While seven orchestras, four major dance companies and a few other national-level organizations will continue to receive direct subsidies, medium-sized and smaller companies will lose their four-year grants and will have to apply for funding – from a much smaller pool of money – for each individual project.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Academic Journal Articles Want To Be Free
Matthew Yglesias: “Right now in academic publishing, what you have is basically a lot of donor- and government-financed nonprofit organizations taking outputs with near-zero distribution costs (electronic journal archives) and selling them to each other.” This may make sense for hard-copy journals, but on the Web, “it’s a mix of pointless and pernicious.”
Short Animated Riff On Ramayana Angers Some NYC Hindus
“Sita Sings the Blues, an animated modern take on the Hindu religious epic, The Ramayana , has won awards and been shown at hundreds of locations across the world since its release two years ago. Never has creator Nina Paley faced a problem until now, oddly enough, in Queens, one of the most diverse communities in the country.”
What Killed Borders? (It Wasn’t The Internet)
“Borders had long lost its competitive edge on many fronts, from corporate strategy to coffee. It died by a thousand – OK, maybe just four or five – self-inflicted paper cuts.”
Who Else (Besides Its Employees) Gets Hurt By Borders’ Collapse?
“Because it was one of the top booksellers in the country, publishing houses had entire departments dedicated to working with Borders and its sales teams. It also means that suddenly, publishers have lost a major thoroughfare for book sales, one of their biggest. … So what Borders closing means, at the basic level, is that fewer paper books will be produced.”
And What Does Borders’ Demise Mean For Classical CD Fans?
“Borders was never another Tower: You wouldn’t encounter clerks who could reel off their objections to the Penguin Guide‘s picks, … but it still was a store that acknowledged classical music exists. Moreover, Borders was still a big enough player that the chain’s reaction to new releases … really mattered to labels, and certainly affected their print runs of CDs.”
Did Hip-Hop Come From New Guinea? (This Choreographer Thinks So)
Eat your heart out, Bronx. Actually, Indonesian choreographer Jecko Siompo believes that all contemporary dance styles have their roots in the traditional dancing of the Stone Age cultures on the island.
A Play About A Play About Nijinsky
As if the great avant-garde ballet star weren’t a complex enough character himself, playwright Nicholas Wright has written a script about the messy circumstances (including threats of blackmail by Nijinsky’s widow) surrounding Terence Rattigan’s aborted radio play about the dancer.
In Tango, Foreigners Are Now Out-Dancing Argentines (And Boy, Are They Pissed!)
Last year, a pair of foreigners competing in the Buenos Aires competition El Metropolitan got heckled. This year, organizers instituted an Argentines-only policy – until would-be competitors sued in court and won.
Why Carlos Acosta Thinks England Is The Best Country In the World
“The thing I admire most about this country is if you’re talented you will be rewarded. It is the thing about England that makes it different – that foreigners have played a really large part in its history. It is extremely diverse and cosmopolitan and … embraces all forms of culture and people from everywhere.”