The Southern California arts center has let go an unspecified number of its approximately 100 employees – the first layoffs in the center’s 20-year history.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Bollywood’s Biggest Superstar Attacks Slumdog Millionaire
Many Indians have been celebrating the success of the Mumbai-set film. But not Amitabh Bachchan: “if SM projects India as [a] third-world, dirty, underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations.”
Joana Carneiro To Succeed Nagano At Berkeley Symphony
The 32-year-old Lisbon native, who is a former assistant conductor at the L.A. Philharmonic and a close associate of composer John Adams (a Berkeley resident), succeeds Kent Nagano, who stayed with the Berkeley Symphony for 30 years, even as his international career soared. Carneiro will also keep her current job as principal guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in her hometown.
Outrage Among Tintinophiles At Suggestion Their Hero Is Gay
As the intrepid boy reporter celebrates his 60th birthday, it seems that le tout France is up in arms over a (tongue-in-cheek?) newspaper column asking this: “A callow, androgynous blonde-quiffed youth in funny trousers and a scarf moving into the country mansion of his best friend, a middle-aged sailor… and whose only serious female friend is an opera diva… And you’re telling me Tintin isn’t gay?”
How The Satanic Verses Ignited A 20-Year Culture War
It’s now two decades since the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. “[R]ight from the start, The Satanic Verses affair was less a theological dispute than an opportunity to exert political leverage. The background to the controversy was the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran to be the standard bearer of global Islam.”
Vladimir Putin, Art Prodigy
The spymaster/judo master/fishing master/ski master/master tiger hunter/Master of All Russia (all of this well-documented on video) has turned his mastery to painting. His debut canvas was prepared for a charity auction in St. Petersburg. (The Prime Minister is said to have completed the painting in 20 minutes.)
An Art Critic Appraises Putin’s Work
“Notice the confidence with which those curtains are drawn – how with each long stroke Putin never loses contact with the canvas until the of his loaded brush is dry. There isn’t a wasted or unnecessary brushstroke and nothing childish or naïve about this picture.”
New Head For Berlin’s Immense Opera Apparatus
“The state of Berlin appointed Peter Raddatz as director of the city’s opera foundation, an umbrella organization overseeing three opera companies, a ballet ensemble and a set- and costume-design company.”
Scotland Tries Out Its Own Sistema
In a rough Edinburgh housing estate, Scotland has launched a pilot version of Venezuela’s now-famous music education program. The hope is that sustained attention from teachers and a stable community of fellow students can help pull the estate’s young people from an unrelenting cycle of poverty and social problems.
Nine-Film Shortlist For Foreign Language Oscar
The five nominees for the Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award will be chosen from a list of nine released this week. Included are Israel’s Waltz With Bashir, France’s The Class and Turkey’s Three Monkeys, but movie-maven bloggers are fuming over the snub of the Italian Mafia drama Gomorrah.