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Art vs. Neighborhood In Toronto

“Opponents of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s plans for a $195 million expansion designed by Frank Gehry are taking their fight to the Ontario Municipal Board. Five or six appeals have been filed, all asking the OMB to overturn the decision of Toronto City Council to approve the gallery’s so-called transformation… [T]he dissidents claim the Gehry project would ruin Grange Park and destroy their neighbourhood.” At issue is a 15-year-old pledge by the AGO that it would never again expand on the Grange Park site, a promise which paved the way for neighborhood approval of an earlier expansion.

Jellinek Signs Off After 36 Years

After about 1900 broadcasts, 84-year-old opera lover George Jellinek is signing off his WQXR show. “New York is losing one of the oldest and best-loved facets of its opera life: after some 36 years, George Jellinek’s weekly radio program, “The Vocal Scene,” is going off the air. The final broadcast is tonight at 10 on WQXR-FM, where the show originated in October 1969. The first program was titled “Love in Opera.” Tonight’s finale will be called, appropriately enough, “Leave Taking” and will be devoted to operatic farewells and Mr. Jellinek’s own.”

The Next Step In Analyzing Art?

We depend on computers to analyze many things. Why not art? Researchers have “digitally scanned artworks into a computer, and then used image-processing techniques to create statistics describing the pen and brush strokes. Like a connoisseur – a blend of Bernard Berenson and HAL – the computer analysis detected subtle differences in these strokes that might help distinguish an artist from an imitator.”

Loss of Traffic Reports Jeopardizes Minnesota Jazz

Minneapolis has already lost one of its classical music radio stations this year, and now, the city’s full-time jazz station may be in trouble after losing a $400,000 annual contract with the Minnesota Department of Transportation. KBEM, which is owned by the Minneapolis school district, drew half its annual operating budget from the MNDOT contract, under which the station aired extensive traffic reports every ten minutes during rush hours. With the state deciding to pull the plug on the reports, the station, known as Jazz 88, will likely be forced to make staff cuts and may have to significantly scale back its commitment to inner-city education.

Oprahmazon.com

It’s official: nobody sells more books than Oprah. “A new study confirms what many already knew: Oprah Winfrey’s book endorsements are good as gold to publishers… Of [the 45 books Winfrey recommended to her ‘book club’], only 11 had been on the bestseller list before her recommendation, and none of them had gone beyond No. 25. Of the first 11 books that Winfrey picked, all went to at least No. 4 within a week.”

Ontario Movie Biz Gets A Big Boost

Canada’s film industry will be getting a much-needed boost in 2005, with the announcement of a new tax incentive package worth CAN$48 million. Workers in the industry had been flooding the Ontario legislature with demands for relief following a year in which the bottom dropped out of the province’s film business, largely as a result of the rising Canadian dollar, the faltering U.S. currency, and new incentive packages being offered to filmmakers by other locales.

Or They Could Just Make Better Sh… Nah, Too Obvious

Getting viewers to watch an evening of programs on traditional over-the-air television networks can be a trying proposition these days, with low-budget niche cable networks chiseling away at the national audience. So the Big Three networks have been trying out a new tactic in the ratings wars: clock manipulation. Rather than ending one program at 7:59 and starting the next one at 8pm, for instance, the network might run the first program a few minutes long, and then immediately start a new show at 8:03, by which time you, the viewer, have already missed the opening of shows on other channels, and are more likely to stick with the network you’re already watching.

Canceled UK Play Could Move To London

“London’s Royal Court could stage the play which prompted violent protests among the Sikh community in Birmingham. Royal Court theatre bosses said it had obtained a copy of Behzti with a view to possibly staging it in the new year. Behzti had its run cancelled in Birmingham after three police officers were injured when 400 demonstrators protested outside the theatre. Protesters said the play, which depicts sex abuse and murder in a temple, portrayed the Sikh faith negatively.”