“Plans are afoot in [cities across the U.S.] to provide residents with low-cost or free wireless internet access. It’s a great idea whose time has come, like drinking fountains, public toilets and park benches.” But that doesn’t mean that municipal wi-fi will get done without some major fights – after all, those high-cost internet providers (otherwise known as your cable and phone companies) are dead-set against the idea of competition in general, and city-wide internet access would pretty much kill a profitable chunk of their business. “Without legislation, ISPs have no legal basis for stopping community Wi-Fi. But legislation is a distinct possibility.”
Blog
Arguing Evolution For Your Entertainment
This week, a trial over the increasingly contentious issue of human genetic history began in Pennsylvania, where a school board member is suing to get “intelligent design” included in the curriculum alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution. Meanwhile, in California, a performance kicked off a tour of a play based on the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. The rhetoric coming from both venues is white-hot, as religious conservatives and secularists continue to square off across the U.S., and while the theatre company presenting the tour says it isn’t taking sides, the question of evolution, long thought to have been settled, has suddenly become fodder for dangerously political drama.
Trying To Make A Narnia For All Audiences
Disney’s new film version of C.S. Lewis’s classic children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia, comes out next month, and the studio is preparing to ratchet up the PR machine. “But Disney’s tricky marketing strategy for Narnia – which includes aggressively courting Christian fans who can relate to the story’s biblical allegory while trying not to disaffect secular fans – is particularly tricky when it comes to music. The spiritual character of “Narnia” is being reinforced with the debut on the charts last week of a Christian pop album of music inspired by the film. But prospects for a previously announced secular soundtrack now seem cloudy… The Christian-oriented album’s status as the only Narnia musical project in the marketplace, for now at least, could upset the studio’s plan to balance two audiences.”
Big Donation For MoMA
“[New York’s] Museum of Modern Art has received a gift of 174 contemporary works from a Los Angeles real estate developer, including prime examples of paintings, sculptures and drawings by artists like Philip Guston, Vija Celmins and Christopher Wilmarth… These works not only help fill many gaps in the Modern’s contemporary art collection, but also enlarge its previous holdings of certain artists.”
Team Commission
One of the reasons that new works of classical music don’t turn up more often on the programs of smaller orchestras is that they’re damned expensive. Commissioning a new work from an established composer can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and few ensembles outside of the top orchestras have that kind of cash to kick around (and if they did, they’d likely have more important things to spend it on.) But this week, a new work by composer Joan Tower will get its premiere, courtesy of a first-of-its-kind commissioning program that brought together no fewer than 65 small orchestras from across the U.S. to fund the creation of the work. The composer will see an added benefit from the unusual process as well: when all is said and done, her new work will have been performed 80 times over the course of 18 months.
Richmond PAC Fight Getting Ugly
An ongoing feud between the mayor of Richmond, Virginia and backers of a new performing arts center ratcheted up several notches this week when representatives of the PAC attempted to deliver a check for $2 million to the city. Under the terms of a 2004 agreement between the city and the PAC, the land on which the center is to be built will revert to city control in 2007 if a building permit is not secured by that time, unless the PAC chooses to pay the city $2 million. PAC officials decided to exercise that clause early, after months of wrangling with the mayor and other opponents of the project. But the mayor directed the city to refuse the check, and declared the entire 2004 agreement void, saying that PAC leaders were trying to buy the land well below market value.
Bring On The Lawyers
The discussion of whether the Richmond PAC’s agreement with the city is null and void may be headed for a court battle, and the city’s mayor has struck a defiant tone, saying “Let’s get it on! It doesn’t bother me. Heck, courts scare other people, not me.”. The foundation supporting the PAC has called a news conference for this morning to respond to the city’s refusal of a $2 million buyout, and unless some accomodation is reached between the warring sides, it seems likely that a court will have to make the final decision on the future of the project.
Now That’s Knowing Your Audience
The British city of Bath has a new children’s theatre, known as The Egg, and its designers are right proud of it, which is good, since they’re also the target demographic. “Children have played a large part in creating this theatre, which has been built inside an old cinema the entrance of which is round the side of its parent company, the Theatre Royal Bath… Being inside the Egg is like being inside a traditional theatre but with none of the more daunting elements. There are no dark velvet curtains, there is no prickly plush, the seats are smooth and not flip-up.” And perhaps best of all, there’s a soundproof room at the back where parents can take a screaming baby away from the crowd while still being able to see and hear the production.
Blasting the Beeb
The BBC is under intense fire from members of the British Parliament over its lobbying to increase the country’s “television license fee” (yes, you have to pay to watch even normal television in the UK) by 2.3% above inflation per year. Some MPs complain that the BBC is trying to “wallow in cash” at a time when commercial broadcasters are struggling to stay in the black. The fee could rise to £200 ($349) per year by 2013 under the proposal, although BBC estimates put that figure considerably lower. The BBC insists that it needs the cash to cover shortfalls – critics say the broadcaster needs to rein itself in.
Britain’s Theatre For New Writing Turns 50
Tom Stoppard and David Hare have each been commissioned to write a new play for the 50th anniversary season of London’s Royal Court Theatre. The Court has been one of Britain’s premiere venues for new plays, and Stoppard said he “[didn’t] want to fall under a bus before having a play on its stage.” Another highlight of the anniversary year will be a rare acting appearance by playwright Harold Pinter, who will perform the role of the “wearyish old man” in a Beckett play. “The Royal Court’s illustrious history as Britain’s new writing theatre has seen it associated with writers such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Sir David Hare, Joe Orton and Sam Shepard. In the 1990s the theatre nurtured a new wave of talent, including Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh and Mark Ravenhill.”