Category: issues

In Japan, those in search of a reality escape can go to media immersion centers. “The first Gran Cyber Café opened in 1999. Today there are 10, serving some 5,000 people a day. Each has a slightly different orientation — some are geared to teenagers, some to salarymen — but the atmosphere is the same throughout the franchise: equal parts lending library, newsstand, arcade, Kinko’s and youth hostel. An inspired extension of the basic Internet cafe, the Gran Cyber Cafés shift their meaning the more you study them, as if by a trick of their trademark low light.”

A US Congressional committee has amended an appropriations bill to cap salaries at the Smithsonian. “There are 28 people at the Smithsonian that are paid more than Cabinet secretaries. There are 22 people at the Smithsonian that are paid more than the vice president [$212,000]. If you count pay and bonuses, there are six people making more than the president of the United States.”

“Any working mother or mother-to-be knows how challenging it can be to balance family and work. But women in the performing arts face unique challenges during pregnancy — and after.”

The Scottish Arts Council has put details of its grant applications online and arts organizations are furious. “The SAC has posted more than 1,500 documents on its website, detailing the reasons for recent grant decisions affecting some 100 clients. Although new legislation means such documents can be requested by the public, no funding body has ever made so much information so easily available.”

The two used to be close. But “by the middle of the 20th century, the division was pronounced and profound. In a famous 1959 essay, C.P. Snow described and despaired of the ‘two cultures’ that had grown up around science and art. Today the stakes seem too high and the world too tightly interconnected for artists and scientists to close their eyes and ears to each other.”

“Arts organisations fared well in the budget, with extra money announced for orchestras, dance, theatre and opera companies, major festivals and circus performers. A $600,000 one-off payment to the Sydney Dance Company will almost wipe out its accumulated debt and go a long way to ensuring its future.”

“The committee will be led by Louise H. Bryson, a Getty trustee since 1998. Other trustees on the committee include Agnes Gund, Joanne Kozberg, Luis Nogales, William E. B. Siart, Mark Siegel and Jay S. Wintrob.”

Starbucks is getting into movies. “Last week, it announced an alliance with William Morris Agency, a talent and literary agency that will help Starbucks identify music, film and book projects to consider for marketing and distribution in its stores.”

“Uncle Sam wants you to join a book club. The National Endowment for the Arts has created ‘The Big Read,’ a program that will sponsor community reading groups throughout the country. Like the NEA’s ‘Poetry Out Loud,’ a national competition that was formed last year, the new initiative is a response to the organization’s 2004 study, “Reading at Risk,” which reported a dramatic rise in nonreading.”

A Roman Catholic cardinal who was on the shortlist to become pope last year is hinting at potential legal action that could be taken by the church against DaVinci Code author Dan Brown and the producers of the movie version of the controversial book. (Exactly what action that might be, the cardinal did not say.) Meanwhile, the two authors who unsuccessfully sued Brown for copyright infringement are having trouble coming up with their court-ordered share of Brown’s legal bills.