“The programs, including a John Goodman comedy about misfit roommate senators and a kids program about a young scientist, will be the online retailer’s first original series as the company follows Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC into the business of creating its own programming to stream on the Web.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
La Scala Cuts Back Its Season Due To Budget Cuts
“As it prepares to celebrate Verdi’s 200th birthday, La Scala opera house in Milan has announced it is being forced to reduce the number of operas it will produce next season thanks to the economic crisis and cuts to its public funding.”
Jazz Pianist Mulgrew Miller Dead At 57 From Stroke
“Mr. Miller developed his voice in the 1970s, combining the bright precision of bebop … with the clattering intrigue of modal jazz … His balanced but assertive style was a model of fluency, lucidity and bounce, and it influenced more than a generation of younger pianists.” A revered side man, he recorded well over 400 albums, including just under a dozen as soloist or bandleader.
World’s Oldest Complete Torah Scroll Discovered In Bologna Library
“Mauro Perani, professor of Hebrew at the University of Bologna, said experts and carbon dating tests done in Italy and the United States dated the scroll as having been made between 1155 and 1225. The scroll, which has been in possession of the Bologna University Library for more than 100 years, had been previously thought to be from the 17th century.”
What’s Been Missing From The Broadway Stage (Until, Maybe, This Season)
“Since Broadway’s golden age, in the middle of the last century, the most dramatic loss has not been great musicals or plays. Artistic highs remain as resilient as the lows. What has really shrunk is what’s in between: the well-made trifle, the middlebrow entertainment and, strikingly, the light comedy.”
Munich’s Lenbachhaus Museum Reopens
“Munich’s standing as one of Germany’s major cultural centres has been consolidated this month with the reopening of the city’s renovated Lenbachhaus Museum … [following] a four-year renovation plan overseen by Lord Norman Foster’s Foster + Partners architectural firm.”
What Secular People Misunderstand About Faith
“But secular Americans often think that the most important thing to understand about religion is why people believe in God, because we think that belief precedes action and explains choice. That’s part of our folk model of the mind: that belief comes first.”
Sydney Dance Company Wrongly Linked To Underage Sex Scandal
A poor choice of words by Australian Broadcasting Company broadcasters – the phrase “Sydney dance company” is not, in fact, generic – misled concerned supporters and fans to believe that SDC would be closing in the wake of allegations of child sexual abuse.
The Internet’s Most Famous Feline Has An Agent And A Movie Deal
“‘She hates movies,’ says [feline talent agent Tom] Lashes of his client, Grumpy Cat, a cat with a mouth puckered into a frown whose viral photos have ricocheted around the Internet.”
Italy’s Literati Battle To Save Writers’ Favorite Trieste Coffee Bar
“In its heyday the Caffè San Marco was one of the fixed points on the vibrant intellectual map of Trieste, frequented by James Joyce, the writer Italo Svevo and the poet Umberto Saba. … Locals fear that either AG will decide to give up on the San Marco, or new management will be found that has a different vision for the venue.”