“In a preemptive strike to keep audiences from trading an evening of theater for TV and a frozen pizza during troubled economic times, Center Theatre Group is announcing a new ‘Entertainment Stimulus Package’ that will make available 100,000 tickets at $20, available for all performances at all three of its theaters –the Ahmanson, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas — for the entire 2008-09 season.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Challenge: Choose 300 Works That Say ‘De Montebello’
“If the Mad Hatter suddenly acquired taste and culture, he might hang a Jackson Pollock drip painting with a watercolor of a fruit bat and call the match inspired instead of weird. Such bizarre couplings rule ‘The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions,’ the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s effusive hats-off tribute to its retiring director of 31 years.”
Sotheby’s Lost $15 Million Paying Guarantees
“Disappointing art auctions in London and Hong Kong this month cost Sotheby’s $15 million in losses on guarantees it provided sellers. The losses occurred because the artworks either sold for less than the minimum price the auction house guaranteed to sellers, or not at all, Sotheby’s said in a filing late yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Bubbles Will Rise Off-Broadway
“An off-Broadway artist can breathe a sigh of relief now that he’s been able to replace the stolen soap solution he uses to blow bubbles for his ‘Gazillion Bubbles Show.'”
Clive James On Pat Kavanagh’s Bluntness And Brilliance
Clive James, one of the authors who followed Pat Kavanagh to her new firm last year, pens an elegy to the literary agent, who died Monday. “I would have gone with her even if I had known that she was soon to grow fatally ill. Every minute of knowing her was valuable.”
Pondering An Artists’ Parliament
“[I]s it time artists got together and elected their own parliament? That’s the issue under public debate at the Young Vic theatre tomorrow night.”
Wood Makes Case For Mimesis; Vicious Backbiting Ensues
“It’s one of the most contentious debates in the literary blogosphere, but its roots stretch back more than 2,000 years. Is realism, ‘lifeness’ or verisimilitude a necessary quality of good literature? … James Wood argues forcefully that it is, and in so doing has trampled on and trounced some glamorous, bulgy, iconic American novels.”
Adversity Abounds. Doesn’t Inspiration Spring From That?
“Across the arts, consensus has yet to emerge about what the slump may bring. There is anxiety about ticket sales, sponsorship and subsidy – but also, in some places, optimism about a rising public need to seek solace in a music download or a trip to the cinema. Lean times, many observers point out, tend to lead to a surge in creativity.”
Jordanian Poet Arrested, Charged With Harming Islam
“Jordanian police arrested a local writer Tuesday for incorporating verses of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, into his love poetry, a judicial official said. The poet, Islam Samhan, published his collection of poems, ‘Grace like a Shadow,’ without the approval of the Jordanian government, and authorities say it insults the holy book, the official said.”
Tina Brown Is Good For Waugh
“Late last week, a reader asked us an interesting question: Since most of the coverage of the launch of Tina Brown’s new website, The Daily Beast, mentioned that she appropriated the name from the fictional newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, what’s been going on with sales of the novel lately?” Turns out they’re up.