A contest in the UK to find the best reading group had to disqualify the group originally chosen as winner. “The High Down Prison Group from Surrey was judged to be the best in the competition, but its members were prevented from accepting the top prize as it involved spending two days and a night in Edinburgh.”
Blog
Judge: Da Vinci Code Didn’t Steal From Earlier Book
An American judge has ruled that “The Da Vinci Code” did not infringe on the copyright of a book published in 2000. “Although both novels at issue are mystery thrillers, ‘Daughter of God’ is more action-packed, with several gunfights and violent deaths. ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ on the other hand, is an intellectual, complex treasure hunt, focusing more on the codes, number sequences, cryptexes and hidden messages left behind as clues than on any physical adventure.”
Selling On Stage (Product Placement Gears Up)
“Product placement is such a growing phenomenon that Nielsen, the ratings arbiter, has started keeping track of the extent of its growth. Here’s their distressing discovery. In the first three months of 2005, there were 12,867 instances of placement in the Top 10 prime-time programs on U.S. television.” Now theatres are getting in to the product placement game…
The Live Factor
Last week Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre announced it was cutting live music from its performances. What does this mean for the company’s artistic fortunes? Most major ballet companies use live music…
Pittsburgh Ballet Musicians To File Complaint
The musicians union representing Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre orchestra musicians is filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over PBT’s decision to use recorded music during the 2005-06 season. “We believe their decision to go with recorded music should have been negotiated with the union before the decision was made.”
A Theatre Showcase Pays Off
“The first Playwright’s Showcase of the Western Region, held in Denver last August, attracted 168 entries from 18 states, making the fledgling effort, which returns Friday to the Arvada Center, one of the largest of its kind in the United States – at least geographically.” It’s not nationally prominent, but there are plenty of success stories coming out of last year’s showcase to pump up optimism for this year’s event.
Urban Design As A Video Game
“Today, thanks to ever more sophisticated software, urban planning itself has increasingly come to resemble a SimCity-style public-policy game. Since the game’s debut, the maturing technology known as Geographical Information Systems (GIS)–software for synthesizing database, mapping, and modeling data–has supplanted the paper blueprint roll as the urban planner’s dominant tool, enabling planners to map over a geographic region everything from gas lines to transit systems to weather patterns. But it’s not just professionals who have their hands on the technology.”
Ibrahim Ferrer, 78
“Among a group of older Cuban performers recruited by U.S. musician Ry Cooder, Ferrer performed on the “Buena Vista Social Club album” that won a Grammy in 1999, and was among those appearing in the film of the same name.”
Book By Anonymous Author Sinks Off The Charts
At the beginning of the summer John Twelve Hawks’ “The Traveler” seemed an obvious summer smash. The author is anonymous, but it has failed to take off and “the novel’s disappointing start illustrates the risks and advantages of having an unknown author. With luck and the right story, an anonymously written book can seem like a secret everyone is dying to learn, a book that sells itself. Otherwise, the publisher has to depend on the slow, uncertain process of reviews and word of mouth.”
Edinburgh Fringe Opens
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival opens with a parade through the city watched by 170,000 people lining the streets. Some 16,000 performers are taking part in nearly 27,000 performances in 300 venues until the end of August.