“French director Claude Lelouch faces a hefty bill after offering free screenings of his latest film when it was panned by newspaper critics. About 40,000 people across France took up the free tickets to see ‘Les Parisiens’ – at a cost of £104,000 ($186,000) to Mr Lelouch.”
Blog
German Fire Ravaged 50,000 Rare Books
“A fire which ripped through a historic library in Germany destroyed many more rare books than previously thought. Despite attempts by volunteers to rescue as many books as possible from Weimar’s Duchess Anna Amalia Library, 50,000 were still irreparably damaged.”
Hipness And Public Radio: Not Mutually Exclusive?
“Pop Vultures,” a fledgling talk show co-conceived by none other than Garrison Keillor, attempts to shake up National Public Radio’s stodgy-geek ambience with an ultra-conversational approach to pop music.
Anne Rice: Satisfaction Or Your Money Back
“Writer Anne Rice, whose extravagant fictions about vampires and witches have made her famous and rich, vents her anger at readers who dare criticize her latest book ‘Blood Canticle’ on the Amazon.com website and ends her lengthy, single-paragraph tirade by giving her home address in New Orleans and promising refunds to the disgruntled.”
Making Contemporary Classical An Optional Side Dish
Under its new music director, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is about to abandon, at least temporarily, one of the more persistent beliefs guiding orchestral programming: that audiences will embrace contemporary music if only they are taught to understand it. “After this week’s concerts, during which the orchestra will play a short new piece by Canadian composer Matthew Whittall, the old and the new will be kept well apart from each other.”
CRIA Gets A New President
After two years of searching, the Canadian Recording Industry Association has found its new president. “Graham Henderson, an entertainment-industry lawyer, who was managing Universal Music Canada’s digital-music business and helped to launch the on-line music service Puretracks, will assume the top job at CRIA on Nov. 15.”
Boston Ballet Posts A Surplus
Boston Ballet, which had a $3 million deficit at the end of its previous fiscal year, ended the most recent fiscal year with a $650,000 operating surplus.
Destination Architecture? Not In Napa, Thanks
A couple who want to put a Frank Gehry-designed building on their Napa Valley wine estate are facing opposition from neighbors. They don’t object to the architecture but fear the structure would draw more tourists, exacerbating traffic jams on an already congested highway.
Is Australia About To Join America’s Arts Reality?
“There have been an unprecedented number of inquiries in the past eight years into aspects of the arts [in Australia] – inquiries that have produced tangible financial benefits. Yet what’s lacking has been any bigger picture or debate from either side of politics about the role of art in contemporary culture… There has been little public debate on the broader question of whom performing arts companies should answer to in an environment of shrinking public funding and increasing need for sponsorship dollars.”
Why Can’t Politicians Pick Good Art?
Scotland has a new Parliament building, and amidst all the talk of cost overruns and such, some brave sould have dared to broach the subject of how the place ought to be decorated. An MP named Stone was placed in charge of “a committee to acquire art for the new building, and the results are now on view. It is not much. James Stone’s committee did ask the main committee… for £3 million. They were given a derisory £250,000 to spend. This mean-spirited decision was both a failure of courage and of imagination.”