More highly-placed editors and publishers are switching teams and becoming literary agents. Does the world really need more literary agents? – New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
BEGGING FOR REVIEW
Author buys tiny front-page ads in the New York Times to try and goad reviewer Michiko Kakutani into paying attention to his book. – Salon
BAD YEAR FOR BIOGRAPHY
Bring out the life support. The biography as a genre is having a rough time. Is it just a string of bad luck or are serious literary changes in the works? – Philadelphia Inquirer
HELP WANTED
Daniel Hayes plays piano at the local supermarket near his Maryland home. When he decided to perform on a grander scale he took out a classified ad: “Senior Citizen ready to perform the Rubinstein D-minor piano concerto . . . but needs an orchestra. Can you help?” – Philadelphia Inquirer
“A HORRIBLE EVENING”
From the cases of Budweiser stacked on stage to a flying motorcycle, burned-out van and “loser” cast, critic can’t find a nice word for the “vandals” who defaced Handel in a London Guildhall production. – London Times
“VIEW” FROM THE STAGE
By almost any measure, the Chicago Lyric Opera’s world premiere of William Bolcom’s new opera “A View from the Bridge” was a huge success. The question: is it a big enough hit to find a place in the repertoire? – New York Times
HAPPY DISBELIEF
After 28 years in cramped quarters, the Royal Ballet moves into enormous new studios at the newly-refurbished Covent Garden. – London Telegraph
US CONGRESS decides –
– not to offer tax credits to Hollywood movies. Industry had wanted breaks to encourage productions not to leave the US. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ESTHETICS ABSOLUTISTS
Increasingly, beauty has become a battleground for local land-use regulation. Stylistic choices as visual pollution. Reason
CULTURAL CONFLICT
Current crop of London theater takes up the clash of cultures – between generations, between classes, between races. The New Republic