Blog

Making The Kirov’s London Home

Getting the Kirov Ballet and Opera into London for their annual visit is a major undertaking full of risk. “Unloading them into the Royal Opera House, setting them up and changing them over, while allowing the performers time for rehearsal on stage – all on the tightest of schedules – is an operation that would tax the military, achieved only by slogging through wickedly unsociable hours.”

Travelling In Mystery

A book titled “The Traveller” has climbed the bestseller lists, but the author is a mystery. “The book, which has just been published in Britain, is written by the improbably named John Twelve Hawks who nobody, not even his New York editors at Random House, has yet met. Billed as a JD Salinger or Thomas Pynchon-style recluse, Twelve Hawks, which his publishers admit is a pseudonym, has refused to appear in public to promote his hugely successful debut work. Even a film offer from Universal has failed to flush him out.”

The Virtual Library, Left For You To Find

“Bookcrossing started in April 2001 in Missouri, and now has 350,000 members in 90 countries who have liberated more than two million books in dozens of different languages. The concept is finders-keepers meets interactive virtual lending library. The rules are simple. First take a book down from your shelf. It should be one you love. (Ideally, if you ruled the world you would make reading of this book compulsory.) Log onto bookcrossing.com and register. Print out a label and a number for your book. Release it into the wild. The person who finds the book will see the invitation to the website where they can log their find, eventually write a review and then rerelease the book themselves. In theory, as the book travels around, it should build up an online profile of reviews.”

London – Is Taller Better?

Giant highrise buildings threaten to transform London’s skyline. “So far only the Swiss Re tower has been built, but a dozen or more are in the pipeline. They reveal that London’s problem is not that it is turning itself into a Dallas or a Houston, as we used to worry. To judge by the wave of new developments on the way, London is going to be the nearest Europe comes to Shanghai. Footloose international finance, a mayor intoxicated by high-rise architecture, and a developer-friendly planning system have unleashed a wave of developments that are bigger, and brasher, than anything the city has yet seen.”

Montreal Symphony Strike Threatens Season

Talks have broken down in the Montreal Symphony musicians strike, and the impass could threaten the start of the orchestra’s new season. “The players’ proposal would have increased wages by 45 per cent over five years, as well as maintain current work rules governing recordings, overtime and rehearsals on tour. Management had offered an 8-per-cent raise over five years, as well as lump-sum amounts to counter the effects of a two-year wage freeze. The players have been without a contract since August, 2003.”

Has The Bolshoi Regained Its Glory?

The Bolshoi comes to New York. Has the company regained its former glory? “To judge from this engagement, the Bolshoi has hardly lost it but has a way to go to regain it fully. Whatever the company’s repertory of brand-new ballets may be, or may become, could not be assessed. The four ballets seen here amounted to four different ways of looking at the past.”

Art Of The Future

“The World Future Society–an organization of academics, consultants and planners–is gearing up for its annual conference Friday to Sunday, drawing forward thinkers from as far away as South Korea and Venezuela. Mainstream futurists are not crystal ball gazers or mere science fiction aficionados (though a session is scheduled on “Science Fiction as the Mythology of the Future”). The future may seem unknowable to most mortals, but humans continually plan for what lies beyond the chronological horizon, futurists say. Everything from an environmental impact study to Pentagon war games are forms of future study.”

Artist: A Challenge Of Obscenity Law

An artist challenges the American obscenity law. “The case, filed in 2001 by Barbara Nitke, whose Web site includes pictures of sadomasochism and bondage, argues that the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which prohibits obscene material from being distributed on the Internet, is overly broad and violates the First Amendment. Ms. Nitke contends that the law has a chilling effect on artists, educators and alternative-sex advocates because the explicit material they present on the Web could be deemed obscene in parts of the country, even if it is acceptable under community standards in other parts.”