“The European Commission settled its antitrust case against Apple and four book publishing groups over e-book price fixing on Thursday, in what was described as a victory for the leading online seller, Amazon, and a setback for publishers fighting for the ability to set prices for electronic literature in the digital marketplace.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Broadway Faces Possible Strike By Service Workers
“The union representing cleaners, porters, elevator operators, matrons and other service workers at most Broadway theaters voted Wednesday to authorize a strike, according to reports. The union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, is in a dispute with the Broadway League, primarily over healthcare benefits.”
Street Art In One Atlanta Neighborhood Becomes A Messy Business
“Living Walls, a nonprofit arts group that aims to connect street artists with urban planners,” had commissioned dozens of murals to help brighten up areas in the city that had suffered due to the real estate crash. Then, one day, people showed up with paint rollers and blotted out one of the murals – and so began a long, strange battle.
Houston Grand Opera Sued By Woman Claiming She Was Raped During Rehearsal
“A Matagorda County woman has filed a lawsuit against the Houston Grand Opera and a Pearland man who she says sexually assaulted her during rehearsals for an production in which they had been hired as extras.”
British Arts Orgs Need A More American Approach To Fundraising (Think Economic Development)
“Arts organisations need to better articulate the regeneration benefits they can bring to town and city centres when approaching private donors, according to a leading philanthropist.”
Despite Turmoil, Oregon Ballet Theatre Seems To Be Thriving (For Now)
Popular artistic director Christopher Stowell has just resigned after a disagreement with the board, and two senior staff members have also departed. But revenue from this year’s Nutcracker is running well ahead of projections, and critics are unusually enthusiastic about this year’s edition of the ballet.
Young Spaniards Deal With Their Nation’s Troubles In Online Satire
“Web shows with names like Treintañeros (Thirtysomethings), Asqueadas (The Disgusted Ones) and Parados (The Jobless Ones) are finding dark humor in the economic distress of Spain’s so-called lost generation, while offering an antidote to the sanitized view of the crisis often presented on mainstream Spanish TV.”
Zaha Hadid-Designed Broad Art Museum Opens At Michigan State Univ.
The 43,000 square-foot, $40 million building, sheathed in large panels of pleated stainless steel and glass, features (of course – this is Zaha) very, very few right angles.
Landmark Thomas Hart Benton Mural Goes To Met Museum
“America Today, now considered one of the most important and famous examples of American scene painting, is languishing in storage. That will change, however, because AXA Equitable, the insurance company that bought it nearly 30 years ago, has decided to donate it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” which will display it in the former Whitney Museum building beginning in 2015.
Australia’s Great Female Artistic Polymath (Whom You Probably Didn’t Know About)
“Composer, adventurer, opportunist and benefactor” – as well as painter and critic – Peggy Glanville-Hicks was born in Melbourne 100 years ago this month. “[She] had an international career and enjoyed a mid-century artist-bohemian lifestyle that brought her into contact, sometimes intimately, with prominent creative figures of the day. Paul Bowles, Anaïs Nin, Yehudi Menuhin – even Theo Flynn, Errol’s old man – were close friends.”