“A year ago, co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were in between jobs, a pair of twenty-something geeks running up big credit card debts as they tooled around a garage trying to develop an easy way for people to share homemade videos on the web. Now they’re flirting with fame and fortune, budding media moguls in a new entertainment era that relies on unconventional channels like YouTube — by some measures, the leading video-sharing site, one that has cultivated a huge audience while testing the bounds of creativity, monotony, copyrights and obscenity.”
Blog
Edinburgh Sets Early Ticket Sales Record
The Edinburgh Festival broke a house record this week, selling £200,000 worth of tickets on the first day of sales, a jump of 25% from last year. Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, probably the most anticipated concert on the schedule, sold out almost immediately. The 2006 festival will be the final one coordinated by Brian McMaster, who has directed Ednburgh for 15 years.
Piano Does Morgan
Renzo Piano’s Morgan Library extension is a major addition, writes Nicolai Ouroussoff. “A sublime expression of the architect’s preoccupation with light, the design transforms the world of robber barons and dust-coated scholars conjured by the old Morgan into a taut architectural composition bursting with civic hope. His triumph at the site, where order is brought to a jumble of buildings collected over nearly a century, should temporarily allay complaints that New York’s cultural institutions shrink from a high level of architectural innovation.”
Mendes da Rocha Wins Pritzker
Paulo Mendes da Rocha of Brazil has won the 2006 Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the profession’s highest honor. “Mr. Mendes da Rocha, 77, is best known for his Brazilian Sculpture Museum in São Paulo, where he is considered the unofficial dean of the city’s Brutalist movement.”
Albee To Teach At Princeton
Edward Albee will teach at Princeton University and write a new play for a local theater as the first person named to a new playwriting fellowship.
Benadetti Nominated For Two Brits
Young British violinist Nicola Benadetti, who recently lashed out at the UK press for veiled and not-so-veiled suggestions that her stardom was based more on looks than talent, has achieved some validation with her nomination for two major Classical Brit awards. “Her debut recording is in the running for Album of the Year, and she is one of three contenders for the Young British Classical Performer award.”
Seattle Still Hunting For The Right Leader
The Seattle Symphony is approaching the two-year mark in its search for a new concertmaster, and orchestra higher-ups say they hope to have a new leader in place by the beginning of the 2006-07 season. For those who attend concerts at Benaroya Hall, the search process has been unusually easy to follow, with candidates regularly playing with the orchestra for a week or two, and a select few invited back for a second look. It’s all a far cry from the usual secretive audition process most orchestra musicians go through.
The Rachel Corrie Problem
If New York Theatre Workshop’s decision to stage “My Name is Rachel Corrie” was controversial, its decision to postpone it was even more so…
Humana Harvest
This year’s Humana Festival of new plays in Louisville was one of the strongest ever, writes Tony Brown…
A Performing Arts Center Falls Short But Celebrates Anyway
California’s Orange County Performing Arts Center is $70 million short of its expansion costs. “Borrowing $180 million through a bond issue has ensured completion of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which backers predict will carry the Costa Mesa center toward its goal of being recognized nationally as a peer of such cultural fulcrums as New York’s Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. But unless fresh donations pile up in time, leaders of the Orange County center face having to explain why the new jewel comes with a big mortgage attached — and why an organization proud of never having run a deficit in its 20-year history could have to confront unprecedented financial challenges.”