While municipal spending on libraries (along with everything else) is down these days, spending on CDs and DVDs is rising. Rem Koolhaas’s new Seattle Public Library “showed that good design and new services could make the library an attraction to rival galleries and cinemas.” The old Whitechapel Library in London was replaced by the Whitechapel Idea Store, which “boasts a crèche, CD and DVD lending and, most essentially, free internet access. Is calling it an ‘Idea Store’ a piece of New Labour marketing or a genuine attempt to demystify the library and make it open to new users?… Librarians now find themselves having to act as guides not just to information itself, but to the myriad ways of accessing it that are available.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Amazin’ Alex Wins Again!
MacArthur laureate Alex Ross, whose book The Rest Is Noise, a history of classical music in the 20th century, won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, has just received the £10,000 Guardian First Book Award. “The chair of the judging panel, Guardian literary editor Claire Armistead, said: ‘In some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal. Our prize – which, uniquely, relies on readers’ groups in the early stages of judging – proves that, on the contrary, there is a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books.'”
Why Should AIG Get Federal Money And Not The Iowa Writers’ Group?
Steven Rosen suggests that, if President-elect Obama is going to launch a latter-day New Deal, he should revive the first New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. The project could employ some of the countless journalists laid off in the past couple of years; it might update the first FWP’s American Guide series; it could potentially even subsidize some existing blogs and loss-making Web sites that provide useful services to the public.
At Least One Of Saddam Hussein’s Palaces To Become Art Museum
“The British Army is offering to help create a museum in Basra, which would be set up by the Iraqi authorities in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces,” set by an artificial lake in the Iraqi port city.
Julie Andrews Takes Over As Host Of Vienna Phil New Year’s Concert On PBS
“The 73-year-old actress is succeeding Walter Cronkite as anchor of the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s Day concert on PBS. Cronkite had been the narrator of the Great Performances telecast in the United States for the past 24 years. ‘He is passing the baton this year and staying home with his family, and they asked me if I would do this special 25th anniversary program,’ Andrews said Wednesday during a telephone interview from Los Angeles.”
Charleston Stage Cuts Staff and Salaries
The South Carolina Lowcountry’s largest theater company has laid off three staff members (out of 13) and instituted an across-the-board 6% pay cut for the remaining employees. (In addition, company founder Julian Wiles is deferring one-fifth of his salary for a year.) Charleston Stage’s fundraising is down by nearly half from last year, and the shortfall comes at a particularly bad time: the company has had to lease temporary venues while its home, the Dock Street Theatre, is being renovated.
And So The ‘Synergy’ Begins: NY Post Runs Wall St. Journal Content
Never let it be said that Rupert Murdoch doesn’t try to get value for his money. This past weekend, for the first time, his New York Post ran a story from The Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch’s News Corp. acquired last year as part of its purchase of Dow Jones. Journal staffers expect more of this, and it makes them queasy: “If this becomes common practice, Journal stories could be published in the tabloid with Post headlines and graphics, or vice versa. Not to mention story subjects who agree to an interview with one paper might not be aware of it running in another that day.”
A Pea-Pod Boat On A Salmon Sea, With Potato Rocks On The Shore
No, it’s not a children’s nonsense poem. It’s a description of an image by Carl Warner, “a London-based photographer who makes foodscapes: landscapes made of food.”
Ballet BC: Not Out Of The Woods Yet, But At Least On The Path
The Vancouver company made headlines last week when it laid off its entire staff in response to a severe cash crunch. Since the news broke, Ballet BC’s situation has improved as thousands of people have bought tickets to its annual (imported) Nutcracker, the indispensable cash cow for virtually every North American ballet company.
The World’s First Opera Manga
And what will our bloggers Greg Sandow and Amanda Ameer make of this? “Combining condensed versions of libretti with anime & manga, Vancouver Opera has created a slick promotional and education tool, the perfect elixir to sway the under 30-something prospective opera fans, and elucidate opera’s timeless tales as a sweet chaser.” The online manga include (so far), Eugene Onegin, La Bohème, Fidelio, Cavelleria Rusticana, L’italiana in Algeri, Pagliacci, and Tosca.