“[This] season’s revival of “Godspell” has introduced a new breed: shareholders who have put as little as $1,000 each into the $5 million musical and in return have gotten a rare inside look at show business, including the ear of the lead producer.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Cheese Portraitist (Or, Van Gogh Goes To Whole Foods)
Philadelphia artist Mike Geno: “I only paint things that I find attractive and appetizing. I like to translate what I find the most seductive about my subject. And cheese, it turns out, is the absolute perfect match for the way I paint. I get hungry looking at cheese.”
Is Abu Dhabi Ready For A Contemporary Art Museum?
With all the delays in the construction of the planned museums on the emirate’s Saadiyat Island – including a Guggenheim branch – some observers are wondering if the whole idea was a good one. After all, both the government and the population are very conservative, and the Gulf already has Qatar pouring big money into museums and the art market.
Chinese Government Can Never Defeat The Internet, Declares Ai Weiwei
The artist/activist writes, “[In] the long run, [China’s] leaders must understand it’s not possible for them to control the Internet unless they shut it off – and they can’t live with the consequences of that. The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It’s as simple as that.”
Ai Weiwei Sues Beijing’s Tax Bureau
“Chinese artist and government critic Ai Weiwei said Friday he was suing Beijing’s tax bureau for violating the law when it imposed a multi-million tax evasion fine on a company he founded.” (That company’s name: Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd.)
Dancers’ Union Challenges Dance Theater Of Harlem
“The American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents dancers in the United States, has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the Dance Theatre of Harlem is refusing to recognize the union and will not renegotiate the dancers’ previous contract.”
Proto-Faxes – When Radio Really Might Have Killed Newspapers
“The introduction of broadcast radio caused some in the newspaper industry to fear that newspapers would soon become a thing of the past. After all, who would read the news when you could just turn on the radio for real-time updates? Newspapers had even more to fear in 1938 when radio thought it might compete with them in the deadtree business as well.”
Nostalgia On Schedule: ‘The Golden Forty-Year Rule’
“So it seems time to pronounce a rule about American popular culture: the Golden Forty-Year Rule. The prime site of nostalgia is always whatever happened, or is thought to have happened, in the decade between forty and fifty years past. (And the particular force of nostalgia, one should bear in mind, is not simply that it is a good setting for a story but that it is a good setting for you.)”
What City Is The Musical Tastemaker For America’s Social-Networking Generation? (It’s Not NY Or LA)
“If you want to know what the cool kids will be listening to next month, here are two hints: 1) Head to Atlanta. 2) It’s probably hip hop. That’s according to a recently posted arXiv paper mapping the geographic flow of music on the social-networking music site Last.fm.)” Also at the top: Montreal, Chicago and Toronto.
What’s The Fastest Language? Well, In Sounds, Or In Content?
In a study of seven major tongues, Spanish and Japanese were found to have the greatest number of syllables per second, with Mandarin the slowest and English in the middle. But most of the languages conveyed information at about the same rate. (You want fast? Try Malayalam.)