“Let’s assume that a very few people in the world share the same strange belief, say that the moon is made of green cheese. Through a process of self-selection, they find each other on the same forum… Soon, they will assume that everyone shares this conviction because only the true believers air their views and the rest stay silent.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
BBC-TV to Move Production Out of London
The BBC Trust is implementing plans to move half of its television production out of the capital by 2016, with major drama and news programs being shifted to Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham and other cities.
Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opens in New Opera House
“The new [€33 million] theatre may not be state-of-the-art in the way that recent new opera houses costing more than 10 times as much obviously are. But the new house has huge transformational potential. Even the apparently small matter of the greatly enlarged orchestra pit opens up tranches of repertoire that were previously no-go areas.”
To Orhan Pamuk, Islamism Isn’t the Greatest Threat
“Pamuk, like many of Istanbul’s most liberal and cosmopolitan artists, is not as worried as outsiders about how deep the [ruling party] AKP’s pluralism really runs. For them, the real threat still lurks among the hard-line secular chauvinists in the army and judiciary who have for decades banned and jailed authors and journalists.”
Actress Edie Adams, 81
The Juilliard-trained singer found fame on television with husband Ernie Kovacs, on Broadway as Daisy Mae in Li’l Abner, and as the Muriel Cigars spokesmodel who purred, “Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?”
Irish Arts Hit by Funding Drop of Almost 10%
“Irish audiences have been warned to expect ‘fewer festivals, fewer exhibitions, less theatre and less music’ next year as a result of a near 10% drop in funding in the newly announced arts budget for 2009.”
Italy Opens Vast Film and Video Archive
“Italian state broadcaster RAI and the national film archive body Istituto Luce said Thursday that they will join forces to create one of the world’s largest film libraries.”
Damien Hirst (Surprise!) Tops Art Review‘s Power 100
The super-seller is no. 1 on the British magazine’s list of the art world’s most powerful people for the second time; runners-up include dealer Larry Gagosian and MoMA’s Kathy Halbreich.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Bidding for Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
“The opportunity comes as Mary Rodgers Guettel and Alice Hammerstein Mathias, the duo’s elderly daughters, are exploring future options for the business they operate through family trusts.”
Granta to Launch in Italy and Spain
Rizzoli and the new Duomo Ediciones “will release their own local language editions of Granta under license from the magazine’s head office in London starting in 2009.” (The renowned literary journal already publishes an edition in Brazil.)