The federal government is investigating Cuban-American filmmaker Luis Moro for possible violation of the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba. Moro isn’t exactly denying the charge – he traveled to Cuba and made a film there as a direct challenge to the ban, which he believes to be unnecessary and punitive. Moro’s film, Love & Suicide, has been screening at various U.S. film festivals this season.
Blog
A Literary Prize From The Inside Out
“Worth a lucrative 100,000 euros ($126,000), the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the richest and most international prize of its kind. Libraries from all over the world nominate books and, unlike many other awards, it is open to translations and thus to books written in any language.” Judging for large literary prizes is generally conducted with the utmost secrecy, but one of this year’s IMPAC judges has decided to document her experiences.
Toronto’s New Opera House
Toronto’s glittering new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts opens this weekend, and the $150 million venue is aiming high, as is the primary tenant, the Canadian Opera Company. “Architect Jack Diamond’s spare, modernist structure is first and foremost an ideal place to experience the powerful blend of words, music and drama that is opera. If the opera company and its associated Canadian Opera House Corporation can continue to pay their way, the new structure heralds a bigger dot for Toronto on the world’s cultural map.” The Four Seasons Centre opens just in time to play host to COC’s upcoming production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
Opera As Exhibit A In The Wonder Of The Modern City
So Toronto’s opera lovers have a new palace. That’s nice and all, “but why should anyone who doesn’t know Parsifal from Pagliacci give two hoots? The answer, I think, has something to do with the importance and the wonder of cities… Cities stretch us, challenge us, broaden us. Cities, like magazines in their glory years, can pique our curiosity with an almost unlimited table of contents. And we become intrigued. About hockey, perhaps; about graffiti, perhaps; about commodities, perhaps; about Verdi.”
FCC Fines Go Through The Roof
After years of threats, Congress has finally acted to dramatically increase the maximum fine that can be levied by the Federal Communications Commission against a television or radio station deemed to have aired objectionable material. The new maximum fine per violation of the FCC’s often vague and always controversial obscenity rules is $325,000 (a tenfold increase.)
The Dixie Chick Factor
When the alt-country stars known as the Dixie Chicks released their latest album this spring, industry experts expected that the Chicks would be looking to patch up their relationship with “traditional” (read: right-wing) country fans, which soured when the group’s lead singer took a potshot at President Bush a few years back. But the new album seems more like an angry rejoinder than an apology, and mainstream country stations have refused to play it. Somehow, though, the Chicks are #1 on the charts, even without radio. The initial surge can be attributed to savvy marketing, but if the album proves to have staying power, it could signal that increasingly generic terrestrial radio is fading as America’s primary hitmaker.
Soundtrack, Bloody Soundtrack
“Like most of modern life, surgery has acquired a soundtrack, whether it be Sinatra or Vivaldi, Mozart or Bob Marley, ‘La Bohème’ or the Beatles. Surgeons say it relaxes them, focuses their attention and helps pass the time… Music can become a subtle bone of contention among the members of the surgical team or a practical aid. Loud rock ‘n’ roll is good for routine operations, they say, Mozart for trickier ones. There is even a genre called “closing music”: raucous sounds to suture by.”
NYC Ballet Picks Its New Class
It’s the time of year when young dancers at the New York-based School of American Ballet find out whether they have been chosen to serve as apprentice members of New York City Ballet, and the competition is fierce, with good reason. “Every year 6 to 10 advanced dancers from the school join the company as apprentices, enjoying essentially a trial run. Almost all stay on as permanent members. In fact, the ballet company draws an overwhelming number of its dancers from its school — 90 of the current 97.”
Underdogs To Get A Fair Shake From Emmy
“Don’t expect the Emmy Awards to look like a TV rerun again this year. Although favorite, high-rated nominees usually return year after year, there’s a new voting system that aims to boost the chances of low-rated snubees in the top series and acting categories.”
Chicago Program Book Ceases Production
“The League of Chicago Theatres, the advocacy organization for approximately 190 local venues, is about to cease publication of Chicago Plays,” the program book created four years ago to replace the late, lamented “Stagebill.” Chicago’s extensive theatre community had hoped that a joint effort to produce a Chicago-specific program book would prove profitable, but as of this summer, the league owed $400,000 in back printing costs, and the project became unsustainable.