Organizers are trying to raise money for a $220 million museum of music. The National Music Center and Museum Foundation would be built in Washington DC. “At the convention center site, the planners are envisioning a facility on two acres with three theaters and a museum. The 3,200-seat performance hall could accommodate Broadway roadshows and musical acts. A second theater would have 750 seats, more than any of the Smithsonian’s current theaters and lecture halls. The third would be a 250-seat black-box venue for dance and experimental theater. The museum would have 50,000 square feet of space for both temporary and permanent exhibitions.”
Blog
Why No Auction House Reforms?
“After a major price-fixing scandal in which Al Taubman was sent to jail, Dede Brooks placed under house arrest and numerous former Christie’s senior officers were exposed as hypocritical backstabbing cowards, why does business at the high end of the New York market continue, without any major, or minor, reforms whatsoever?”
Textbooks For $120?
“In the past two decades, the price of textbooks has soared. The price of educational books and supplies has risen 238 percent, while the price of consumer goods over all has increased only 51 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index. At four-year private colleges, the College Board found, students spent an average of $807 on books last year. Some students, particularly science and math majors, spent that much in one semester. At the same time, more books are being sold in shrink-wrapped bundles with supplements that a student may not need but must pay for, such as a study guide, dictionary or CD-ROM. But more and more, students are fighting back, finding ways to reduce the costs.”
Come Play The Movie Musical Game
They make musicals about anything these days. Indeed, offbeat topics seem to be preferred. So Dominic Papatola wonders: can you tell which ideas are Broadway musical fodder and which aren’t?
The MassMOCA Revival
North Adams, like many towns and cities in America, has tried to revive itself by developing an arts industry. And there are signs that opening the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art has proved to be a big boost. MASS MoCA is drawing about 120,000 visitors a year, putting it in the top tier of modern art museums outside New York. There’s a little frontier spirit here; there are opportunities for people, like the early days of SoHo. You don’t want it too perfect. Artists are small business operators; each new mill building that’s renovated for artists brings about $1 million into the local economy. If a few more buildings are done it will make this a very interesting town.”
Opera That Can’t Work
So impressario Raymond Gubbay is planning to stage operas in London in competition the the Royal Opera and English National companies. But the plan is to present in a small theatre, and the numbers don’t work out. Gubbay can’t make it work out financially. So what’s the point?
BBC In Print
The BBC is best known as a broadcaster. But it is also one of the biggest publishers in the UK. “BBC Magazines, now the third biggest publisher in the UK behind IPC and Emap, employs 550 staff and publishes 35 titles, usually linked to successful television programmes such as Top Gear and Top of the Pops, and the many lifestyle shows.”
The Archaeology Sleuths
New archaeological study is shedding light on sometimes long forgotten massacres in American history. “Archaeology can fill gaps in the incomplete oral and written histories of these atrocities, resolve discrepancies among various accounts, and help people to better understand what happened. This better understanding can lead to closure for many people, but archaeology can also cause controversy. These events all raise different issues and debates on the place of archaeology, and its helpful or damaging effect.”
Atwood, Ali Lead Booker Shortlist
Margaret Atwood and newcomer Monica Ali head up the shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize. Martin Amis and JM Coetzee didn’t make the cut, but Zoe Heller, Damon Galgut and debut writers Clare Morrall and DBC Pierre did. Three of the nominations are for first novels. The winner is announced October 14.
Jonathan Miller, Junkyard Director
Director Jonathan Miller has turned sculptor. He spends time in junkyards finding pieces of scrap to weld together. “When I get called an intellectual or a renaissance man or a polymath I think about how my parents would have been embarrassed to be called such vulgar things. they were middle-class, cultivated people – my mother was a very good novelist – to whom knowing about books and art and speaking languages was normal, as well as taking an interest in science and philosophy. They were just educated people who had a lot of interests. It’s normal. And so it is for me. I’m just normally sophisticated, like my dear old dad and my long-dead mother, but I’m increasingly ashamed of the vulgarity around me.”