Blog

The Flawed Bestseller Lists

Many newspapers publish their own list of bestselling book. But the methodology of the lists is flawed, and they are not timely (data is often weeks old) “It’s a deeply unscientific — one is almost tempted to call it whimsical — compilation, which has a veneer of a certain kind of science.” So why not use the more scientific Bookscan lists?

Report: 90 Percent Of Iranian, Pakistani Archaeological Sites Looted

A British archaeologist says that 90 percent of major archaeological sites in Iran and Pakistan have been looted. “Although the illegal destruction occurs abroad, much of the looted material is channelled here to Britain and is sold in London. The best material is coming to London. His research found that Iran is being plundered of treasures dating from 3,000BC to AD500, and Pakistan is being robbed of antiquities created between 500BC and AD400.”

Ailey’s New Digs

This week, the Alvin Ailey Company moves in to a new home. “To passersby, 405 West 55th Street may well seem just another sleek new building in New York. But to the dancers who will be moving into it on Friday, it represents something far more significant: the Ailey’s first permanent home and what the company is billing as the largest building in the United States devoted exclusively to dance.”

A Low-Budget Indie W/ Symphony-Size Dreams

These days there are plenty of low-budget movies. But how many movies with a $750,000 budget can field a professional symphony orchestra for the score? And the Vancouver Symphony, for that matter? “I guess it is a low-budget film. But for anybody who has come from the subsidized art world, the strictures of being frugal and using your resources well are very familiar. I’m trying not to think about the budget and focus on the creativity.”

Prediction: Nathan Lane Will Win The West End

“In a week when the culture gaps between Britain and America have been much discussed, here’s another: a performer few Britons have heard of is simultaneously the biggest star on Broadway. Only now, finally, Britain is starting to get it. Nathan Lane is a name half-glimpsed on a billboard or in the entertainment listings of newspapers. He is still on the periphery of our vision, almost focused and almost famous, but come Tuesday he will step magnificently centre stage.”

Can Romance Survive In Our Time?

“The lyrical dancing style Fokine requires in his neo-Romantic vein is almost a foreign language to dancers bred to thrill audiences with their dazzling technical accomplishment, not to beguile the public by means of subtle evocation.  The combination of traditionally masculine and feminine elements in the main role makes a good chunk of the current audience uneasy, while an even larger chunk has trouble believing that anything created nearly a century ago can have the force, the significance, and the power to persuade the emotions as do the products of the present.”

Bloom: Key To Cleveland’s Renaissance

“In 1915, Cleveland’s city fathers had the foresight to recognize that if Cleveland was to become a major business center, its citizens would require a first-rate cultural environment. In that year, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Play House were established. At this critical juncture in Cleveland’s history, we desperately need arts, corporate and civic leaders to come forward and demonstrate the same understanding. The arts are one of Cleveland’s great success stories. But even a newcomer such as myself knows it is one of America’s best-kept secrets.”

Starting Over (Takes A Mass Firing?)

Should a theatre’s incoming artistic director fire his resident ensemble acting company and starting over? The Denver Center Theatre Company’s outgoing director suggests the move is essential. “If anyone came in from the outside and made the blanket statement, ‘I want everyone to stay,’ then I would say that person is not qualified to take the job”