According to the 2010 Trust Barometer Survey, “since 2008 the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of consumer and business information dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%. … Even more strikingly, however, after a precipitous decline earlier in the decade, informed consumers have regained trust in traditional authorities and experts.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Black Theatre Troupe Settles Into Former Whites-Only Area
District Six, a neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, “became a symbol of the apartheid era – and of the struggle to defeat it.” Now a new theatre there, named for playwright Athol Fugard, “is home to an all-black company, Isango Portobello.” (Well, not quite all black: The artistic director is white.)
Londoners: Hijab-Shaped Arches May Inflame Tensions
“The proposed arches, part of a ‘cultural trail’ through [east London’s Brick Lane] – immortalised in Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane – have been criticised as ‘misconceived’ and ‘excluding’. Locals have said they risk ghettoising a community that considers itself tolerant and diverse.”
Toymakers’ Codependent Relationship With Hollywood
“The toy industry is increasingly reliant upon Hollywood for characters and stories that kids will want to reenact in their homes. … [T]oys based on characters found in movies, TV shows or books accounted for $5.4 billion, or 25% of all U.S. toy sales, last year, research firm NPD estimates.”
European Court Rules Against Turkey In Erotic Novel Case
“The Strasbourg-based court ruled in favour of a petition from publisher Rahmi Akdas, who in 1999 printed a Turkish translation of French writer Guillaume Apollinaire’s 1907 novel ‘The Eleven Thousand Rods,’ which has passages on sadism, homosexuality, paedophilia and necrophilia.” The publisher had been convicted of morality crimes.
San Antonio Symphony Appoints New Music Director
“The San Antonio Symphony will announce today that German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing will become the 70-year-old organization’s eighth music director, bringing a three-year search to an end. Lang-Lessing, 44, … is music director for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in Australia.”
In Florida, Detroit Symphony Gains Ground, Turns A Profit
“Schlepping across the Sunshine State might not be as sexy as marching through Europe. But it was still a landmark week for an orchestra trying to shake off the malaise of a $3.8-million deficit, sharpen its artistic edge, raise its national profile and forge deeper ties with its donors, wherever they happen to live.”
Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel Taps An Artist In Residence
Portrait painter Katie Musolff, the hotel’s second artist in residence, “will be given a studio and gallery space in the hotel’s lobby and a monthly stipend. Part of the goal of the program is to provide hotel guests and the public with access to an artist at work.”
Antebellum Portraits Of Black Pa. Couple Discovered
“A year after the Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted, on long-term loan, a pair of exceedingly rare portraits of a pre-Civil War black Philadelphia couple, another pair of similar portraits has surfaced in the city. Actually, they were all but hiding in plain sight.”
Memphis Symphony Names Mei-Ann Chen Music Director
Chen, 36, is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor. “Members of the search committee said last year that they were looking for an ‘up-and-comer’ to be the musical leader of the symphony. … She replaces retiring maestro David Loebel.”