“Digital publications are currently taxed at 20% in the UK; printed publications have been exempt from VAT since its introduction in 1973, ‘on the general principle of avoiding a tax on knowledge’.” Now that new EU legislation allowing member states to cut VAT on digital publications, “a cohort of voices … is now urging the government to ‘axe the reading tax’.” — The Guardian
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Sydney Opera House Worth $6.2 Billion To Australia Annually: Study
A report by Deloitte titled Revaluing Our Icon says that the actual financial contribution of the Opera House to the economy is now $1.2 billion annually —up 44% from the last report, five years ago — with its “social asset value,” a combination of factors such as visitor experience, willingness to pay a premium to attend a performance there, the landmark’s importance in tourist’s decision to visit Australia, etc., at $5 billion. — Australian Financial Review
Three Years After Reviving It, Theatre Drops Its Once-Famous Rep Company Because It’s Just Too Expensive
BBC”[Liverpool’s] Everyman became famous in the 1970s for its rep company, which launched the careers of actors like Bill Nighy, Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite and Sir Anthony Sher.The theatre was rebuilt at a cost of £27m in 2014, and revived its rep company two years later – decades after the system died out in most venues. … But the Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust, which runs the Everyman and [Liverpool] Playhouse, has now been forced to ditch the idea once more.” — BBC
In The Most Heavily Bombed Country In History, The Art Scene Is At Last Recovering
Which country is this? On a per capita basis, Laos, on which the U.S. dropped 2 million tons of explosives between 1964 and 1973 in an attempt to destroy North Vietnamese military supply lines. “A new generation of artists from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic are emerging, following decades of isolation in the orbit of the Soviet empire. The economy is growing rapidly, and the country is opening up.” — The Guardian
A YouTube Channel To Share And Promote New Opera
On the channel, called MyNewOpera, artists and fans will be able to watch and upload new operas, curate and share their own playlists and view other artists’ playlists. The initiative is the brainchild of UK-based opera production company Tete a Tete, however it is hoped the channel will encourage international collaboration. – The Stage
There’s Really No Such Thing As “Male” Brains Or “Female” Brains
Although there are sex differences in brain and behavior, when you move away from group-level differences in single features and focus at the level of the individual brain or person, you find that the differences, regardless of their origins, usually “mix up” rather than “add up.” — The New York Times
Doing Your Part? The Average American Household Has TV On Eight Hours Per Day
When Nielsen started measuring TV viewership, American households were averaging four and a half hours a day. This figure rose steadily over the course of the century, but the biggest jump came in the 2000s, when it peaked at almost nine hours. Now it’s a little under eight. – The Atlantic
Peter Brook On The Meaning Of Theatre
“And that to me is pure theater: the sharing through the imagination of something down to earth and concrete and appealing for the imagination, so that there’s always that sense of “and then what?”—that sense of wonder, which one needs so badly, and one has so little of in everyday life.” – Artforum
Could We Unite America Around Orchestras?
“As a secular American living in Manhattan, I’m a stranger to the senator’s world of church and picnics. I worry that religion may be as much divisive as binding in America’s map of red versus blue. My professional world is one of orchestras (with which I work) and cultural history (about which I write). My perspective suggests another opportunity for healing—regaining a lost “sense of place” and shared American identity via our history and culture. And, yes, I mean high culture.” – The Weekly Standard
The End Of Privacy? It Traces Back To The 1960s
The privacy warriors of the 1960s would have been astounded by what the tech industry has become. They would be more amazed to realize that the policy choices they made back then — to demand data transparency rather than limit data collection, and to legislate the behavior of government but not private industry — enabled today’stech giants to become as large and powerful as they are. – The New York Times