“France’s Socialist government aims to introduce a law preventing online retailer Amazon from offering both discounts and free delivery for books in France, the culture minister said, arguing this amounts to unfair competition.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Britain’s Latest Round Of Arts Funding Cuts Less Awful Than Feared
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne “on Wednesday unveiled a 7 per cent cut to the media, culture and sport department budget but capped the reductions to museums and arts bodies at 5 per cent.”
Janis Joplin Musical Headed To Broadway
“A Night With Janis Joplin, a concert-as-theater featuring a buzz-generating performance by Mary Bridget Davies as Joplin, will open on Broadway this fall after touring the country over the last two years.”
Recalcitrant Insurance Company Settles Warhol Foundation’s Lawsuit
“The Andy Warhol Foundation has reached a settlement with the Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company, ending a case that lasted more than two years. The company agreed to pay the ‘lion’s share’ of the foundation’s legal fees stemming from two lawsuits brought by the collectors Joe Simon and Susan Shaer in 2007.”
À La Recherche De Roberto Bolaño
The myths: “He was a heroin addict. He never did drugs. Hepatitis C, contracted from dirty needles, damaged his liver. He was arrested under suspicion of terrorism in Pinochet’s Chile … He was never in Chile.” The reality? “It’s also obvious that he never used heroin and that his drink of choice was tea.” Lisa Locascio looks at a new exhibition of Bolaño’s archives and recounts her own research trip to the Catalan town he called home.
Drunken One-Night Stands Do Not Make Sense In Much Ado About Nothing
Yet Joss Whedon begins his movie version with one. Gina Dalfonzo makes the case for why that choice was a mistake, the film’s modern setting notwithstanding.
ABT To Premiere New Ratmansky Tempest
“The world premiere of the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s take on Shakespeare’s Tempest will open the American Ballet Theater’s first fall season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.”
Why Google Was Right To Abandon Its Job-Interview Brain-Teasers
“The candidate is asked to handle an abstracted ‘gotcha’ situation, where thinking quickly is often more important than thinking well” – not what one wants in a programmer.
New Jersey Symphony Names Its Principal Oboist CEO
“After an ill-fated gamble on an outsider, the New Jersey Symphony has turned to a familiar face for its next leader. …[James] Roe Roe has been the orchestra’s lead oboist (in an acting role) since 2011, and has worked as a freelance musician and an arts administrator in New York.”
The Passion Of Vasily Grossman
Sam Sacks on the two stages of the Russian writer’s career: peerless chronicler of the Second World War and careworn Soviet outcast.