Canadian writers are making less money than ever — with incomes from writing dropping 78 per cent from 1998, according to a report released Monday by the Writers’ Union of Canada. The numbers, accounting for inflation, have been undergoing a steady drop. According to the report, writers made $9,380 in 2017, down from $12,879 in 2014 — a 27 per cent drop in just three years.
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Canadian Opera Company Ends Fiscal Year In The Black Despite Lower Ticket Sales
Despite the declining ticket revenues, the COC is on a sound financial footing. Besides operating with what is essentially a balanced budget, the Canadian Opera Foundation has seen its endowment balance rise to $43 million. This is nearly double of what was in the bank at the end of 2009-10 — $22.4 million.
London’s Royal Opera House To Appeal Ruling On Musician Who Claimed Rehearsals Damaged His Hearing
Chris Goldscheider, a former viola player in the orchestra at Covent Garden, said he could no longer work as a musician due to the ‘acoustic shock’ he suffered over a weekend rehearsal of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 2012. He said the noise he was exposed to was unacceptable.
The Battle For LA’s Intellectual Life At LA Public Library
“We have so few great public spaces in our sprawling metropolis. And Ken Brecher has, in one quick stroke, changed the library from a sacred site of learning to a battleground, threatening its support from the literary, intellectual and civic-minded community here in Los Angeles.”
Dawn Of An Era? The First AI-Produced Musical Album
Musical eras are often defined by their dominant modes of production — analog, electronic, digital — each bringing about new styles and ways of listening. This era is marked by the release of the first AI-human collaborated album, Hello World, by the music collaborative Skygge. Skygge, led by composer and producer Benoît Carré and musician and tech researcher François Pachet, translates to “shadow” in Danish and was inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name.
Poet Tony Hoagland, 68
“In seven poetry collections, the most recent, Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God, published this year, Mr. Hoagland found insights and imagery in the everyday: a pool in an Austin, Tex., park; a spaghetti strap on a woman’s dress that won’t stay put; an old man dying awash in paranoia from too much Fox News.”
Unsold on ‘The Price of Everything’: HBO’s Art-Market Epic
I recently sat disconsolately through a screener of director Nathaniel Kahn’s new artworld documentary, The Price of Everything. Its dyspeptic take on the art world turned my stomach
Rachael Worby and MUSE/IQUE
Over the years I’ve attended several musical events put on by Rachael Worby, a human dynamo who has operated several series in and around Pasadena. Worby — who was once, I think, the First Lady of West Virginia — seems interested in something both populist and unorthodox.
Recent Listening In Brief: Annie Chen, Woody Shaw And Dexter Gordon
Annie Chen Octet, Secret Treetop (Shanghai Audio&Video Ltd)
Woody Shaw, Tokyo 1981 (Elemental Music)
Dexter Gordon Quartet, Tokyo 1975 (Elemental Music)
Why Do We Equate Innovation With Wealth?
We remember innovators for their ideas, not their wealth. Why then has innovation been co-opted largely by business interests? When most people think of innovation, they tend to think of people making money from executing novel ideas. They think of today’s successful capitalists like Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.