“Damien Hirst, who topped a list of the 100 most influential people in the art world last year, dropped to number 48 in the ranking published by ArtReview.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
NY Phil, In Vietnam, Hopes Visit Will Be The First Of Many
“The New York Philharmonic visit comes amid deepening economic ties between Vietnam and the U.S., now the Asian country’s biggest export market. … The visit is a way of ‘opening up relations on a cultural basis,’ [New York Philharmonic President Zarin] Mehta said.”
Pennsylvania Budget Cuts Hit Libraries Hard
“Calculated by the Pennsylvania Library Association yesterday, the statewide subsidy decreased by $15.1 million from the current $75.1 million. … The Legislature also eliminated one major program — the Electronic Library Catalog that links facilities around the state to provide reference material via the Internet.”
Minn. Orchestra Names Doc Severinsen’s Pops Successor
Sarah Hicks is the Minnesota Orchestra’s new principal conductor of pops and presentations. “Hicks, whose appointment takes effect immediately and lasts four years, became the first female staff conductor when she joined the orchestra as assistant conductor in 2006.”
Hush, Judi And Rupert: Young Actors Will Find Their Way
“To claim that Dame Judi Dench is ‘strangling theatre’ by suggesting that younger actors ought to have a bit more respect for the traditions to which they belong, as Rupert Goold has done, is insulting, absurd and maybe even self-serving.” But “he’s right to defend younger actors from any inference that they’re less able than their predecessors.”
Nat Finkelstein, Warhol’s Factory Photographer, Dies At 76
“As the house photographer for the Factory from 1964 to 1967, Mr. Finkelstein created spontaneous portraits not only of Factory regulars like [Edie] Sedgwick and Gerard Malanga but also of the artists and celebrities who drifted in and out of the Warhol orbit.”
Mr. Rochester Trounces Mr. Darcy In Romantic-Hero Poll
“Rochester, the lead male character in Jane Eyre, published in 1847, topped the Mills & Boon survey despite his moodiness and lack of good looks.”
Iraq National Theatre Reopens After Six Dark Years
“The theatre at Fatah Square in Karrada is protected by blast walls while police are deployed in large numbers in surrounding streets during and after performances. … [T]heatre-goers are not exempt from the vehicle searches and security checks that pervade daily life in Baghdad, [but] the fact that the city is hosting evening shows at all is progress….”
DIY Technology Is Sidelining Recording Studios
“Although nobody officially tracks the number of recording studios, the consensus among industry experts is that the big commercial facilities have taken a major hit. They estimate that as many as half of the L.A. area’s commercial studios have closed or been sold to artists for private use.”
Obstacle For Iraqi Directors: Where To Show Their Films?
“[A] new generation of Iraqi filmmakers [is] chronicling the tumult that engulfed their country as veteran dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled by the US-led forces.” But the nation’s movie theatres have been destroyed, and people fear gathering in public.