“Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has declared the intention to renovate all city theaters in two to three years’ time. Some 7 billion rubles (approximately $242 million) is to be invested in the project.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Louisville Orchestra Cancels Fall Concerts, Citing Contract Dispute
“The Louisville Orchestra has canceled its September and October concerts because of the ongoing contract dispute with musicians, including their New York-based union’s threat to fine members who show up for work.”
Oslo Massacres Will Change Crime Fiction, Says Author
“Jo Nesbø, the Norwegian author whose books about the driven, enigmatic detective Harry Hole have made him a bestseller in Britain, said yesterday it was inevitable that crime writing would change in the wake of the Anders Behring Breivik shootings last month.”
Why Preserving Endangered Languages Matters
“As the famous example says, Eskimo [sic] have numerous words to describe what Americans would just call ‘snow’ and ‘ice.’ This suggests language systems don’t merely translate universal ideas into different spellings; they encode different concepts. And when we lose a language, we risk losing those concepts.”
The Secret Languages Of Twins
“Scientists … have spent the last few decades quietly building up a body of research into what they call ‘cryptophasia’ or ‘twin language,’ and they are of two minds about it. They find it fascinating, as a window onto the origins of human language, but they also worry that it hampers children’s development.”
Stephen King To Launch Left-Wing Talk Radio Show
“Horror novelist and Bangor radio station owner Stephen King announced on Tuesday a new talk radio show featuring a former vice presidential candidate and a former Maine secretary of state’s communications director.”
Ian McKellen Wants To Become A Better Actor
“My ambition is to get better as an actor. I still think there’s room for improvement. … But I’m only an actor. I’m not a writer. I’m not going to leave any legacy. All I’ve ever done is learn the lines and say them.”
A Pioneering Private Museum (Perched On The Danube) In The Former Soviet Bloc
“Danubiana, a small contemporary art museum that rose up in 2000, on the barren tip of a narrow peninsula in the Danube River, near Bratislava, Slovakia. It was the idea of a Dutch businessman and a Slovak gallery owner whose chance encounter in 1994 led to the opening of one of the first private museums in the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.”
Restored Bolshoi Theater To Have An Organ
“It was quite a journey, but finally the 1,819 tubes for the huge instrument made it to Moscow: an eight-ton [custom-made] organ from Belgium is now housed at the reconstructed Bolshoi Theater.” (The auditorium had not previously had an organ.)
Paper-Pushing That’s Really Useful: Partitions That Can Make Disaster Shelters Bearable
“Canadian studio Molo has designed a system of paper partitions that provide privacy at shelters in the wake of a disaster. … Like an accordion, the kraft paper walls can expand and contract until they meet the edge of another wall. … [They] require only a few people to assemble with minimal instructions and no tools.”