Afghan Museum To Return To Kabul "The Afghanistan Museum in Exile, in Switzerland, is closing, and its collection will be sent back to Kabul as Unesco has determined that the situation in the Afghan capital is now safe enough. Items donated for safekeeping are therefore being packed, for their return."
The Art Newspaper 11/23/06 Posted: 11/24/2006 6:25 am
Italian Culture Minister Blames Getty For Broken Talks Italy's culture minister says the Getty Museum unilaterally broke off talks over the return of antiquities. "It is our government's duty to make it clear that all the world's museums which exhibit ransacked Italian works must return them".
Ansa 11/23/06 Posted: 11/24/2006 6:16 am
- Getty Responds To Italian Charge "I want to repeat that we are deeply saddened that our talks with the Italian Ministry of Culture did not result in a mutually beneficial agreement regarding cultural cooperation and a joint agreement on the return of objects claimed by Italy from the Getty's antiquities collection. During our meeting with Ministry officials on November 17, we offered substantial compromises, including the immediate transfer of full title to the Cult Statue of a Goddess, if the Italian government would join the Getty in conducting further research."
CultureGrrl 11/23/06 Posted: 11/24/2006 6:14 am
Reality Bites Turner Contender As part of his entry in this year's Turner Prize, artist Phil Collins held a "news conference" with stars of reality TV shows. "Cameras were trained on the media, who, in turn, had their cameras focused on the nine 'victims' of Supernanny, Wife Swap, Trisha et al. All felt they had been exploited in some way - manipulated by seemingly friendly producers who ruined their lives and spat them out in the TV production line."
BBC 11/23/06 Posted: 11/24/2006 6:09 am
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Atlanta Symphony, Musicians Agree On Contract "The new contract calls for incremental pay raises over the next four years. The current 52-week minimum salary for rank-and-file ASO musicians is $79,300. That figure will rise to $88,400 by the 2010-2011 season." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 11/23/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 10:12 am
Why The Philadelphia Orchestra And Its Conductor Are Parting "For at least two years the players have been leaking to the press their complaints about Mr. Eschenbach, who is said to be willful in his interpretations and inefficient in rehearsals. Though he almost always seems a kinetic and limber presence on the podium, the musicians maintain that Mr. Eschenbach, 66, has gotten lost during performances." The New York Times 11/23/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 9:47 am
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Report: Canadians Giving More To Support Arts "The report, Individual Donors to Arts and Culture Organizations in Canada in 2004, examined Statistic Canada data and found that 732,000 Canadians 15 years of age or older gave a total of $188-million to arts and culture organizations in 2004. This represents, on average, a donation of $257 per donor and is a record high." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 9:43 am
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Comden And Green - A "Perfect Relationship" Betty Comden and Adolph Green were one of show business's great partnerships. "We meet, whether or not we have a project, just to keep up a continuity of working. There are long periods when nothing happens, and it’s just boring and disheartening. But we have a theory that nothing’s wasted, even those long days of staring at one another. You sort of have to believe that, don’t you? That you had to go through all that to get to the day when something did happen." The New York Times 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 10:20 am
Lyricist Betty Comden, 89 The best Comden and Green lyrics were brash and buoyant, full of quick wit, best exemplified by "New York, New York," an exuberant and forthright hymn to their favorite city. Yet even the songwriters' biggest pop hits — "The Party's Over," "Just in Time" and "Make Someone Happy" — were simple, direct and heartfelt. Yahoo! (AP) 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 6:33 am
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A Big Role For Theatre "We are living through yet another period of strife prompted by certainties and doubts about religion. As a result, debate about the justification of religious commitment is increasing in volume and heat. Theatre is uniquely placed to explore such questions, as it can show audiences what such differences of opinion mean in the context of human lives." New Statesman 11/27/06
Posted: 11/22/2006 6:22 pm
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Published Battle To Publish Lost O'Neill A bidding war has erupted over a long-lost never-published manuscript by Eugene O'Neill. " 'The Screenews of War,' one of the few short stories he ever wrote, is believed to have been penned 90 years ago but was quickly forgotten. Today, at least two major magazines and a book publisher are said to be intrigued by the 40-odd-page manuscript, which has been quietly circulated over the past week by the professor who made the astounding find." New York Post 11/22/06
Posted: 11/22/2006 7:42 am
Relief Over OJ Cancellation Booksellers are relieved that the OJ book has been canceled. It put them in an awkward spot. Three-hundred tousand copies were printed; they'll be destroyed. And Judith Regan, responsible for publishing it? Publishers Weekly 11/21/06
Posted: 11/21/2006 11:02 pm
First-Time Novelist Wins Governor General Peter Behrens has won this year's Governor General's Award for fiction. The Law of Dreams is a "tale of a young man's journey to the New World during the Irish potato famine. Behrens, a Montreal-born screenwriter who lives most of the year in Maine, is a first-time novelist and author of the short story collection Night Driving." CBC 11/21/06
Posted: 11/21/2006 10:29 pm
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"Pirates" Is 2006's Box Office Champ "This weekend marks the start of a new year in the movie business, with American Thanksgiving considered the start of the next year's film crop. As movie studios tallied the take for 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was the clear winner, taking in $422,543,393." Toronto Star 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 10:03 am
Canadian Cable Companies Slam Network Proposal Canada's major broadcasters are proposing they be allowed to charge cable and satellite companies for their signals. "Only specialty cable channels — those higher up on the dial such as Showcase, MuchMusic and HGTV — are allowed to charge carriers for their signals. That structure was designed to compensate those channels for the smaller audiences they have because they aren't afforded prime placement on the dial, and not all are carried by every satellite or cable company in Canada." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/13/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 9:39 am
Hollywood's Bollywood Dreams Hollywood is taking a greater interest in Bollywood. "Stepping up from offering Indian actors small roles in Hollywood and sourcing animation and special effects from Indian studios, foreign studios are now signing co-production deals and buying stakes in Indian media firms." Yahoo! (Reuters) 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 6:29 am
Network Ratings Rise W/ YouTube CBS says its ratings have gone up since it agreed to have clips from its shows uploaded on YouTube. "In the month since CBS signed a deal with the video website, it has uploaded over 300 clips which have been viewed a total of 29.2m times. At the same time, CBS says ratings for David Letterman's talk show rose by 200,000 viewers, a five per cent rise." BBC 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 6:06 am
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Innovation Out Of Israel Ohad Naharin is the 54-year-old head of Israel's acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company. "The veteran artistic director of Israel's premier dance company has been hailed for pioneering some of the most innovative work - and intriguing movement language - in contemporary dance during the past 20 years. He has battled all manner of inclement weather since taking over the helm of Batsheva in Tel Aviv in 1990." Sydney Morning Herald 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 10:06 am
The New Dance (But Is It Dance?) "The excitement for critics and audiences alike in so many performances these days, from downtown to Brooklyn and beyond, is to ignore the old categories, or at least not fret if their expectations are thwarted. Artists are eager to mix things up, and audiences better be ready to go along for the ride." The New York Times 11/24/06
Posted: 11/24/2006 8:36 am
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