Last week, just before a performance of the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof was scheduled to begin, the sister of theater legend Jerome Robbins, who was attending the show, collapsed and died in the aisle. The show was delayed for nearly an hour, as paramedics attempted to revive Sonia Cullinen, but the performance eventually went on. But where most in attendance saw an unavoidable tragedy, the musicians playing in the Fiddler pit apparently saw a chance to grab some extra cash, and demanded multiple units of overtime pay to compensate them for the delay. Michael Riedel reports that the pit orchestra wanted the stagehands’ union to join them in requesting overtime, but were turned down.
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Protests Over Governor-General’s Award
“Some protests were logged yesterday with the Canada Council for the Arts, which recently selected the controversial artist Istvan Kantor (a.k.a. Monty Cantsin) as a winner of the Governor-General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. Kantor gained notoreity (and a lifetime ban from the National Gallery in Ottawa) for one specialty, using his own blood to paint on gallery walls.” But Council officials insist that the number of protests they’ve heard is minimal, and that media interest is out of proportion to the actual size of the controversy.
Disney Faces Pressure To Can Eisner
Disney’s Michael Eisner has already lost his position as board chairman, and several prominent board members are putting serious pressure on the company to remove him as CEO as well. Eisner’s detractors say that he has lost the confidence not only of his own employees, but of institutional investors around the world. “They contend that he has done little since the mid-1990s to boost the company’s stock price and earnings to acceptable levels, as ABC television ratings have languished and few hits have emerged from the Disney animation factory.”
How To Make A Marxist Turn In His Grave
It’s difficult to imagine the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara being pleased with the idea of his face being plastered all over posters, t-shirts, umbrellas, and other assorted trinkets. But at some point in recent years, the famous portrait of Guevara was usurped by the bizarre and irony-proof world of high fashion, and now, the face represents nothing more than any other hot look of the current season. “How did an avowed Marxist become, literally, the poster boy for conspicuous capitalist consumption? Is it Che’s story that fascinates, or has his memory been usurped by that sole image, one that speaks to a life many know little, if anything, about?”
Spawning A New Era Of Copyright Law
Author Neil Gaiman has won a major court victory over copyright and intellectual property issues relating to the characters in the comic book Spawn, which Gaiman claimed included characters from his Sandman series, used without his permission. “Intellectual property experts predict the appellate decision will have broader influence on joint authorship issues, giving everyone who participates in a creative work a potential copyright claim.”
Keeping The Arts Alive In A War Zone
Israel is not an easy place to live at the moment, with violence and terrorism seemingly around every corner, and little prospect for short-term improvement. But somehow, Israel’s artistic and cultural scene continues to thrive, despite (maybe because of?) the political and ethnic strife. “Cultural life in Israel has always been rich and vibrant, even in times of crisis… This is not simply a boost to the morale; it is something Israelis need.”
Ballet San Jose Back From The Brink
“Silicon Valley electronics retailer John Fry has stepped in to rescue the financially battered Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley with a $1 million contribution and an extraordinary commitment to take over the board chairmanship. The gift is the largest single contribution in the ballet’s history and comes after a recent audit showed its deficit hovering at $1.5 million… The $1 million check was hand-delivered by Fry late Wednesday. According to [company CEO Charles] Hart, the ballet began writing checks to its creditors Thursday.”
RIAA Head: Piracy “Killing” Music Biz
The head of the Recording Association of America says online piracy is killing the music business. “He told a conference in London that a 31% decline in music sales between 1999 and 2002 was primarily due to piracy. ‘More music is being consumed than at any time in history, it’s just that less of it is being paid for’.”
Kazaa: The Recording Industry’s Killing Us!
“The makers of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing software, failed to quash a court order Thursday that allowed the music industry to raid its Sydney-based offices, prompting a furious response from its chief executive. In February, the music industry was granted an Anton Piller order… allowing it to raid 12 sites across Australia to seize documents and data. Sites raided included the offices of Sharman Networks, the home of its chief executive, several universities and other companies that were believed to be holding information relating to Kazaa. Following the raids, Sharman cried foul. It made an application to have the order invalidated by Australia’s federal court.”
Tsing Loh Fired From KCRW
The new American crackdown on broadcast “obscenity” has claimed its first public radio personality. Commentator Sandra Tsing Loh, who is known nationally for her contributions to Public Radio International’s Marketplace and This American Life, has been fired from her regular position at Los Angeles-area station KCRW after using an expletive in one of her Sunday monologues. Loh claims that the word was supposed to be bleeped out in editing, but the station claims it was a deliberate attempt to flout broadcast standards, and, in a telling statement, called the firing “a precautionary measure to show the station has distanced itself from Loh in case the FCC investigates the matter.”