“As other cities look to replace their blighted downtowns with new development, Las Vegas, known for its extravagant facsimiles of European and American landmarks, has come up with an unusual approach: Build another downtown, right next to the decaying one.”
Author: sbergman
Why Not Give One To Yanni While You’re At It?
Andrew Lloyd Webber is receiving a special award at this year’s Classical Brits, and Norman Lebrecht is appalled. “It is not Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mission to challenge the ear and mind. He is not a classical composer by any known measure. He is a popular entertainer of inestimable attainments.”
Mind Your Own War
There’s no shortage of anti-Iraq War content on Canadian theatrical stages these days. But Canada isn’t part of that war, and it is part of another that is taking an increasing toll. So where’s the theatrical and artistic response to Afghanistan?
World’s Richest Non-Fiction Lit Prize Announced
“A London-based Canadian financier and investment manager is establishing the world’s largest prize for non-fiction historical literature, and he’s getting his alma mater, Montreal’s McGill University, to administer it. Details of the $75,000 (U.S.) prize… are to be announced at a reception in Montreal later today.”
Pulitzer Winner Picks Up Another Prestigious Prize
This year’s Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, handed out annually to books that grapple with race, will go to Junot Diaz for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Moshin Hamid for The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Diaz has already won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel.
Toronto Fest Reups Its Chief
“The board of Luminato, Toronto’s festival of arts and creativity, has signed Janice Price, its visionary and energetic leader, to a three-year extension of her contract as CEO. That means Price will be at the helm for a minimum of the first five Luminato festivals, starting with its debut last year and lasting through the 2011 edition.”
Call It A Homemade, Ultrarich Version Of Jerry Springer
A YouTube video in which a well-known actress and playwright verbally obliterates her estranged and much older husband, “the president of Broadway’s Shubert organization, which owns 17 Broadway houses and the National Theatre in Washington,” is garnering thousands of views. And part of what makes it so uncomfortable to watch is the high station of the people involved…
Dumbarton’s Back
Washington’s Dumbarton Oaks Museum, closed for more than three years for renovations, reopened this week. “It’s good to have the old biddy back. Dumbarton, donated to Harvard in 1940 by the wealthy collectors Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, is one of the more eccentric places in the city.”
Bilbao Victimized By Embezzling CFO
“The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao said it fired its finance director after he admitted to embezzling about 487,000 euros ($775,000) since 1998.” The museum has ordered an internal audit of all its accounts.
Stardom Is Still A Largely Local Affair
How is it possible that pianist Grigory Sokolov, a certified star in Europe, draws little attention in America? Shouldn’t a world in which the internet brings everything to everyone break down such barriers? Maybe not. Sokolov “should remind us not only of our persistent parochialism but also of our delusions about technology.”