Category: issues

Singapore is making an “ambitious bid to claim status as a global performing arts city on a par with London or New York — even if it means relaxing some long-held taboos. Theaters here increasingly are allowed to take on risqué social and political themes, a sign this tightly controlled Southeast Asian city-state is starting to loosen up.”

“According to the American Pet Products Association, the pet industry – which includes everything from old-fashioned kibble to new-age veterinary acupuncture – grew by $2 billion in 2008. For 2009, the association predicts $45 billion in sales. Fifteen years ago, that number was $17 billion. “We’re as recession-resistant as any industry I can think of,” declares Bob Vetere, the association’s president.”

“Italy and Switzerland are planning to redraw their shared alpine border, as global warming is melting the glaciers that originally guided the line. Although peaceful, the move raises fears of future conflicts over shifting borders and resources.”

“The end of the publication will — at least temporarily — silence more critical voices on arts and entertainment in Los Angeles, including culture writer Alan Rich, former music critic for LA Weekly, who only recently began writing for CityBeat, and theater critic Don Shirley, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer.”

“The myth of cultural supremacy and separation is one of the great hoaxes of history, a discipline that until very recently was little more than propaganda, written by victors. The unsettling truth is that people, images and things have always moved vast distances across the world.”

“The three lesser appointments Obama has so far made in the cultural arena–a Chicago lawyer named Kareem Dale, a Hollywood fund-raiser named Jeremy Bernard, and an Obama Senate staffer named Anita Decker–have been strange at best and, at worst, deflating.”

Christopher Hawthorne: “[T]he idea that billboard growth is an assault on our collective urban-design principles is at best a red herring. This is a place where billboards and other kinds of signage have long aspired to the size and prominence of architecture – [and] not just the famed Hollywood sign… At the same time, many of our buildings have long dreamed of becoming signs, or at least performing a credible imitation of them.”

“The United Performing Arts Fund will announce Thursday that it is resetting its fund-raising goal back to late 1990 levels. … UPAF provides core operating funds to 16 area performing arts groups and also provides small grants to additional arts groups.”

“The Sydney Opera House is in such disrepair it could be forced to close shows if it does not receive the renovation funds announced by the Premier last week but dismissed by the Prime Minister. ‘If it takes us to a point where the theatre is shut, so be it,’ the chief executive, Richard Evans, said yesterday. ‘The theatre will either be shut in a planned way or an unplanned way’.”

“Controversial choreographer Michael Clark will use the music of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed as the starting point of a new work specially produced for Edinburgh.” Other highlights of the the 63rd festival: “a 100-strong cast performing Faust at the Royal Highland Showground, a recital from popular Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, the premiere of a play telling the story of Scotland’s last ‘witch’ and a reworking of JM Barrie’s classic fairytale Peter Pan.”