“The Publishing industry bears the weight of contradictory expectations: It must make money, as well as maintain the illusion that it’s one of the last bastions of highbrow culture. Which leaves book editors and publishers with the impossible task of creating products that will both sell at Costco and serve as intellectual currency at Upper West Side dinner parties.”
Blog
Simon Rattle’s Rough Year
“Life isn’t getting easier for Simon Rattle. The golden boy of classical music who seemed incapable of wrong moves has become the single most visible conductor in the world – while having a contentious split from his second wife, losing sleep thanks to Jonah, his 11-month-old son with his new partner, Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozená, and, as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, receiving unnervingly polarized reactions from critics and audiences… He also faces chronic funding uncertainty with his home orchestra, whose city of residence is virtually bankrupt. Even a sunny, seemingly unflappable personality like Rattle’s can’t whitewash these circumstances. Can the collective wear and tear be worth it?”
Welsh ‘Direct Funding’ Plan Defeated By One Vote
The Welsh National Assembly has narrowly defeated a controversial plan submitted by Culture Minister Alan Pugh which would have bypassed the Welsh Arts Council and seen six of Wales’ largest arts groups funded directly by the Assembly. It didn’t take long for the official debate to descend into shouting and accusations of hidden agendas. “The truth of the matter is that he who pays the piper calls the tune,” said one Assemblyman opposed to the plan, which opponents feared would make arts groups vulnerable to interference by politicians.
New MD In Winnipeg
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has named 35-year-old conductor Alexander Mickelthwate to be its next music director, beginning this fall. Mickelthwate, currently an assistant conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, replaces Andrey Boreyko, who led the WSO for four seasons.
Met Offers To Return Euphronios Vase To Italy
Th Metropolitan Museum has offered to return the 2,500-year-old Euphronios krater to Italy. “The museum pledged to return the vase and 19 other disputed antiquities after weeks of negotiations with Italy, which will now consider the offer. Under the proposal, the vase, 15 pieces of Sicilian silver and four other ancient vessels would be returned to Italy in exchange for long-term loans of other prized antiquities, and the Met would assert that the objects were all acquired in good faith.”
West End Posts Record Year At The Box Office
“Box offices have never been busier, figures for 2005 show. From Billy Elliot to Guys and Dolls they have been packing them in: during 2005 a record 12.1 million customers, compared with 10.1 million in 1986, spent a total of £375,163,339 on London theatre tickets.”
Is London’s West End Lagging?
“Signs of a West End slump are beginning to worry its leading lights. Cameron Mackintosh, the millionaire impresario, has admitted that business is slow, and curtains have come down early on some West End productions.”
San Francisco’s Claim To Dance
The dance capital of the United States? How about San Francisco, which, Rachel Howard points out, has the highest concentration of dance activity in the countyr. Here it is, A to Z…
R.I.P. – Western Union Has Delivered Its Last Telegram
After 145 years, Western Union has stopped delivering telegrams. “The decline of telegram use goes back at least to the 1980s, when long-distance telephone service became cheap enough to offer a viable alternative in many if not most cases. Faxes didn’t help. Email could be counted as the final nail in the coffin.”
US Congress Considers Full Assault On Free Use
A reform of the Trademark Act would prohibit artists from using company marks in any way. “The Act would give companies considerable leverage in preventing artists and photographers from employing their marks in images by claiming the mark is being ‘diluted’. The bigger the company, the more famous the trademark, the easier it will be to prevent you guys from using it. National companies with highly recognizable marks would have more leverage than any single creator or small business and would easily outspend any of you to prevent your using their mark.”