“A cache of letters from the author George Orwell has sold at auction for £84,000. They document the time in the early 1930s when Orwell was staying with his parents in Southwold, Suffolk, after he returned from Burma. The letters are to his friends in the town … and one subject he discusses is the writing of his first two books.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Wis. Chamber Orchestra Gives Musicians ‘Last, Best’ Offer
“Following more than a year of negotiations and a strike that’s lasted nearly six months, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra has issued musicians a ‘last, best and final offer.'” The contract includes fewer guaranteed performances, and the union “argues that musicians should not have to agree to fewer services without full knowledge of the orchestra’s finances.”
Was March 25, 1909, The Day Modern Poetry Was Born?
“Their names have largely been forgotten over time — TE Hulme, FS Flint, Edward Storer — but 100 years ago today, a young and edgy group of bohemians met together for the first time and changed the face of poetry for good. Enthusiasts are celebrating 25 March as one of our most significant literary anniversaries, though one that most people know nothing about.”
With TiVo, Blockbuster Enters Digital-Delivery Arena
“With its lingering debt problems resolved for now, Blockbuster is pinning some of its hopes on a digital future. The struggling video rental chain will announce a partnership with TiVo on Wednesday to deliver Blockbuster’s digital movie library over the Internet directly to the televisions of people with TiVo digital video recorders.”
Cast Of Blagojevich Musical To Meet Their Subject On Air
“In a move that would be truly bizarre, were it not par for the recent course, the former governor of Illinois has invited the cast of Second City’s ‘Rod Blagojevich Superstar,’ a merciless spoof of the disgraced politician’s recent shenanigans, alleged and otherwise, to appear with him on the radio.”
There’s Little Gain In Resurrecting Bard’s First Theatre
The plan “to raise a new stage on the bones of Shakespeare’s first theatre in Shoreditch, almost certainly the first purpose-built theatre in Britain,” is misguided. “We already have a replica Elizabethan theatre, of course, and – given that the Globe was built from the skeleton of the Theatre – it surely can’t have been that different from the original, at least in its basic form. If the plan is to build something along Elizabethan lines, it’s difficult to see the point.”
Christopher James Is National Poetry Competition Winner
“Christopher James has triumphed in the National Poetry Competition for his wryly affectionate poem about a funeral. James’s poem, Farewell to the Earth, was chosen by judges and poets Brian Patten, Frieda Hughes and Jack Mapanje.”
Is The Cultural Olympiad The Millennium Dome Redux?
“What, exactly, is the Cultural Olympiad? Mention it to senior arts figures and the reaction varies from wary diplomacy to hollow laughter. ‘It makes me ashamed of my profession,’ the head of one major institution told me. Some see the spectre of the Millennium Dome looming. Many worry about the money being spent on Olympics projects, when arts organisations are bracing themselves for cuts.”
To Regulators, Art Troupe’s Wrestling Looks Real Enough
“Among the enduring questions of modern times is whether professional wrestling is real or pretend. Washington-state bureaucrats have opened a new chapter in the debate by ruling that wrestling is a real form of sport even when it consists of a man in a banana suit performing fake kung-fu moves in a tavern.” As a result, a Seattle group that calls what it does “fight cabaret” must meet safety regulations whose costs threaten its existence.
Porn As Art, Or At Least As Worthy Of A Museum Exhibition
The Kunsthalle in Vienna’s Museum Quarter is showing “one of the most talked-about art exhibits in recent memory: ‘The Porn Identity,’ an over-the-top exploration of sexual imagination. In the city where Sigmund Freud explored the dark recesses of consciousness that no one ever talked about, the exhibit aims to shatter the taboo about smut, which is somehow everywhere and nowhere.”