The California Arts Council has a new director – Muriel Johnson, a veteran Republican politician and arts advocate from Sacramento. But she won’t have much to work with. The $3.2-million arts budget governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed Monday means that California again will likely rank last in the nation in per-capita state spending on the arts.
Blog
Is Google’s Library Deal Legal?
There’s one problem with Google’s deal to put online millions of library books. “It is not at all clear that Google and these libraries have the legal right to do what is proposed. For work in the public domain, the right is clear enough. But for work not in the public domain, Google’s right to scan — to copy — whole texts to index is uncertain at best, even if it ultimately makes only snippets available. When permission has been given by the copyright holder, again there’s no problem. But when permission has not been secured, the law is essentially uncertain. If lawsuits were filed, and if Google and its partner libraries were found to have violated the law, their legal exposure could reach into the billions.”
Reinventing Book-Of-The-Month
The Book-of-the-Month Club is reinventing itself, updating to try to compete in internet age. “The popularity of Internet booksellers and the ubiquity of heavily discounted hardcover books at warehouse clubs and mass-market retailers have combined to make the Book-of-the-Month Club – and other general-interest book clubs – far less important in the selling of books in the United States.”
Split Of The Titans
Bob and Harvey Weinstein are leaving Disney. But the split is a complicated one, involving scores of projects and relationships that muct be untangled. “Disney executives and representatives of Miramax, which is owned by the Burbank-based company, are expected to discuss later this week or next which creative projects the Weinsteins, who have been in testy negotiations over their contracts, will be allowed to take with them as they exit Disney. ‘This may be a divorce, but it’s a divorce with children’.”
Chorus Line Back On Broadway
Sixteen years after it closed a record-setting run at the Shubert Theater, Michael Bennett’s landmark musical about the lives of Broadway dancers is to be restaged with the help of three of the original production’s creators: the composer Marvin Hamlisch, the designer Robin Wagner and the choreographer Bob Avian.
Mississippi Libraries Un-Ban Stewart Book
A Mississippi public library board has reversed its decision to ban Jon Stewart’s book “America” after waves of protest. “The board voted 5-2 Monday to lift the ban, and the book was returned to circulation in the system’s eight libraries Tuesday. “We have come under intense scrutiny by the outside community. We don’t decide for the community whether to read this book or not, but whether to make it available.”
Israeli Opera To Perform Beethoven In Buchenwald
“The New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv will participate in the controversial staging of Beethoven’s prison-based opera “Fidelio” at the site of Buchenwald concentration camp, German organisers of the production announced on Tuesday. The controversial production is the brainchild of Giancarlo del Monaco, guest artistic director of the new Erfurt Opera House.”
Designing A Headquarters For Architects
Here’s an intimidating project – designing the headquarters for an institution devoted to contemporary architecture. London’s Architecture Foundation will be the city’s first completely new cultural building in 27 years. From the beginning, the group “was determined that the competition should be as open as possible, not only to well-known names but also to those who had never built. An initial list of 208 entrants from as far afield as Mexico, Japan and Lithuania was reduced to the shortlist of eight, half of whom are based in London, half abroad, but none of whom had built a new building in London. All were paid to produce a design.”
Author Sues Da Vinci Code Author For Plagiarism
Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is being sued, accused of plagiarism in his best-selling book. “Author Lewis Perdue has brought the copyright action at a court in New York, claiming Brown lifted plot material from two of his books – The Da Vinci Legacy and Daughter of God – and used it in The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. But Brown is already suing Perdue for making the plagiarism accusations.”
Charismatic Director Steps Down In Minneapolis
Evan Maurer is stepping down as director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “A burly former rugby player with a doctorate in Renaissance and modern art, Maurer has been for years the welcoming face of an institution that was once regarded as a venerable but stuffy cultural dowager. In his heyday, Maurer seemed to be everywhere, serving on civic art committees, showing up at other museum galas, giving impromptu tours of the institute’s collection and even helping kids into the new strollers the museum provides for tots.”