“Half the theaters on Broadway, including some of its most famous stages, will become fully accessible to disabled people under an agreement announced Thursday between the landlord and the government. Work on the 16 landmark theaters operated by the Shubert Organization is to be finished by year’s end. The organization has spent $5 million over several years to improve wheelchair seating areas, restrooms, entrances, exits, ticket windows, concession areas and drinking fountains. But legalities formally bringing the theaters into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act were completed only this week.”
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The Gates Of Venice
Experts are coming to agreement that the only way to save Venice from flooding is to build large gates to keep high water out of Venice’s lagoon. “The nearly €3 billion ($3.4 billion) scheme will comprise about 80 hollow gates embedded in the seabed at the three inlets to Venice’s lagoon. When not needed, the gates will rest on the seabed, full of water. But when high tides threaten the city, compressed air will force water out of the gates. This will cause them to rise and act as a barrier to water trying to enter the lagoon. Will the gates justify their large cost?”
Revisionist Soviet Cultural History
In the old Soviet Union, “culture was a matter for the central committee and the Politburo. What kind of modern art should be allowed? Was jazz decadent? Which foreign plays should be staged? Even to pose these questions was all but unimaginable in the West; yet they were matters of state in the East. When Nikita Khrushchev, in a moment of notorious philistinism, denounced abstract modern painting during a visit to the Manezh gallery in Moscow in 1962, it changed the future course of Soviet art, breaking countless careers in the process. What Richard Nixon, LBJ or Harold Macmillan may—or may not—have thought about modern art was hardly a scratch on the canvas.”
London’s National Theatre Goes Young(er)
At the beginning of last season the National Theatre’s Nicholas Hytner lowered ticket prices in an attempt to draw younger audiences. It worked. “It represents a triumph for Nicholas Hytner, the National’s artistic director, who gambled on filling the giant Olivier auditorium with audiences for edgier plays, if ticket prices could be reduced. Two-thirds of the thousands who flocked to see the musical skit based on the American television show were under 35, and they all came at full price. Nearly half had never been to the National before. “
Celebrating Tape
“Forty years ago this month, Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, and our relationship with music has never been quite the same since. Portable, cheap and relatively robust, the new format was an instant success. By the early 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes: LPs, concerts, tunes from the radio. “
Downsizing The “World’s Largest Lawn-Care Service”
The Bush administration is trying to downsize the federal park service with a plan to outsource many of its services. “Two years ago, the Park Service became a prime target for privatizing some civil- service jobs after the president’s former OMB director, Mitch Daniels, referred to it as ‘the world’s largest lawn-care service.’ In addition to riling agency defenders, Daniels’ characterization has rankled historians, archaeologists, maintenance workers, and rangers who could be supplanted.”
Blues For “The Blues”
Mike Figgis’ “The Blues” series for PBS chronicles an important shift in audience, then ignores it. “The accretion of whites in Mr. Figgis’s film reflects both the majority of the public-television viewership as well as the largest audience for the blues these days. The London blues-rock stars who heard the music as teens in the 1950’s and 60’s — like Eric Clapton and Eric Burdon, who are both featured in Mr. Figgis’s film — exposed it to the rest of the record-buying world: suburban kids who now keep it alive. It’s a sad fact that ‘The Blues,’ devoted to the cumulative power of a cultural phenomenon, tends to ignore the racial shift in the music’s fans. Such a lack is like overlooking a roasted tree stump that was rocked by lightning.”
Edward Said, 67
Noted scholar Edward Said has died at the age of 67. “His writings have been translated into 26 languages and his most influential book, Orientalism (1978), was credited with forcing Westerners to re-examine their perceptions of the Islamic world. His works cover a plethora of other subjects, from English literature, his academic speciality, to music and culture.”
Star Spanish Writer Accused Of Plagiarism
“Spain’s top-selling novelist, Arturo Perez-Reverte, was called before a judge yesterday to answer allegations of plagiarism in a battle with a fellow Spanish novelist over the script of the film Gypsy.”
Germany’s Posh New Opera House
A lavish new opera house in Germany has ambitious aspirations. “Lavish the new opera house may be, but its start has not been painless. It was meant to be part of a new deal for opera, theatre and ballet involving Weimar (pop. 65,000) – whose Deutsches Theater (where Germany’s first democratic constitution was launched) is a mere 15 minutes train ride away. Under this so-called ‘Weimar Model’, Erfurt was to specialise in opera, touring to Weimar, while Weimar specialised in spoken theatre, it being the city of Goethe, Schiller and Herder. However, the people of Weimar strongly objected to the loss of their opera .”