“The Savannah College of Art & Design will open [in 2010] a new four-year branch campus in Hong Kong focused on digital media production. The Hong Kong Development Bureau recommended the college from more than 100 other applicants to restore the historic North Kowloon Magistracy Building, where the campus will be located.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Grammys Lose Some Of Their Merch-Moving Mojo
“It used to be that every year around this time the Grammy Awards laid a few golden eggs for the music industry, by helping the night’s winners sell lots and lots of records in the week that followed. Those jumps still happen, but the numbers aren’t what they used to be.”
Eric Zeisl, The Emigré Who Got Away
“You won’t find much about this composer – who fled Vienna in 1938 and joined the ranks of important foreign musicians in Southern California – in the studies of those émigrés that have been coming out lately.” But lately they’re starting to rediscover him out in L.A.
Where Do Movie Props Go To Die?
If the movie they came from was a hit, the props could have quite an afterlife. Nobody wants mementos of, say, Heaven’s Gate, but Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Rocky’s boxing gloves are in the Smithsonian; Steven Spielberg paid $60,500 for Rosebud and the Ten Commandments tablets went for $81,700. (Bargains can, however, be had.)
A Psychopathic Buddhist Warrior-King
“A psychopathic Buddhist warrior-king hardly sounds plausible in fiction, let alone in modern history. But the story of Freiherr Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg, an Estonian-raised, ethnically German, tsarist officer, who became the last khan of Mongolia amid the chaos of the Russian civil war, has so many bizarre elements that the reader will soon believe almost anything.”
Lucian Freud Designs Wine Label
“Freud, the world’s most expensive living artist, has joined the ranks of a select group of artists: those who have designed labels for Château Mouton Rothschild wine.” Among the artists to have designed a Mouton label are Picasso, Dali, Chagall, Warhol, Keith Haring and (erm) Prince Charles.
Hytner: Drama Schools Teach Too Much Theory And Neglect Practical Skills
“One of Britain’s leading directors has bemoaned the deficiencies of the next generation of actors, who he says are being taught theatre theory above drama skills. Nicholas Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, said the failure to concentrate on the craft of acting would leave actors unequipped to rise to the challenges of the stage.”
Concert Assn. Of Florida Dies, But Its Concerts Go On
“[T]he Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County said that it would host six of seven events scheduled for the coming weeks by the Concert Association of Florida, which filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Friday.”
Luminato 2009 To Feature Multimedia Poe, Nine Hours Of Lepage
“A nine-hour Robert Lepage epic, a journey into Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘tormented psyche’ and a reimagined ballet interpretation of Carmen will be on the bill in Toronto in June for the Luminato arts and culture festival.”
Scientists Say It’s OK To Skip Your Econ 101 Lecture
“Students have been handed another excuse to skip class from an unusual quarter. New psychological research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person.”