“The value that the military bands offer is far greater than a small percentage point reduction on a budget line. The historic precedent for Pentagon funding for these programs stretches back to the United States’ founding.”
Month: July 2016
Pokémon Go Started As An April Fools’ Joke
“For April Fools’ Day in 2014, Google created a ‘game’ in which users looked on Google Maps for Pokémon à la I Spy or Where’s Waldo. … Accompanying the game was a heart-pounding, highly produced video showing people out in the actual world climbing mountains, riding camels across the desert and taking to the sea in order to find Pokémon. The goal? To win a job as ‘Pokémon Master’ at Google.”
Oh, Great, The Dumb-Tenor Stereotype Is Back In The Spotlight – And Tied Up With #BlackLivesMatter, No Less
At a Major League Baseball game on Tuesday night, a member of the pop-opera group The Tenors, without warning his colleagues, changed the words of Canada’s national anthem to add the words “all lives matter” – and, of course, all hell broke loose. Said tenor evidently had no idea that “all lives matter” is an anti-#BlackLivesMatter backlash slogan and thought he was being inclusive. And so the jokes begin …
Controversial Russian Artist Stripped Of Human Rights Award After They Found Out What He Wanted To Do With The Money
The Human Rights Foundation withdrew the Vaclav Havel Prize from Pyotr Pavlensky – the man who nailed his scrotum to Red Square, tried to burn down the headquarters of the successor agency to the KGB and call it “art,” and saw Russia’s top art prize cancelled after he was nominated for it – because he planned to pay the legal bills of a violent group in the country’s Far East.
Star Of Play With ‘Worst Audience Behavior Ever’ Defends Audience, Says We Should Stop Being Prigs
“[Game of Thrones star Kit] Harington rejected claims made by the award-winning theatre producer Richard Jordan in The Stage newspaper that audiences had behaved inappropriately at the final night of Harington’s Doctor Faustus … ‘I have been a theatregoer since childhood and I didn’t feel that our audiences were disrespectful in the slightest.'”
Maralin Niska, 89, Beloved Star At New York City Opera
“[Her] mesmerizing stage presence and command of dozens of roles made her a mainstay of [the company] in the 1960s and ’70s … [She] had a dark, supple, powerful voice, … but it was her dramatic gifts and movie-star looks – The Daily News of New York once said she resembled ‘Ava Gardner of the love goddess years’ – that earned her a special place in the hearts of opera fans.”
The Ugly Court Battle Over An Art-Dealing Dynasty’s Half-Billion-Dollar Tax Bill
“Over recent weeks in hushed New York dining rooms and private Parisian salons, Guy Wildenstein has been a walking object lesson in how billionaire dynasties decline.”
New Evidence In Case Of Three Picassos Stolen From His Stepdaughter
“Art dealer Olivier Thomas has been placed under investigation once again as new evidence has emerged in the ongoing investigation into stolen Picasso paintings. Last year, Picasso’s stepdaughter Catherine Hutin-Blay accused the dealer … of stealing three works from her.”
Baltimore Symphony Cuts Administrative Jobs
“Four of the [eliminated] jobs were in the marketing department, and a fifth was cut from the education department, symphony spokeswoman Julia Kirchhausen confirmed in an email.”
Tony-Winning Director Pulls His ‘Hamlet’, And Its Star, From Company
“It seemed to be a coup for Theater for a New Audience: Its first summer Shakespeare production would be Hamlet, with the much-lauded Tony-winning director Sam Gold at the helm, and the rising Hollywood star Oscar Isaac in the title role. … [But] last month Mr. Gold, citing insurmountable artistic differences, backed out and took the play – and Mr. Isaac – to the Public Theater.”