“The Shakespeare Theatre Company will furlough its 100-plus employees, including Artistic Director Michael Kahn, this summer to help the bottom line. The furloughs will be staggered.” The company’s marketing director puts the move into perspective this way: “Compared to what other people are going through, [the furlough] feels fairly minor.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Vassily Aksyonov, Russia’s (and DC’s) Vonnegut, Dies At 76
“Vassily Aksyonov, one of many former Soviet citizens to take up residence in the Washington area since the 1970s, lived among us for 24 years. … You’ve probably never heard of him. Yet his death Monday in Moscow at 76 will set off days of mourning in Russia, where our former neighbor was a superstar. Literarily, he played the role of a Russian Kurt Vonnegut, but Vonnegut would have envied Aksyonov’s stature in his homeland — closer to Tiger Woods’s or even Michael Jackson’s.”
Opera House Head To Be Cultural Olympiad ‘Ringmaster’
“Royal Opera House chief executive Tony Hall is to be appointed as the new ‘ringmaster’ for the Cultural Olympiad. Hall is in the process of being appointed to the board of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Twitter, Twitterati, Twitterverse Enter The Lexicon, Literally
“Twitter has gained academic respectability with inclusion in the Collins English Dictionary. The social networking tool, which has 1.8 million users, will be listed in the 30th anniversary edition to be published later this year. The website, which allows users to send brief online updates to their friends and family, will [appear] as both a noun and a verb.”
In Hyde Park, A Resonant And Well-Gauged 7/7 Memorial
“The achievement of the memorial that is to be unveiled to the victims of the bombings in Hyde Park today is that it communicates a sense of collective loss while also honouring the individual tragedies that took place. Designed by the young architects Carmody Groarke, it comprises a field of 52 closely spaced columns, which have been cast in stainless steel.”
Mr. Penn Goes To Washington (Better Late Than Never)
“Actor Kal Penn on Monday became White House wonk Kalpen Modi. … Now, instead of playing a slap-sticking stoner on the run from Guantanamo Bay prison, as he did in the 2008 ‘Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,’ Modi will serve as an Obama liaison to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as the arts community.”
To Get Boys To Read, Teacher Self-Published Racy Novel
“An English teacher sacked after publishing a racy novel about her pupils online defended the book today, saying it was written to encourage a group of teenage boys to read. … The novel contained pupils’ real names and included references to under-age drinking, truancy and drugs, and scenes of a sexual nature, as well as likening students to ‘gorgeous Mr Gay UK finalists’.”
Gardner Museum Razes Carriage House Amid Controversy
“A building with an intimate connection to one of Boston’s most celebrated figures, Isabella Stewart Gardner, was smashed to the ground yesterday at the back of the museum that bears her name. The so-called carriage house was razed to make way for new museum buildings designed by the architect Renzo Piano.”
Cupid Misfires: Borders’ Dating Service For Bibliophiles
“On the face of it, if you’re a singleton given to lonely walks on blasted heaths with a copy of a suitably impressive paperback poking eye-catchingly out of your jacket pocket, this might sound like just what you need. But to be honest, you’d be better off hanging out in the Sainsbury’s vegetable aisle than on a dating website aimed at book-lovers: a shared appreciation of baby sweetcorn is a far more solid foundation for lasting love than a shared appreciation of Nabokov.”
London’s June Auctions Nosedived 70 Percent
“The total volume of sales at London’s June auctions of Impressionist and contemporary works declined 70 percent on last year as auction houses cut jobs and guarantees to sellers to adjust to the financial slump. Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and Phillips de Pury made 165.9 million pounds ($269.4 million) at the summer sales, down from a record 558.8 million pounds in 2008, according to calculations made by Bloomberg News based on auction house results.”