“The Woodruff Arts Center’s rooftop conversion completed Phase 2 on Wednesday, as a crew laid down 5,250 square feet of vegetation.” Who’s paying for this? The law firm whose offices overlook the roofs.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Looking Back At The Berlin Wall (And What It Left Behind)
“It was as if some immense laboratory experiment had gone on for half a century according to rigorous principles: Take a single defeated society, weary with guilt, wounds and hatred, and divide it in two … [and] see what kinds of worlds develop under very different visions of social and political order. […] Twenty years ago [the Wall] seemed immutable, a force that bent the natural world to its demands. Now it seems like something from a storybook.”
Alina Cojocaru Returns To Royal Ballet After Long And Fearful Absence
“The waif-like dancer has been off stage for almost a year, while rumours circulated that she had a broken neck. In fact, a whiplash injury suffered in rehearsal had threatened to end the 27-year-old’s dancing career.” This week she’s back onstage in her signature role, Giselle.
European Parliament Votes To Extend Copyright For Recordings
“Ageing artists such as Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney will see copyright protection on their recordings in the EU extended from 50 to 70 years after a vote by MEPs yesterday. The EU internal market commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, had proposed up to 95 years, but many EU states, which have a joint say with parliament, balked at such a long period.”
‘ATM For Books’ Whips Up A Paperback While You Wait
“It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg.” The contraption can print and bind any of half a million (and counting) out-of-print books in about five minutes.
Unknown Correspondence Of Benjamin Franklin Uncovered
“On the last day of a research trip to the British Library in London, Alan Houston unearthed an unexpected bit of history: 47 letters written by, to and about Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman, inventor and icon. No one knew the letters existed. No one had read them in 250 years.”
A Political Tug-Of-War Over British Folk Music
The modern British folk revival has always had a leftish slant, influenced by American stars such as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. But lately the quasi-fascist British National Party has been trying to move in on the folk scene, and now London’s Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, has organized a folk extravaganza in Trafalgar Square for St. George’s Day (he’s England’s patron saint). Some top folksingers aren’t happy with this new audience.
Ideas That Changed The World, #475: Queer Theory
Back in the 1980s, the ideas that scholars like the late Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick developed into “queer theory” caused quite the uproar and helped ignite the culture wars. “Now queer theory is as at home on many college campuses as men’s lacrosse and late-night lattes … [and it has] had more influence outside the academy than anyone might have imagined.”
Vancouver’s Ballet B.C. Considers Going Dark Next Fall
“While the organization narrowly escaped bankruptcy in December, it is still struggling to pull together a 2009-10 season amid less-than-stellar ticket sales, disappointing fundraising results, and a global recession. … [T]he company wants to spend the first half of next season creating new work, but doing so raises questions about whether Ballet B.C. can expect continued financial support if it does not perform until 2010.”
Masur Wanted NY Phil Proms Concerts At Armory
Not long after Kurt Masur was appointed the Philharmonic’s music director, he got the idea that the Park Avenue Armory, which could hold almost 5,000 people, could be the perfect place for “something like the BBC Proms concerts in London, which attract many thousands of listeners to the cavernous Royal Albert Hall every summer. […] An official of the Philharmonic deputized to scout the terrain, he added, had gone back to report: ‘This is not a concert hall. This is a dump.'”