The American Library Association gathers for its annual meeting. Libraries are facing a rocky future in the US. “More than $80 million has been cut from public library budgets in the past year alone, which has weakened or closed libraries in more than 40 states. In addition to budgetary issues, about 70 percent of librarians will reach retirement age within the next 20 years. Who will take their place?”
Blog
A New Book Site?
The publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and other trade titles says it is opening a new “wide-ranging Web site” to cover the book business and offer sales data gathered by company-owned Nielsen BookScan. Called The Book Standard, the site will launch on Jan. 27.
Lots Of Spam To Go Around
The hottest theatre ticket in Chicago? It’s the Monty Python “Spamalot,” which has opened in previews. It’s the biggest show at the box office since The Producers. “In its first seven-performance week, the show did $778,599 in business, selling virtually every seat. (By contrast, the concurrent first week of the pre-Broadway tryout of “All Shook Up” did only $457,768.)
Mozart’s Last Picture?
Experts say a portrait in a Berlin gallery may be the last-ever portrait of Mozart. “The picture was painted by the German artist Johann Georg Edlinger in 1790, a year before Mozart’s death. The picture was identified as a Mozart portrait when an expert on the composer used computer analysis to compare it with another painted 13 years earlier.”
Truth. But How Do You Know?
Every year John Brockman asks 100 intellectuals and scientists to try and answer a question. This year’s is: “What do you believe to be true, even though you can’t prove it?”
Where’s The Parental Guidance In PG?
“Parents have always had a hard time drawing the line between hypocrisy and responsibility, and never more than at the present moment, when prurience and prudishness are both operating at high voltage. We’ve just ended a year in which the exposure of Janet Jackson’s breast on national television set off a gasp of horror in some quarters, amusement in others. Regulators have been clamping down on indecency with fines.”
MacMillan: Taking On The Philistines
Composer James MacMillan is on a crusade for Scottish culture. “The Scottish executive’s opposition to so-called elitist art is causing damage to Scotland’s reputation but also to its sense of itself. They have built a palace for themselves in the shape of the Scottish parliament at a cost of £440m – 10 times above the supposed price – yet they’re allowing Scottish Opera to go to the wall for a tiny amount. It represents a cultural vandalism that has to be challenged.”
Why Do We Critics All Like The Same Movies?
“Look at a year-end compilation of year-end compilations and the same titles keep leaping out, as if some secret signal had been transmitted to our movie-critic brains.” Fair enough – we all recognize quality then. But if that’s so, why aren’t the movies critics like best the biggest box office successes of the year? (they’re not)
New York Offers Tax Breaks To Film Productions
New York’s film industry is tired of seeing productions set in New York filmed elsewhere – like Canada. So the Big Apple is copying other cities and offering tax breaks for producers. “The new tax credits for New York state and New York City send a clear message to Hollywood producers that film and television shows about New York should be filmed in New York.”
MoMA’s Growth Management Act
The new MoMA is so much larger, it has reinvented itself. But this very ambitious museum has a problem. “If it continues adventurously to acquire new works, it will soon run out of space —as, in fact, it already has. Yet no other American museum is so generously committed and dedicated to continuing to present international developments in contemporary art. It is clear that selling off valuable parts of the basic collection to make room for novelties, however promising or prestigious, is a form of vandalism. As it now stands, the greater part of the collection should, by moral right, be accorded public landmark status.”