New Orleans public radio station WWOZ isn’t broadcasting over airwaves these days, but the station, now calling itself ”WWOZ in exile,” is still online through the generosity of New Jersey community station WFMU, which is hosting the webcast. ‘We’re playing archival material right now. You may get to hear shows from DJs who haven’t been on the air in decades’.” As well, “since shortly after the hurricane and the levee break that flooded the city, the community station has focused on becoming a true community resource.”
Blog
Chicago’s Endangered Architectural Treasures
“Some of the Chicago area’s most important architectural treasures are in danger, and because of various pressures — including the opposition of local developers, corporations, municipal governments, aldermen and planning commissions — they may soon be altered beyond all recognition or completely demolished.”
A Chicago Full Of Wonders
What are the “Seven Wonders” of Chicago? The Chicago Tribune asks readers and got “some 4,000-plus nominations for the 14 finalists, and more than 38,000 ballots cast for the final seven. Knock that total down by a few hundred for some ballot stuffing (obvious when the wording is exactly the same time after time). Stuffers included many voting for Steppenwolf Theatre, the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) temple in Bartlett and Fame, the city’s oldest sailboat, but that’s so Chicago.”
Louisiana Phil Reforms In Nashville
Members of the Louisiana Philharmonic, scattered around America after Katrina, are gathering up in Nashville to perform a benefit concert. “It’s about hope for them. The notion that they are all together, making music together, will be an incredible thing. It’s about raising some money, but it’s also about healing their souls.’ Mark O’Connor will be guest soloist for the concert, which is scheduled for national broadcast on National Public Radio.”
Kennedy Center Holds Hand Out To Struggling Orchestras
The Kennedy Center is expanding an initiative to provide management help to more than two dozen struggling small and mid-size orchestras. “Sustaining the American Orchestra,” the new initiative, is an effort to design strategies that will change the way many orchestras do business. Initially the center will work with 23 orchestras, ranging from the Indianapolis Symphony, which has a $23 million budget, and the St. Louis Symphony, a $21 million budget, to the Reno Philharmonic and Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, both with $1 million budgets. The Kennedy Center is using a model it developed three years ago to help minority-run dance, theater and music companies.
A Famous DC Literary Bookstore Vies To Be Non-Profit
Washington DC’s literary bookstore Chapters is 20 years old. But to make it to 21, the store is attempting a radical reinvention. “Without help — in the form of a fundraising drive that will allow it to be bought out by a nonprofit foundation — the bookstore may have trouble making it to 21. The strategy is similar to that employed by the Avalon Theatre Project, which succeeded two years ago in reopening Washington’s oldest surviving movie house by converting it to nonprofit status.”
Vegas Gets A Face Life (For The 408,309th Time)
Big-name architects Rafael Viñoly, Lord Norman Foster, James KM Cheng, Cesar Pelli, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates have been enlisted to “design various parts of a $5 billion, 66-acre development in the heart of Las Vegas. Called Project CityCenter, the complex of hotels, casinos, retail and residential space is to be built by November 2009 on a site between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio hotels on the city’s famous strip.”
The Most Expensive Idol
The TV show “American Idol” is charging a record amount for ads on any American television show. “For the new fall season, the cost of a 30-second spot during the Wednesday installment of the program has surpassed the $700,000 mark. For the second year in a row, the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of American Idol are the most expensive shows on network TV.”
Naked And Pregnant In Trafalar Square
Trafalgar Square’s vacant fourth plinth gets a new sculpture, a statue of a naked preggnant woman. “The 12ft marble sculpture, ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’, is already dividing opinion among art critics and disability campaigners. Artist Marc Quinn said he had sculpted his friend Ms Lapper because disabled people were under-represented in art.”
Rambert’s New Home
The Rambert Dance Company intends to build a new £16.5 million headquarters on London’s South Bank. “The new centre – which the company hope will be finished in 2008 – will house state-of-the-art studios, along with community and education spaces. The contemporary dance company is currently located in cramped premises in Chiswick, west London.”