A $1.6 million gift from a Cleveland foundation has jumpstarted the funding campaign for a unique multimedia center which will combine the operations of the city’s public TV station WVIZ and public radio station WCPN (known collectively as Ideastream) with “broadcast and dance studios, offices, classrooms and a small theater.” Organizers hope that the project can revitalize Cleveland’s theater district while providing a much-needed center for arts education. $17 million of private money still needs to be raised for the center to become reality.
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A Decidedly French Approach To Diversity
“After 15 years of soul-searching, France has decided to create a Museum of Immigration. Why now? For generations, France successfully absorbed waves of Poles, Russians, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese — and remained French. Then over the past 30 years millions of migrants flooded in from the third world, and it was France that changed. A Museum of Immigration is a fairly typical French response, one financed by the government and intended by politicians and bureaucrats to address a social problem through culture. Yet while willing to open a museum, France’s cultural elite continue to resist embracing the creative energy represented by French artists, writers and performers of African, Arab and Asian descent.”
You Mean There Are People Who Don’t Like Bill Clinton?
Bill Clinton’s 900-page memoir may not be a critical favorite, but it has been a runaway bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. But critics recently noticed that the version of “My Life” being enjoyed by readers in the UK differs in several important respects from the stateside version. The changes, which are almost all in passages in which President Clinton pointedly criticizes Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, are due to the differing libel laws in the two countries. Whereas the burden of proof in a libel case falls on the complainant in America, UK law forces the defendant to prove the veracity of contested statements, which Clinton’s people feared could have opened the door to a Starr lawsuit.
Smugglers Are Better Role Models Than Wizards?
So you’re a good parent who wants your children to experience the wonder of reading exciting books featuring heroic children and supernatural enemies, but you’re also a devout Christian who is convinced that Harry Potter is a witchcraft-dabbling heretic who will cause your offspring to turn away from God? Fear not: a new bestseller written by an Anglican vicar is “deeply imbued with Christian imagery and set on the 18th-century Yorkshire coast in Britain with its rugged cliffs, hidden caves and smuggler’s legends. It is about an evil vicar, Obadiah Demurral, who tries to take over the world but is thwarted by three teenagers and a smuggler.”
Who Cares Who Used To Own It?
The British Museum has spent the last several years answering charges over the way it acquired several of its most prized pieces. But is the argument even focused on the right topic? “Controversy over ownership of its treasures obscures the British Museum’s purpose. By offering everyone insights into cultural history, argues its director Neil MacGregor, the museum promotes a greater understanding of humanity.”
More Than Just Clowning Around
As a theater town, Chicago may currently be unrivaled in the U.S. But it’s a fair bet that even the savvy Chicagoans have never seen anything quite like 500 Clown, a three-person (yes, only three) troupe dedicated to presenting serious theater with serious, well, clownage. The company’s first show was 500 Clown Macbeth, which turned Shakespeare on its head and wowed the critics in the process. “With a manic brio, the show challenged past assumptions about the limits of on-stage violence and what director Leslie Buxbaum Danzig has dubbed ‘clown-theater,’ with equal emphasis on both words.”
New York’s Second City Presence
The New York Philharmonic travels a lot, even by major orchestra standards, but this summer, one could forgive Chicagoans for mistaking the Phil for their own orchestra. This month, the New Yorkers’ radio broadcasts have been added to Chicago radio, a sign that negotiations with the Chicago Symphony’s musicians for a radio presence are at an impasse. And this past weekend, the Phil made its first appearance in five years at the CSO’s own Ravinia festival, showing off the much-hailed collaboration between the notoriously conductor-unfriendly New York musicians and guest conductor David Robertson, who is considered a strong candidate to be the orchestra’s next music director.
Ruminating On An Institution’s Demise
Ruminator Books, a Twin Cities institution and a nationally known indie bookseller, is closing its doors forever this week, but the man who has steered it for its entire 34-year life insists that he isn’t despairing. In fact, David Unowsky admits that it wasn’t competition from big chain bookstores that drove the store into insolvency, but a series of business mistakes and good ideas implemented at the wrong time. “One of his problems was running a 21st-century bookstore on 30-year-old ideals.”
The Secret Identity of O
When the erotic novel The Story of O was first published under a pseudonym a half-century ago, it scandalized French, British, and American society alike with its explicit but beautifully written descriptions of bondage and sexual violence. The identity of its author was much speculated upon, and many were convinced that it had to be a man. It wasn’t, and the woman behind the book that revolutionized erotic literature wrote it for her lover on a dare, never intending for it to see the light of day.
Plenty Of Words Between The Notes
Musicians who spend their careers in the pit of an opera house or theater are something of a different breed than those who get to solo in front of thousands or take repeated bows as members of a symphony orchestra. For one thing, the players in the New York Philharmonic aren’t generally found reading novels during the performance to stave off boredom…