“[The] typical argument calls for supporting newspapers historically have been based on the idea of newspapers as a sort of civic institution that we, as a society, must preserve in the name of ideals (always capitalized) like Truth. But what if, instead, we begin to think of newspapers in perhaps a more mundane manner – as algorithms for solving problems?” Which is to say, as apps.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Ballet San Jose Officially Fires Artistic Director Dennis Nahat
The company’s founder “confirmed this week that he has received a letter from Executive Director Stephanie Ziesel removing him as artistic director. ‘I am flabbergasted at how this has happened, Nahat said … ‘I don’t understand the rationale behind it, and I guess one cannot rationalize it at this point’.”
Bolshoi’s Director General Says He Didn’t Fire Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Anatoly Iksanov: “No one is going to fire Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who was, and is, to remain Bolshoi Theatre’s soloist.” Iksanov argues that Tsiskaridze’s contract as a part-time dance instructor was terminated in order to engage a full-time teacher.
Innumeracy In The Digital Age
“It’s the mathematical equivalent of illiteracy, and it’s surprisingly common among otherwise well-educated people.” (Not least among us artsy types …)
Shakespeare’s Globe Attacked For Inviting Israel’s Habima
“The company is due to perform The Merchant of Venice in Hebrew during the international festival at the Bankside venue in May. It will mark the company’s first visit to the UK. However, campaign group Boycott from Within has written an open letter to the theatre challenging Habima’s inclusion in the programme.”
Staffers Rebel Against New Boss At Israel’s Classical Radio Network
“Editors at Israel Radio’s Voice of Music have accused the Israel Broadcasting Authority of killing off the classical music station by appointing a person to head the station who has no musical background.”
Why Hollywood Churns Out Dreck Like New Year’s Eve And Valentine’s Day
“Think about what happens on your cable dial around Christmas. It starts getting clogged with the classics like A Christmas Story, It’s A Wonderful Life, and yes, in recent years, Love, Actually, all beamed into millions of homes. … Nobody actually pays attention to them any more. But their producers still get the same size residual checks every time they air.” Why should Hollywood stop at Christmas?
Playing Margaret Thatcher In Beijing
Melissa Rayworth on portraying the British prime minister in a Chinese government biopic of Deng Xiaoping: “They saw her not as a real person but as a cartoon bad guy – the embodiment of an empire that, in their eyes, had taken a piece of China more than a century before and held the Middle Kingdom hostage when it tried to get the island back. … How do you portray a world leader when the people who hired you see her as nothing more than a parody?”
The Re-Imaging Of McDonald’s – And The Abandonment Of Ronald
“In 2012, Ronald McDonald is essentially a clown without a country. McDonald’s is in the midst of an ambitious, multi-billion-dollar global makeover” – upgrading its food, furnishings and fixtures to become more like Starbucks than Burger King – “[and] its middle-aged mascot has no place in it.”
What Do British Filmmakers Think Of David Cameron’s Funding Ideas?
“Reaction continued to be divided across Britain’s film world yesterday in the wake of comments by prime minister David Cameron, ahead of a visit to Pinewood studios, in which he suggested that lottery funding of cinema projects would be aimed towards ‘commercial’ projects.”