“Imagine a bizarro world where all the 25-year-olds want Mozart and all the 60-year-olds want adult-contemporary,” and you’ll have an inkling of what the American Catholic church is going through right now, musically speaking. “Although everyone says rock Mass is long dead, there are parishioners still complaining about it.”
Author: sbergman
Animator Ollie Johnson, 95
“The animator Ollie Johnston, the last of the Disney “nine old men,” as the studio’s core group of senior animators was called, died on Monday in Sequim, Wash… He was especially proud of his work on “Bambi” and its classic scenes, including the heartbreaking death of Bambi’s mother at the hands of a hunter.”
Broadway Actors’ Contract Expected To Come Easier
The union representing stage actors is preparing to begin talks with Broadway producers on a new contract. “But officials from both sides said these negotiations were not likely to be as contentious as last year’s talks with the stagehands’ union, which culminated in a 19-day strike that shut down most of Broadway.”
Who Owns Captain America? (Not The Guy Who Drew Him)
“On the frontier of a new industry, [comic book] writers and artists are creating scores of characters, but publishers profiting from them. These days creators have learned from the past by self-publishing or otherwise securing the rights to their progeny. But some of the founding fathers of American superheroes are still seeking justice.”
Are Australia’s Arts Groups Now Too Business-Savvy?
In 1999, Australian arts groups were changed forever by a report that declared that cultural groups would never achieve long-term sustainability until they started adhering to the basic rules of business. “But almost a decade after the landmark [inquiry,] has the pendulum swung too far?”
Someone Wanted This Job?
“The scene at [Australia’s] National Institute of Dramatic Art has been far from pretty over the past couple of years… Nervous students, unhappy staff, resignations, petitions and a letter of protest from leading arts industry figures” have all been par for the course at the high-profile Sydney school. All in all, quite a challenge for NIDA’s new director, who started work this week.
People! Hang Onto Your #%@*ing Fiddles!
“An amateur musician lost a violin worth £180,000 when he left it on a train. Robert Napier, 67, left the rare Goffriller violin on the luggage rack of a train from Paddington to Taunton as he returned to his home in Bedwyn, Wiltshire.” The loss comes less than a week after a Toronto Symphony violinist left his instrument at a streetcar stop.
Allen Was Forced Off Orange Judge’s Panel
“Those who questioned whether reading was high on the list of the singer Lily Allen’s recreations appeared to be vindicated yesterday when the organisers of the £30,000 Orange Prize for fiction admitted that they had dropped her from their panel of judges after she failed to turn up to meetings.” Allen had said she withdrew for health reasons.
Famous British Painting Comes Home
“It is one of the most important pre-Raphaelite paintings, with as British a theme as you can imagine – yet Edward Burne-Jones’s The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon is virtually unknown in the UK. Yesterday, the monumental masterpiece was reinstalled in a British gallery – Tate Britain – for the first time in more than 40 years.”
Orange Shortlist Offers Something Old, Something New
“Three first novelists remain in contention for this year’s Orange prize for fiction, in a shortlist announced this morning that pits them against three others with a total of 24 novels behind them.”