“Russia banned art loans to the United States after a 2010 federal court ruling that a historic collection of Jewish religious books and Rabbinic writings belongs not to Russia but to the U.S.-based Hasidic group, Chabad, and must be returned.”
Month: April 2012
Could TV’s “Smash” Make It To Broadway?
“The series about the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, which NBC recently renewed for a second season, is a long way from getting to the real Broadway. Still, the show has been a passion project for NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt for years, and it boasts a large cast of executive producers with elite pedigrees and credentials in the theater world.”
Pandora Listenership Increases 59 Percent
“The amount of time users spend listening also grew — to more than 1 billion hours last month, from 567 million hours in March 2011. Each Pandora listener spent more time on average with the service as well, about 19.6 hours in March compared with 17.7 hours a year ago.”
Another Spider-Man Stuntman Claims Injuries
Richard Kobak, a stunt performer on the Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark musical, is the latest to claim injury from high-flying stunts for the Broadway production.
Amazon UK Criticized For Paying No Corporate Taxes
“Amazon.co.uk, Britain’s biggest online retailer, generated sales of more than £3.3bn in the country last year but paid no corporation tax on any of the profits from that income – and is under investigation by the UK tax authorities.”
A Year After Jenin Freedom Theatre Director’s Murder…
In an era where artist-celebrities assume the role of human rights icons through stints as UN “good will ambassadors”, photo-op tours of disaster stricken areas and pronouncements of disgust with the war criminal of the week, Mer-Khamis was an artist in the truest sense of the word. He used his considerable gifts as an actor, filmmaker and theatre director both to represent suffering and injustice in unique ways and to offer a glimpse of a different future. He was, in fact, a cultural terrorist. And the world needs more of them.”
Philosophy Is Philosophy (Not A Science)
“Numerous philosophers have come to believe, in concert with the prejudices of our age, that only science holds the potential to solve persistent philosophical mysteries as the nature of truth, life, mind, meaning, justice, the good and the beautiful. Thus, myriad contemporary philosophers are perfectly willing to offer themselves up as intellectual servants or ushers of scientific progress.”
Sotheby’s Gets To Keep Cambodian Antiquity (For Now)
“Ruling against the immediate seizure of a 1,000-year-old Cambodian statue the United States and Cambodian governments say was looted from its temple site, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday gave Sotheby’s continued custody of the antiquity and called a hearing for April 12.”
A Literary Bias Against Women? Hardly!
The job of the critic is to discover and praise good books, whether they are written by men or women. The job of the writer is to write them. And neither job is made any easier by complaining about the “place of women in the literary world.”
California Arts Council Could Lose Right To Fund-Raise Via Tax Returns
“Beginning last year, filers could donate to the state’s chronically underfunded arts grant-making agency by checking off a box on their tax return, then adding the amount they wanted to contribute to their payment or subtracting it from their refund.” That box could disappear if the CAC raises less than $250,000 with it this year.