Swedish Pirates Get The Plank The Swedish electorate wasn't kind to the country's new "Pirate" party. The party picked up less than one percent of the votes. "The Pirate Party's single-issue platform includes a 5-year limit to commercial copyright, the abolition of patents and stronger privacy protections online." Wired 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 6:14 pm
Click here for more Ideas stories...
In Discreet Boston, A $10 Million Donor Goes Public "The Museum of Fine Arts announced yesterday that George D. Behrakis, with a gift of more than $10 million, has become the biggest identified contributor yet to the MFA's planned $500 million expansion campaign. ... Museum officials praised Behrakis for being willing to publicize his contribution. In the past, they've been frustrated by the insistence of many of Boston's biggest arts donors on anonymity. By agreeing to be named, officials said, Behrakis makes it easier for the museum to recruit donors." Boston Globe 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 7:08 am
Who Will Buy Four Remaining Klimts? "In retrospect it may yet come to seem a pity that the Austrians declined to buy all five works for about the same amount that Mr. Lauder paid for Adele, saying the price was too high. At least the works would all have remained on public view." The New York Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 12:05 am
Where's The Real Architecture At This Year's Venice Biennale? "At least half the 10th International Architecture Biennale, held in various locations in La Serenissima this autumn, comes as a disappointment. The main exhibition - held in the old naval dockyard, the Arsenale - raises questions of world importance; but the solutions by architects, displayed in the national pavilions in the nearby Public Gardens, are, for the most part, weak, flippant and severely lacking in imagination. There is little here that might have excited Calvino's Marco Polo." The Guardian (UK) 09/19/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 11:58 pm
Tate Says How Much It Paid (For Art) The Tate releases a list of prices it has paid for recent purchases. "If the public wants to have transparency, they have to recognize that there may be additional costs to the public purse. I still believe it's probably the right thing to be doing." Bloomberg.com 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 11:33 pm
Tate Has A Big Year At The Gate Tate Britain has had its biggest year at the box office since Tate Modern opened. "A record 1.7 million people visited the original Tate gallery at Millbank, partly thanks to a promotion of its free collection. BP, which has sponsored regular re-hangs of Tate Britain's displays, has now renewed its support until 2012." The Independent (UK) 09/19/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 11:30 pm
Ancient Petroglyphs In Danger The largest collection of ancient art rock in the world is under threat, says a new report. "The carvings are 6,000 to 30,000 years old and chronicle the cultural heritage of ancient Aboriginal societies. The petroglyphs are under threat because of acid rain from existing petrochemical plants in the region, and projects that involve blasting to clear the way for development, the report said." CBC 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 11:19 pm
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
Seattle Symphony Ended Season In Red "The Seattle Symphony's 2005-06 season ended $2.15 million in the red, contributing to an accumulated deficit of $3.2 million. That's a tough deficit on an annual budget of $21.3 million, though it could have been worse." Seattle Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 8:19 am
How, Why Baltimore Contract Talks Succeeded "The successful conclusion of negotiations that led to a new, two-year contract for musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra ends months of speculation and worry, and should help clear the way to a positive era. The result confirms two things above all else. One, the BSO musicians couldn't be more dedicated; time and again, they have been willing to forgo an awful lot for themselves in an effort to keep the big picture burning brightly. And, two, W. Gar Richlin, the personable and straight-talking businessman on the orchestra's board who agreed to step in as interim president and CEO last winter, was exactly the right person at the right time." Baltimore Sun 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 7:42 am
Previously:
Baltimore Symphony Musicians Agree To New Contract "In the contract, the BSO agreed to increase the orchestra's size by one musician, to 91 full-time players, and to maintain a full season - both factors that will help preserve the orchestra's reputation and ability to retain and recruit members. There are 17 full-time orchestras in the U.S." Baltimore Sun 09/16/06
The Pops Format, Reshaped In Hollywood On the departure of John Mauceri, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra's musical director, Mark Swed examines his legacy. "Mauceri reinvented not only the pops format but to some extent himself. He made it his business to explore and elevate the music of Hollywood, both as history and as a living tradition. But he left plenty of room for the orchestra to survey Broadway. Pops performers, good ones and ghastly ones, got to share the stage indiscriminately. Mauceri premiered a significant body of new and rediscovered music, mostly American. The range was from drivel to, of all things, Schoenberg's astounding 'Fanfare for the Hollywood Bowl' (who knew?)." Los Angeles Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 5:54 am
Think You Know Classical Music? Here's a way to prove it (or not): The Guardian has another of its famously tough quizzes. (We won't reveal our own score.) The Guardian (UK) 09/19/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 11:51 pm
What Ails Ya: Does Toronto Need One Big Super-Orchestra? Maybe what ails the Toronto music scene is too many orchestras, writes Robert Everrett-Green. How about combining them? "Simply put, a super-orchestra of 150 would be large enough to handle the increased schedules of opera and ballet, and to perform a shorter TSO season. That's how the Vienna Philharmonic functions, as one emanation of a 163-member pool that also provides players for all the ballet and opera performances at the Vienna State Opera." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 6:03 pm
Click here for more Music stories...
Zulu Poet Mazisi Kunene, 76 Mazisi Kunene, "the first poet laureate of democratic South Africa," who spent almost two decades in exile in Los Angeles, has died. His poetry — "rich in African history, steeped in the nation's oral tradition — had a purpose beyond its artistic value. Poetry for Kunene was a weapon in the war to liberate the nation from the brutal system of apartheid." Los Angeles Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 5:06 am
Designer Sergio Savarese, 48 "Sergio Savarese, a designer known for lyrical shapes and a founder of the furniture store Dialogica, died on Friday in a small-plane crash in Moffat County, Colo., that also took the life of his flying companion, Ivan Luini, according to their families. Mr. Savarese was 48 and lived in Manhattan and Southampton, N.Y." The New York Times 09/18/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 4:40 am
And The 2006 MacArthurs Go To ... Playwright Sarah Ruhl, jazz violinist Regina Carter, composer John Zorn and nonfiction writer Adrian Nicole LeBlanc are among this year's crop of 25 MacArthur Fellows. Each fellowship comes with $500,000, no strings attached. The New York Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 4:09 am
Another Turkish Writer Charged Turkish writer Elif Shafak has become the latest Turkish writer to be charged with insulting Turkey for a comment on of the characters in one of her books makes about genocide. "Section 301 of the penal code makes it an offence to insult Turkish identity, and is being used in more than 60 cases against Turkish writers and journalists." CBC 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 6:48 pm
Click here for more People stories...
Playwriting's New Dour Generation? "Tomorrow's playwrights are preoccupied with working-class angst and urban deprivation, according to the judges of a major new writing award. The Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, established by Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre and boasting a total prize fund of £45,000, has identified a new generation of writers tackling issues of sexual disorientation and racial intolerance - but showing little interest in domestic or international politics." The Guardian (UK) 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 7:14 am
Amid Harlem's Gentrification, A New Stage Aaron Davis Hall, Inc., has been part of Harlem for 25 years. Now renamed Harlem Stage, it opens its new theatre next month in "a community that is rapidly changing, with townhouses selling for millions of dollars and new buildings being erected by internationally renowned architects like Rafael Viñoly." For executive director Patricia Cruz, that reality comes with a particular responsibility: "Things are changing," she said, "but how do we make it so that it's positive for the community — that they are not among the displaced? We hope to be a stabilizing force." New York Sun 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 6:42 am
Click here for more Theatre stories...
Foiled By Pen, Atwood Tries Again The LongPen, intended to allow writers to sign books from wherever they happen to be, "famously flubbed at its much-anticipated international debut in March at the London Book Fair." But Margaret Atwood, author and LongPen funder, intends to give it another shot on Sunday at a Toronto book fair. Not that she will be in Toronto, of course. She'll sign books for Canadian fairgoers from Edinburgh. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 7:52 am
A Touch Of Cannibalism For The Holidays "Fans of perhaps the world’s best-known cannibal won’t have to wait much longer: seven years after the publication of 'Hannibal,' Thomas Harris has finally delivered a new novel featuring Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer most famously memorialized on film by Anthony Hopkins. In a last-minute addition to its holiday-season list, Delacorte Press, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, is expected to announce today that it will publish 'Hannibal Rising' on Dec. 5." The New York Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 4:46 am
Previously Unpublished Tolkien To Hit Stores "An unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the U.S. and British publishers announced Monday." The Globe & Mail (Canada) (AP) 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 6:06 pm
Click here for more Publishing stories...
Fox Goes After Evangelical Audience "In the biggest commitment of its sort by a Hollywood studio, News Corp.'s Fox Filmed Entertainment is expected to unveil plans today to capture the gargantuan Christian audience that made 'The Passion of the Christ' a global phenomenon. The home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch's movie studio plans to produce as many as a dozen films a year under a banner called FoxFaith. At least six of those films will be released in theaters under an agreement with two of the nation's largest chains, AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas." Los Angeles Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 5:16 am
GreenStone: Women's Radio As Comfort Food Its feminist raison d'etre notwithstanding, Gloria Steinem's new radio venture is awash in fluff. "GreenStone, as Ms. Steinem explained in a CNN interview last week, is predicated on the notion that women have abandoned radio, and the talk format specifically, because it is 'too hostile and argumentative and crazy' and because women are 'not nearly as hostile and argumentative.' ... GreenStone too easily obliges the idea that debate is just a synonym for bad manners, and in doing so suggests that the only corrective to invidious discussion is no discussion at all — or, rather, lots of little discussions about hosiery and slumber parties." The New York Times 09/19/06
Posted: 09/19/2006 4:25 am
Warner Makes Landmark Deal With YouTube The deal offers Warner content streamed over YouTube. It comes "days after Universal Music said it was considering legal action over sites such as YouTube. A royalty-tracking system has been developed by YouTube to detect when videos on the site are using copyrighted material and work out how much Warner is owed in advertising revenue." BBC 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 6:44 pm
Cleaning Up To Win The Christian Box Office "The Dove Foundation is a Grand Rapids, Mich., nonprofit with Christian roots, and its ties to Hollywood are growing so deep these days that its opinion can send a movie back to the editing room before its release. Weeks before 'Everyone's Hero' was released, the film's production company, IDT Entertainment, hand delivered a copy to the Dove Foundation. When Dove staff told IDT that the 'Oh, my Gods!' in the film might offend the 1.9 million people who consult the foundation's reviews, IDT changed each 'Oh, my God!' to 'Oh, my gosh!' " Los Angeles Times 09/18/06
Posted: 09/18/2006 8:35 am
Click here for more Media stories...
