“Oprah Winfrey is ending a long-term relationship with ABC by taking her production company to HBO for a three-year deal to make movies, documentaries and TV series.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Orchestra London (Ontario) Gets C$500K Loan Guarantee From City Council
“By a 13 to 5 vote, council made city taxpayers the backstop to an organization whose financial distress is even worse than orchestra officials had revealed last week – a shortfall projected to grow to C$900,000 by the end of June.”
Valentin Berlinsky, 83, Founder Of Borodin String Quartet
Cellist Valentin Berlinsky, co-founder of the Borodin String Quartet, Russia’s oldest and most admired chamber group, died in Moscow on Monday (Dec. 15) at age 83. He had played with the Borodin ever since its establishment in 1944.
LACMA Formally Proposes Merger With MOCA
“Confirming weeks of rumors, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art… has presented a plan to the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art for a proposed merger with the financially troubled MOCA.” The proposal names the locations at which MOCA’s collections and programs would be housed.
RSC: No Refunds To Doctor Who Fans For Hamlet
“The Royal Shakespeare Company has declined to reimburse the Doctor Who fans who paid up to £48 each to see [series star] David Tennant play Hamlet but ended up with the actor’s understudy.”
‘A Machine That Makes Canadians’
Marc Mayer, the new head of the National Gallery of Canada, has a big goal for the institution as it emerges from a period of chaos: “You should go in there feeling mildly Canadian, and come out feeling very Canadian. I think art can help us understand the story of how we ended up being one of the most advanced societies on Earth.”
The Eight Most Ridiculous Movie Plot Points of 2008
Another excellent year-end list from The Guardian, spoilers be damned. A sample: No. 8, Man on Wire – “A man breaks into the World Trade Centre and walks a tightrope between the towers. Yeah, right.”
Russia and Ukraine Fight Over Bulgakov
A poll of Russians named the author of The Master and Margarita Russia’s second-greatest writer ever (after Pushkin). But he was born in Kiev, which is now, of course, the capital of independent Ukraine. Gogol, who wrote in Russian about his Ukrainian background, has become a similar battleground.
How Sweden’s Climate Changed The World Of Design
Harsh winters meant Swedes were traditionally forced to enjoy the indoors: furniture, rugs, glassware and ceramics become exceptionally important when it is 30 degrees below outside.” And Sweden’s egalitarian society “meant that when the first design movements began in the early last century, their appeals could be addressed to the whole population, not just a special interest group.”
Manoel de Oliveira, The Elliott Carter Of Cinema
The Portuguese filmmaker celebrated his 100th birthday on Dec. 11, the same day that composer Elliott Carter did. And, like Carter, Oliveira is still making new work.