“The Los Angeles City Council is weighing a plan to issue a $30-million loan that would allow the owner of the Hollywood & Highland shopping mall to retrofit a theater so it can house a decade of performances by Cirque du Soleil. CIM Group … hopes to bring the acrobatic performances to the venue starting in 2011. In exchange for the loan, CIM and its partners would pledge to create at least 858 jobs, according to the proposal.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
The Upside And The Downside Of Google Books
Editorial: “Google’s effort could create new interest in millions of out-of-print books, which would be made available at no cost at public libraries,” even as authors and publishers would benefit financially from revenues generated elsewhere. But “the Department of Justice should make sure adequate protections are built” into Google’s right to orphaned books, while the company should “do a better job of showing how it will respect privacy” of readers.
Louvre Launching English-Language Online Database
“Not being in France and not being able to read French are no longer good excuses for not immersing yourself in the collection of the Louvre. On Wednesday, the museum plans to announce that it will make an English-language version of its online database available on its Web site, louvre.fr, starting Thursday.”
This Is No Time To Treat The Arts As An Extravagance
“[T]he arts teach us morality, humanity, the range of identity, the importance of beauty and ideas and qualities you can’t quantify, the values we hold in common. … They teach us all this through miraculously pleasurable experiences that at their best are akin to spiritual revelation, and that even in their lesser occurrences are a source of delight and understanding. Why does that constantly have to be defended as worthwhile?”
Standing In Line At TKTS: It’s A Social Good
“Our mission is in large part to promote conversations about theater. You do that in person,” says Victoria Bailey, executive director of the Theater Development Fund, which runs TKTS. “There is an urban fellowship about that experience.”
ACLU Steps Up The Privacy Debate Over Google Books
“The ACLU and other organizations are turning up the heat on Google to protect readers’ privacy. The groups are concerned that Google’s plan to significantly expand Google Books does not come with a policy to keep users’ reading habits safe from prying eyes. … The ACLU worries that the monitoring of readers’ online browsing and buying activities will expand along with the number of titles.”
Film Lovers Fret As Cahiers Du Cinema Changes Hands
“Cinéphiles everywhere greeted with alarm the news this February that Cahiers du Cinéma, the most venerable film magazine in the world, had been sold to the English art publisher Phaidon. … No other magazine has proved so extravagantly, and for so long, that film criticism can be vital to filmmaking. Last week’s announcement that Phaidon had appointed Stéphane Delorme as the new editor quieted anxieties.”
US Military Caused ‘Major Damage’ To Ruins Of Babylon
“U.S. forces did not exactly destroy the 4,000-year-old city, home of one of the world’s original seven wonders, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. … But they did turn it into Camp Alpha, a military base, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Their 18-month stay there caused ‘major damage’ and represented a ‘grave encroachment on this internationally known archeological site,’ a report released this month in Paris by the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, says.”
Auctioning Its Art, Bankrupt Lehman Hopes To Raise $1M
“Roy Lichtenstein’s 1982 print of the Statue of Liberty, once wall candy at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is expected to contribute about $30,000 to the bankrupt company’s coffers when it’s offered for auction in November. Lehman will begin selling its multimillion-dollar corporate art collection in a series of three sales at Freeman’s Auctioneers in Philadelphia this winter.”
The Bell Tolls For Hemingway Musical (Yes, Musical)
“So, Too Close to the Sun is closing four weeks early at the Comedy theatre. The unlikely musical about Ernest Hemingway is the latest in a lineup of West End duds that have bombed.” The latest, that is, in a lineup of West End duds whose bombing was entirely predictable. Unlike their flamboyant Broadway peers, “London’s musical flops tend to involve comparative unknowns (such as the team behind last year’s Imagine This) and can be seen coming a mile off.”