Forty-three members of the Cuban dance troupe Havana Night Club defected last week in Las Vegas. “The decision to defect didn’t come easily or suddenly, but it was almost unanimous – with just three of the dancers saying they may want to go back to Cuba. The reasons involve freedom and opportunity, but this mass defection also hinged on their close kinship as a troupe and a rebuff from the Cuban government.”
Blog
The Culture Wars – Back To The 80s
The culture wars are heating up again, and it’s depressing to think we’ll be refighting battles of the 80s (shouldn’t that be 50’s? or 1850s…?) “The danger of the return of the culture war is not only the damage that the right will inflict, but also artists’ responses. I dread a new round of right-wing-baiting art and its cycle of abuse. Art lobs a spit ball and the firestorm of outrage arrives right on schedule, followed by lame dodges.”
Public Cheers For Eustis
Oskar Eustis is being cheered as new director of New York’s Public Theatre. “Though he has a long and impressive résumé of staging both classic and contemporary drama, Eustis has built his career away from the New York spotlight, which explains why he’s best known here as the genius who fostered Tony Kushner’s epic Angels in America. A chorus of praise has risen from playwriting quarters at the news of his appointment.”
Lit Idol
Want to be a literary star? Lit Idol is based on the format of TV’s Pop Idol. “Writers must submit up to 10,000 words from the opening chapters of their novels and a synopsis. Professional readers will choose a shortlist of five following the competition closing date on 14 January. The final five will then have to read their work in front of judging panel. A public vote will also take place, which will account for 25% of the final decision.”
NJ Schools Ban “Messiah” Performances
A New Jersey school district has banned schools from performing religious music. “The district has banned students from performing music related to any religious holiday — defeating the purpose of the schools’ traditional ‘holiday concerts’.”
Cleaning Up After Devastating Book Fire
Restorers are working on 62,000 heavily damaged rare books from a fire at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar in September. “About 10 percent of the library’s collection of a million books has been irreparably damaged, library officials say. But the 600-piece Bible collection, including Martin Luther’s 1534 copy, and the huge Faust and Shakespeare collections have been saved or only slightly damaged. And between 25,000 and 30,000 other rare books are presumed lost, listed like missing persons in a databank on the library’s Web site.”
Indecent Indecency Debate
“Since Nov. 2, the battle over indecency on the airwaves has been elevated to a level that suggests the issue was more than election-year pandering. The emphasis on values that helped re-elect President Bush is, to some, endorsement for a crusade that may eclipse the one against terrorism in Iraq. But so far, what’s most immoral is the spectacle of politicians and special-interest groups trying to hide all the contradictions inherent in deciding what’s too dirty for America and using it as a distraction to cover the bigger threat of media consolidation.”
Indian Museum Off To Good Start
In its first month of operation the new National Museum of the American Indian attracted 275,400 visitors. “If that pace continues, the museum is likely to attract about 4.2 million people in its first year. That is in line with the low end of its curators’ original estimates. At the time of its opening in September, they projected that the museum would attract 4 million to 6 million people and instituted a system of timed passes to spread out the crowds.”
In Search Of Stories
Where is the best storytelling today? Not in books, alas. “In the cinema, a core of narrative innocence survives across a spectrum of values represented by Spielberg at one end and Abbas Kiarostami at the other. In the novel, however, story has gone down in a blaze of modernist attitudes.”
Saratoga Center Dinged For Poor Management
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which last summer tried to end a longstanding summer residency by New York City Ballet, has been cited for bad management by an audit of the organization. “Over the last few years, the Saratoga arts center has struggled with an annual deficit of $400,000 to $500,000 on an operating budget of $13 million and been forced to dip into its $7 million endowment to cover operating expenses.”