of 11-year olds and younger, the committee found. The number of people underskilled in both aspects is unknown. The workforce comprises 30 million people, working full-time and part-time." The Guardian (UK) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 7:14 pm
The Zen Of Wikipedia "The site, which has more daily visitors than The New York Times and USA Today sites combined, is as much an encyclopedia as a social outlet. Wikipedia has many rules, but they're all highly breakable. (One essay states: 'Ignore all rules.') This philosophy, which some describe as the site's "essence," doesn't always inspire goodwill." Village Voice 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 6:33 pm
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French Court Rejects "Original" Defense In Duchamp Urinal Case A French court convicts a 77-year-old French man for attacking artist Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer, "rejecting the defendant's contention that he had increased the value of the art work by making it an 'original'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 7:17 am
Clifford: Scotland Should Blow The Bank On Michelangelo Timothy Clifford, the outgoing director of Scotland's National Galleries says the country's museums should raise enough money to by an Italian masterpiece. He said "there was no need for the galleries to buy more Scottish art, partly because they could rely on wills and gifts to build up their collection. However, spending £10 million on a Michelangelo drawing would break the galleries' annual acquisitions budget of £1.25 million several times over, and would need a huge fundraising campaign." The Scotsman (UK) 01/23/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 6:24 pm
Another London Bronze Stolen A large bronze sculpture has been stolen from a London campus. This follows the theft of a large Henry Moore three weeks ago. "Police said 20 art thefts had happened in London in the past six months. Officers fear thieves are targeting valuable artworks worth millions of pounds so they can melt them down and sell them on as scrap metal at a fraction of the price." BBC 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:25 pm
- Police: Soaring Metal Prices Are Behind London's Big Sculpture Thefts "Soaring scrap prices have opened up an opportunity for gangs to pocket a quick profit. The Henry Moore sculpture, taken in mid-December, was believed to be worth around £5,000 if melted down; the Chadwick may fetch as little as £1,000. Reduced to its metal content, the figures are worth only a fraction of their art market value but neither police nor art dealers believe such large objects would be stolen to order for a private collector. In many cases, the sculptures have been severely damaged." The Guardian (UK) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:19 pm
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The Latest In A New Musical Instrument "The tenori-on, a prototype from Yamaha's product design laboratory, produces computer music through a grid of 256 illuminating buttons on a brushed-aluminum tablet. By pressing buttons along rows and columns, users can program melodies like plotting notes on a scale. When the tunes are looped and layered, the machine creates a symphony of synthesis, musical blips and bleeps matched with light patterns that bounce and ripple across the device." The New York Times 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 8:50 am
Louisville Orchestra Contemplates Bankruptcy The orchestra may not finish out its season. "The orchestra projects a $500,000 deficit for this fiscal year, no longer has any lines of credit and is not paying many of its bills. The orchestra's board planned a $3.5 million fund drive this year, but said that depended on reaching a contract deal by Dec. 31 with the 71 full-time players." The Courier-Journal (Louisville) 01/24/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 6:38 am
Cleveland In Miami - A Brighter Future? The Cleveland Orchestra has been struggling with its budget. Could extended residencies in Miami's new performing arts center help to balance the books? "The orchestra sees the residency, which will include subscription concerts, educational programs and collaborations with Miami musical institutions, as a critical means of enhancing not only its reputation but also its bottom line." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 6:34 am
Columbus Symphony Names New Conductor The Columbus Symphony Orchestra wraps up a three-year search by naming Junichi Hirokami as its new music director... Akron Beacon-Journal 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 8:12 pm
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Orlando: A Performing Arts Center To Blend In Architect Barton Myers has been chosen to design a new performing arts center for the city of Orlando, Florida. "Myers -- a Los Angeles-based architect who has designed performing-arts centers in Newark, N.J.; Portland, Ore.; and Cerritos, Calif. -- is known as an architect who avoids designing flashy structures that stand out from the landscape, such as Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Instead, Myers wants his work to fit in with -- and add to -- the cityscape around it." Orlando Sentinel 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 7:07 am
Why Turkey Dropped Charges Against Its Most Famous Writer Charges of "anti-Turkishness" had proven an embarrasment to the government. "There is surely some irony in that fact that you can now be prosecuted in Europe for denying a genocide and prosecuted in Turkey for asserting that a genocide took place. For a country that has long created fictions out of its own past, it is all the more fitting then, that it is a novelist who starts the dialogue about what really happened." Slate 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 5:21 pm
Canada's Culture Minister Voted Out Canada's culture minister Liza Frulla was defeated in Monday's national election. "During Frulla's tenure as culture minister, major issues on her plate included the introduction of satellite radio to Canada and the continued call for increased, stable funding for institutions like the Canada Council, the Canadian Television Fund and the CBC." CBC 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:33 pm
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Dwyer named To Lead Orange County Performing Arts Center The Orange County Performing Arts center has named Terrence Dwyer as its new director. Dwyer was managing director of La Jolla Playhouse for 12 years before departing in 2004 for Houston's Alley Theatre. "As president of OCPAC, Dwyer will be in charge of a diversified, $35- to $40-million-a-year operation that dwarfs the regional and off-Broadway theaters he has previously led." Los Angeles Times 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 7:55 am
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Critics: "Temple" Was Bay Area's Best Of 2005 The best play in the Bay Area last year? According to critics, it was Leigh Fondakowski's "The People's Temple," a "documentary theater piece based on the real-life tragedy of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. The play was produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre in association with Z Space Studio." San Francisco Chronicle 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 8:37 am
Broadway, Fully Booked Two very successful Off-Broadway plays have been trolling for On-Broadway theatres to move to. But everything is booked... The New York Times 01/25/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 7:43 pm
New Leader For Royal Court New Playwrights Dominic Cooke, 39, associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been named to lead London's Royal Court Theatre. Anthony Burton, the Royal Court's chairman, said that Cooke had "dazzled the interview panel with his inspirational vision, innovative programming ideas and plans for change". The Guardian (UK) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 7:03 pm
Play-Driven... Is This Controversial? "British theatre has been a broad church - and the result? Tension, perhaps, but for 50 years Britain has arguably led the world in producing top-class theatre-makers, whether they have made it with a pen or a pointy finger or a bit of both. But now, it seems, 'the play' - or at least, the model of a script, written by a playwright, directed by a director and performed by an actor - has had its day. Admittedly, those of you who have been to the theatre recently might be forgiven for thinking this prognosis a little premature, but judging by the hand-wringing of a procession of some of the nation's leading practitioners, the play is dead - especially the well-made one." The Guardian (UK) 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 6:47 pm
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Readers Sue Frey For "Wasted Time" Some Seattle readers have filed a lawsuit against Doubleday and James Frey because Frey made up some of the details of his memoir. The suit "seeks compensation on behalf of consumers for 'the lost value of the readers' time'." Seattle Times 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 9:26 am
Spurling Wins Whitbread Hilary Spurling's biography of Matisse wins the top Whitbread. Spurling "spent 15 years writing and researching her two-part biography of the French Impressionist, was chosen over the four other Whitbread winners." BBC 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:19 pm
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Oscar's Stuntblind Why is there no Academy Award for stunt performers? Stunts, after all, are integral to many movies, and when so many Oscars are handed out, shouldn't there at least be one to recognize stunt work? OpinionJournal 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 7:57 am
Canadians Ignore "Karla" Movie Audiences are not buying tickets for a movie about Canada's most famous serial killer. "Critical reaction has been almost uniformly negative toward the 104-minute feature, which was made in California in 2004 for an estimated $6-million (U.S.)." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/25/2006 7:29 am
The Podcast Factor Are podcasts a threat to radio or a potential cash cow? "The BBC has been experimenting with podcasting since 2004 and says demand has grown. In May 2005 it made 20 programmes available for download and is extending the trial into this year "in order to gain a better understanding of listeners' preferences." The Telegraph (UK) 01/25/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 7:26 pm
Motion Picture Association Accused Of Piracy "The Motion Picture Assn. of America, the leader in the global fight against movie piracy, is being accused of unlawfully making a bootleg copy of a documentary that takes a critical look at the MPAA's film ratings system." Los Angeles Times 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:49 pm
Disney Buys Pixar Disney has made a deal to buy animation powerhouse Pixar "in a $7.4-billion deal that will make Pixar CEO Steve Jobs the entertainment company's single-largest shareholder." Los Angeles Times 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:46 pm
The CW: It's UPN + WB The WB and UPN TV networks are shutting down this fall. In their place, a new channel - CW - aimed at "young ethnic" audiences will be launched. "By shutting down the two small networks that jousted over the same pool of 18- to 34-year-old viewers and joining forces to capture that audience, the companies are essentially bowing to the reality of an increasingly competitive marketplace, executives acknowledged." Los Angeles Times 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:41 pm
- What The Pixar/Disney Deal Means "In the complex and sometimes querulous dynamic between media and technology companies, such a move would no doubt raise questions about the ripples those ties can be expected to cause. For example, would Mr. Jobs view Disney as the preferred content supplier for future generations of Apple iPods and other hardware that distribute and play media products like songs and TV shows? And would Disney's media rivals be less inclined to do business with Apple as it introduced new services because they would be abetting a competitor?" The New York Times 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 4:39 pm
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Ballet Florida Takes Up Residence In High School Ballet Florida, the West Palm Beach-based dance company, "has been searching for ways to expand its reach beyond West Palm Beach, where it has 500 students in its academy. So it has taken up residence in a high school, with a company instructor teaching dance every day at the high school. South Florida Sun-Sentinel 01/24/06
Posted: 01/24/2006 7:50 pm
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