“Radio audiences are turning to the soothing properties of classical music as a means of coping with the traumas brought on by the economic downturn, gloomy weather and summer exams, according to official listening statistics released yesterday. The national commercial station Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 have both apparently benefited from the desire of audiences to find some respite from the pressures associated with the recession.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Giving Up Alcohol As A Creative Lubricant
“Of America’s seven Nobel laureates [in literature], five were lushes.” And when alcoholism is about to kill a great writer – or his creativity (Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams) – what then? “It may seem a little impertinent to gauge the literary merits of sobriety – you cannot write books of any discernible quality if you are dead – but clearly, sobering up is one of the more devastating acts of literary criticism an author can face.”
Can You Have A Fringe Festival Out In The Boonies?
“From New York City to Edinburgh to Adelaide, Australia, fringe theater festivals have become a staple of summertime culture, with troupes of actors producing experimental work on shoestring budgets and set-less stages. But none of these dozens of festivals are quite like the five-year-old Berkshire Fringe, in western Massachusetts, where its organizers work out of a cafe on Main Street because the wireless Internet is free.”
Houston Symphony Resorts To Furloughs To Save Money
“The Houston Symphony announced Friday [Juny 31] that it will shutter administrative offices next week, furlough musicians and reduce conductor’s salaries next season to save nearly $900,000. The cuts will not change the concert schedule for next year, said Matthew VanBesien, the symphony’s executive director and CEO.”
Merce Cunningham Foundation Names Trustees
“The tenders of Merce Cunningham’s flame are now known. The dance foundation devoted to the choreographer, who died at 90 on July 26, named on Wednesday the four individuals Mr. Cunningham had selected as trustees of his life’s work.”
Here We Go Again: Republican Lawmakers Restart The NEA Culture Wars
“U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns [R-Fla.], joined by 50 fellow congressional Republicans, has fired off a scathing letter to the head of a federal arts agency, expressing outrage that taxpayer money went to groups that produce ‘objectionable and obscene movies, plays and exhibitions’.”
NY Times Turns Culture Editor Into Restaurant Critic
Sam Sifton, currently the paper’s culture editor, will replace Frank Bruni in October. “Bill Keller, the executive editor [of the Times], called the decision both eccentric and obvious. … Mr. Sifton steps into a job that Ruth Reichl, Biff Grimes and Mr. Keller himself told us that, in some ways, doesn’t quite have the power it used to.”
Europe’s Oldest Map (14,000 Years) Discovered
“A team of archaeologists have matched etchings made 14,000 years ago on a polished chunk of sandstone in northern Spain to the landscape in which it was found. They claim to have the earliest known map of a region in western Europe – a prehistoric hunting map.”
Author Of Twilight Novels Accused Of Plagiarism
Stephenie Meyer “has been served with a ‘cease and desist’ order sent to her publisher, Hachette Book Group USA, by lawyers acting for Jordan Scott. The letter claims that the latest volume in Meyer’s Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, which was published last year, ‘shows a striking and substantial similarity’ to Scott’s book The Nocturne‘.”
LACMA’s Axed Film Program Attracts An Online Crusade
“Who knows the wrath of a film community scorned? The Los Angeles County Museum of Art does. In a little more than a week, the controversy over LACMA’s decision to ax its 40-year-old film program has grown into a full-blown online debate, with the museum starting its own electronic forum Tuesday in response to an aggressive Facebook campaign and online petition seeking to restore the much-loved but debt-ridden program.”