The publications are among the 10,000 titles banned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a list that includes best sellers like “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “A Time to Kill” and even obscure works, such as the “MapQuest Road Atlas.” Not banned: “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler and books by white nationalists, including David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard. They are also prohibited from reading the pop-up edition of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “The Color Purple” and the 1908 Sears, Roebuck catalog.
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William H. Gass, Postmodern Novelist And ‘Magician Of The Word’, Dead At 93
“Mr. Gass wrote just three novels, none of them bestsellers, but he was often described as one of America’s finest literary stylists – ‘a magician of the word, the writer of a prose so rich that it makes Vladi¬mir Nabokov’s seem impoverished,’ Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda wrote in 2013.”
Classical Music World Worries Over Clampdown On Trade In Rosewood
“New regulations on the international movement of rosewood have hit hard in parts of the music industry, which has long relied on rosewood as a ‘tonewood’ used in many kinds of instruments, including guitars, cellos and clarinets. The reason for the [customs] crackdown, and for Katz’s anxiety? China. Specifically, Chinese consumers’ growing demand for rosewood or ‘hongmu’ furniture.”
Why Saratoga Lost $1 Million On New York City Ballet Last Summer (And Cut This Summer’s Performances In Half)
Says Saratoga Performing Arts Center president Elizabeth Sobol, “Here is what I observed: 80 percent of the audience only buys tickets to one performance, 11 percent buys a ticket to two performances. Only 9 percent buy for two or more night. And while it’s wonderful to have this deeply passionate audience, by presenting two weeks we are doubling our expenses and cannibalizing our audience.”
What Happened To ‘LA Weekly’? Well, It’s Pretty Weird …
A set of Orange County business types closed on the purchase pf the alt-weekly on Wednesday; the very same day, the entire editorial staff except one writer was laid off. The new guy in charge says he and the new owners are socially liberal libertarians and that the left-leaning editorial stance of the Weekly won’t change, but …
Theatregoer Punched In Face For Asking Fellow Audience Member To Stop Using Cell Phone
Adam Gale, a New York producer, was attending A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic in London, asked a woman sitting nearby to stop using her phone several times during the first act and ultimately called an usher. Come intermission, says Gale, her boyfriend hauled him out of his seat and hit him in the face with a fist. Old Vic staff refused to call the police.
How Damien Hirst Outfoxed The Art-Market-Industrial Complex
Financial journalist Felix Salmon explains why the up-and-down prices for Hirst’s art at auctions aren’t a good indicator of how valuable his work really is, and argues that Hirst has basically become a maker and seller of luxury goods – which is as it should be.
Met Opera’s James Levine Denies Allegations Of Sexual Abuse
“‘As understandably troubling as the accusations noted in recent press accounts are, they are unfounded,’ he said in a written statement. ‘As anyone who truly knows me will attest, I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor.'” In response, all four men who spoke to the Times stood by their stories. Said one of Levine, “He is lying. … I will take a lie-detector test. Will he?”
To Prevent Abuse, Classical Music Needs A Code Of Conduct – And Here’s What Should Be In It
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston: “For example, no private meetings or rehearsals where a maestro is alone with a musician should be permitted; performance notes and discussions can and should always be given quietly in front of others. If it is suspected that a maestro has designs on an individual beyond the purely professional, a chaperone should be insisted on, especially during festivals and on tours.”
Peter Martins Takes Leave From New York City Ballet Following More Harassment Accusations
“One of the most important directors in the ballet world, Martins, 71, said he would temporarily step away from both NYCB and its affiliated School of American Ballet, which he also heads, in a statement to The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon. He issued the statement after The Post sought Martins’s comment on a previously undisclosed claim by former NYCB soloist Kelly Cass Boal that Martins behaved violently toward her.”