Last month Indigo, Canada’s largest bookstore chain, decided to ban Harper’s Magazine from its racks because of some of the magazine’s content. But the controversy over the move helped make the June issue of Harper’s a best-seller in canada, as readers flocked to other outlets to buy the magazine.
Blog
Seattle Symphony Musicians Survey: We’re Not Happy With Conductor Schwarz
A survey of musicians in the Seattle Symphony shows widespread unhappiness with music director Gerard Schwarz and the orchestra’s ineffectual board, which recently renewed the conductor’s contract to a 26th season. “The comments – mostly centering on the artistic direction of the orchestra, which Schwarz has led since 1983 – are overwhelmingly negative about the music director and the current leadership of the board, widely regarded as his ally.”
Theatre That Heals
The Milwaukee Public Theatre is “a theater company without a theater for performances. The company sends its groups all over town bringing puppetry, drumming, improvisation, music, dance, theater, storytelling and more to as diverse an audience as they can reach, focusing on pieces with social relevance. Part of the focus on social relevance includes healing arts programming.”
Anti-Bad Provenance Insurance
An insurance company is selling a new policy that insures the ownership of art. “Their brainchild, art title protection insurance, ‘transfers risk to a third party so that people can buy and sell art with the confidence that there is not a World War II claim, an import-export issue or a lien or judgment against the artwork’.”
Another Political Battle For The Corporation for Public Broadcasting?
“The nomination of Warren Bell, executive producer of ABC’s ‘According to Jim’ and a contributor to the online edition of the conservative National Review magazine, has puzzled and alarmed some public broadcasters, who fear he would revive the sharp political debate that engulfed the system last year.”
Proms – Like A Rock
London’s Proms concerts are deeply embedded into the national culture. “If the Proms, now in their 112th season, are the world’s most important music festival, they are also the most unchanging. And this is both their strength and, some say, their weakness.”
The Age Of Airports
“Major airports are beginning to drive business siting and urban development in the 21st century, much as highways did in the 20th, railroads in the 19th, and seaports in the 18th. As aviation-oriented businesses cluster at and near major airports, a new urban entity is emerging: the Aerotropolis.”
Canadian Media Giant Swallows Big Competitor
Canada’s biggest media company says it is buying one of its biggest competitors. “BGM owns CTV and the Globe and Mail, along with 17 TV specialty channels, including TSN, MTV and the Discovery Channel. On Wednesday, BGM announced it had agreed to pay $1.4 billion for control of national rival CHUM Ltd., which owns 33 radio stations and 12 TV stations, headed by the Citytv channels in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. CHUM also owns 21 specialty TV channels and the Muzak background-music operation in Canada.”
Dallas Morning News To Cut Critics?
Is the Dallas Morning News about to offload its movie and TV critics? Managers met with staff and “a large part of that meeting dealt with how to make the section more local in coverage–which suggests that those writers who handle movies and TV shows could go, because the paper could simply pick up reviews from wire services.”
Women Shut Out Of the Proms
This year’s London Proms include no women composers. “It’s a gaffe, certainly, and one no Proms director will ever dare to make again. And it raises all kinds of ticklish questions, such as whether women composers and conductors should benefit from positive discrimination, until the ancient bias against them has finally faded away.”