Two years ago, Liverpool dance schools got a big boost when Strictly Come Dancing landed on TV. But the new recruits were girls rather than boys. Now they’re looking for some girls. “Out of 84 students, we have only got 18 male students and they are getting a bit worn out dancing and lifting all the girls. They are very macho boys but there just aren’t enough of them to go round.”
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Harold Pinter On Whether He’ll Write More Plays:
“I’ve been writing poetry since my youth and I’m sure I’ll keep on writing it till I conk out. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’ve written 29 damn plays. Isn’t that enough?”
Computers That Play Hunches
Computers aren’t good at making intuitive choices. But a new “hunch engine” promises to improve things. “When the user starts the hunch engine he is presented with a seed — a starting point — and a set of mutations. The user selects mutations that look promising in his eyes, and the application uses that selection to generate another set of mutations, continuing in that fashion until the user is satisfied with what he sees. Call it guided natural selection, where the selector for fitness is what looks good to the human in front of the monitor.”
UK Group: Ban TV Product Placement
A UK consumer group has argued against allowing product placement in TV programs, saying it would undermine viewers confidence. “Commercial broadcasters want new ways to raise money as audiences fragment and it becomes easier to skip adverts.”
2005 Movie Numbers Are In (And Down)
The final American movie box office numbers are in, and they confirm a down year. Ticket sales were down 6% in 2005. “Cinema ticket revenues amounted to $9bn (£5.2bn), while total attendance fell by 9% to 1.4bn people. Some 240m fewer tickets were sold in 2005 compared with the previous year.
Are Non-Fiction Scandals Hurting Fiction?
“Is all this fretting over lies in nonfiction giving fiction a bad name? I fear it is. And I’m afraid that our lack of regard for fiction actually may be hindering us from sorting out what is true and what is a lie. Fiction, after all, is the one lie that can tell us a truth. Unlike nonfiction — memoirs included — fiction makes no claim to reality. Works of the imagination — better known as literature — are totally unfettered from what actually has happened.”
The Broadway Wrapped In Failure
A new book chronicles the backstage perils and failures of Broadway bombs. “Dramas are hard enough. Musicals, to judge by the on-the-scene accounts by several critics and journalists assembled here, seem particularly fraught with a special kind of peril. ‘When disparate elements don’t gel, panic sets in. With the clock running out, and the bankroll running low, and superegos running amuck, strange things can happen’.”
Maastricht Updates
Maastricht’s art fair of Old Masters is modernizing. “In an effort to capitalize on the tremendous growth of the modern-art market, the show’s organizers are out to carve a niche that they hope will make the European Fine Art Fair a new destination for lovers of modern and contemporary art. This year, in addition to the usual world-class collection of old-master paintings there are prime examples of works by Picasso, Magritte, Mondrian, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg. They are being shown by blue-chip galleries, all newcomers to the show this year.”
Juilliard Library Gets Ready For New Role
Juilliard’s library is getting ready for an unfamiliar role after landing a major trove of important music manuscripts. “Many of the manuscripts await the scrutiny of salivating scholars, who are ready to mine them in service to musicology. Juilliard has promised to make them available. ‘Julliard, to my knowledge, has never been in the position of having to share such a treasure trove with the public, which will be beating a path to their door’.”
A Skyscraper Where It Ought Not To Be?
Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino proposes a skyscraper in a place Robert Campbell calls the worst possible place for it. “The question we ought to be debating, perhaps, is whether we want to be America’s Florence or its Milan — a cultural and educational capital, or a business one. Or both? Exactly how much do we want to grow, anyway? And with what kind of growth cells? That’s a debate that should be public and vociferous.”