“An audience of 5,000 watched Russian dancers Elena Andrienko, Ruslan Skvorsto, Ana Antonicheva and Dimitri Belogolovstsev take to the stage. It was the first time the Bolshoi have performed in Cuba since 1980 amid improving relationships between the two countries.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
What The $104.3M Giacometti Sale Says About The Rich
“Not only does it signal that the plutocracy believes it successfully eluded financial Armageddon. At a stroke, the sale made clear that the rich are back in their rightful place at the apex of the world.”
Colossus Meets Behemoth: Wal-Mart, Ticketmaster Team
“With the closing of record stores such as Tower Records, Ticketmaster lost retail outlets for event sales. The new accord will let Wal-Mart shoppers buy tickets for concerts, sports and other events at cash registers in the retailer’s entertainment department….”
iBooks To Be Copy-Protected With Familiar Software
“Veteran iTunes customers will recognize the locks as FairPlay, a digital rights management software that once limited how many times digital songs can be copied onto different computers. … Next month, Apple will be dusting off those digital cuffs for books, according to sources in the publishing industry.”
How Theatres Are Woven Into The Fabric Of Our Lives
“In Pleasance Two, in Edinburgh, I like to sit in the centre of the first row because that’s where I was sitting when I realised with total certainty that I was pregnant with my first child. … As I walk up the steps of the Royal Court, I always recall sitting there weeping for a lost love, who abandoned me for ever at the interval of a show.”
Designing In Disaster Zones — Haiti And Elsewhere
“With such pressing survival issues, is it appropriate to be thinking about architectural revolutions or questions of aesthetics?”
Trove Of Henry Moore Films To Go Online
“The material encompasses documentaries, interviews and reports spanning nearly five decades of Britian’s most famous sculptor. It includes six classic programmes made by pioneering producer John Read for the BBC.”
The Literary Biopic’s Reality Gap
“If writers are any good, it’s usually because they spend weeks alone, in a room, with a computer (or paper if they’re old-school).” But you wouldn’t know that from films. “Literary biopics usually cater to the fantasy that writers are drunk, mad, sex-obsessed geniuses inspired by the holy spirit (50% proof).”
Trouble-Plagued Ground Zero Arts Center Clears Hurdle
City officials say “that the Frank Gehry-designed theater will be constructed on the originally planned site, and that below-ground construction work on the foundation will start next quarter. … But even if the foundation work moves ahead as planned, the project faces numerous challenges, leaving skeptics questioning whether it will ever be built.”
Maria Callas’ Exhilarating, Famously Flawed Voice
“Callas’ ability to sing such a wide range of roles was one of the things that led to her meteoric rise. But … Callas’ voice was already starting to fail her by the time she was in her 40s — quite young for an opera singer. A number of factors, including a rapid loss of weight, may explain why.”