The University of Texas is moving out all of its books, replacing them with an “electronic learning center”. “Such digital learning laboratories, staffed with Internet-expert librarians, teachers and technicians, have been advancing on traditional college libraries since appearing at the University of Southern California in 1994. As more texts become accessible online, libraries have been moving lesser-used materials to storage. But experts said it was symbolic for a top educational institution like Texas to empty a library of books.”
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Theatre Entrepreneur Still Going Strong At 91
Tony De Santis has opened a new theatre in Chicago – the Drury Lane at the Water Tower. This is the latest addition to the 91-year-old’s theatre empire. “Well, I don’t know anything about theater per se, so it’s fair to say that I’m not a theater person,” De Santis says with a chuckle from his office at Drury Lane Oak Brook. “But I am a very good businessman.”
Wasserman’s LA Times Legacy
The controversial Steve Wassserman is leaving as editor of the LA Times Book Review. “Steve hit his stride about 1998, and for a few years there, he put out some truly great sections. More provocative than speculating about whether he ultimately jumped or was pushed might now be to start a conversation about the precarious ledge he leaves behind.”
Ombud To Investigate CPB Chairman
The inspector general of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has agreed to investigate some of the activities of CPB Chairman Ken Tomlinson, including the hiring of an outside consultant to monitor the political leanings of guests on the PBS public affairs program “Now.”
The Art Of Cannes
“The opening ceremonies of the Cannes International Film Festival are, have been and will always remain the most lavishly meaningless event in the world of cinema, compared with which the Oscars resemble a seminar in German philosophy. This is not necessarily a put-down…”
Is Billy Elliott The Best British Musical Ever?
Plenty of musicals being made from films these days. The new Billy Elliott is the best of them, writes Charles Spencer. “This is not a time to beat about the bush. Billy Elliot strikes me as the greatest British musical I have ever seen, and I have not forgotten Lionel Bart’s Oliver! or Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. There is a rawness, a warm humour and a sheer humanity here that is worlds removed from the soulless slickness of most musicals.”
Yikes – Brits Everywhere!
Three American clasics on Broadway have been directed by Brits. “The continuing tragedy of American theater is that it doesn’t have confidence in its own culture. It doesn’t reveal security in its own glorious past. If it did, there would be no need to ask British directors to stage American classics. There would be no need for Anglophilia. Now, on the one hand, I don’t believe in cultural borders. Theater is an international art form, and artistic exchanges can revitalize both cultures. On the other hand, I strongly believe that American artists should not be treated as also-rans because the British are cravenly thought of as somehow “better.”
Land Of The Free (Except If You Disagree With Us!)
“An attachment to a bill that supplements funds for Iraq, passed by Congress and now on the president’s desk, would allow the United States once again to keep out and to deport foreign nationals not for their conduct, but for their politics—their ideas, their speech, and the groups with which they associate.”
Creatives Leaving America?
Is America’s “creative class” fleeing the US for other countries? Richard Florida tried to make the case: “It may be too soon to anoint Tallinn, Estonia – or Dublin, Ireland, or Sydney, Australia – the world’s new creative capital, as opposed to many thriving US cities. Still, by Florida’s reckoning, America’s magnetism for creative workers has weakened as the drawing power of other nations has become supercharged – owing to regulatory policies, quality of life, tolerance, and a range of other issues.”
BBC Workers Set Strike Dates
BBC unions have announced they’ll strike on three days over the next month to protest plans to cut more than 3000 jobs. “The unions said the cuts were the most damaging in BBC history. The corporation said it regretted the decision to take industrial action.”