“[It] ain’t the young’uns having notable trouble setting barriers and using technology with any level of discretion, reserve, or common sense. Rather, every time you turn around, an ostensible grown-up has done something monumentally stupid like sexting his mistress, sending filthy instant messages to strapping young House pages, or tweeting about his congressional delegation’s classified landing in Iraq.”
Tag: 02.16.10
Brit Rapper Peaches Forbidden To Do ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
“Peaches’ ‘stripped-down’ performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar has been ‘crucified before opening night’, the electro-rapper declared yesterday. The concert, which was to take place at Berlin’s Hebbel theatre, was cancelled after German rights-holders allegedly refused to license the songs.”
Is The NY Phil Cribbing From The LA Phil?
Mark Swed thinks so. “Many of the [2010-11] New York season’s highlights given top billing in the orchestra’s press release read like L.A. Philharmonic redux.”
Britain’s Ballet Boyz Start An All-Male School And Company
Michael Nunn and William Trevitt “have reached their early 40s, the crisis years for dancers. … So they’re experimenting with a new identity, as the Ballet Dadz you might say, by shifting out of dancing and into directing. The dancers in Nunn’s ballet class – aged 19 to 24 and all male – are members of an ensemble that he and Trevitt are launching as ‘the second generation’ Ballet Boyz.”
On Broadway, Winter Ticket Sales Finally Warm Up
“Broadway box offices rebounded robustly last week after three weeks of modest ticket sales during the traditional mid-winter chill for plays and musicals. Over all, Broadway productions grossed $15.8 million last week, up from $12.9 million the previous week and the highest total since mid-January.”
Toymakers’ Codependent Relationship With Hollywood
“The toy industry is increasingly reliant upon Hollywood for characters and stories that kids will want to reenact in their homes. … [T]oys based on characters found in movies, TV shows or books accounted for $5.4 billion, or 25% of all U.S. toy sales, last year, research firm NPD estimates.”
European Court Rules Against Turkey In Erotic Novel Case
“The Strasbourg-based court ruled in favour of a petition from publisher Rahmi Akdas, who in 1999 printed a Turkish translation of French writer Guillaume Apollinaire’s 1907 novel ‘The Eleven Thousand Rods,’ which has passages on sadism, homosexuality, paedophilia and necrophilia.” The publisher had been convicted of morality crimes.
San Antonio Symphony Appoints New Music Director
“The San Antonio Symphony will announce today that German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing will become the 70-year-old organization’s eighth music director, bringing a three-year search to an end. Lang-Lessing, 44, … is music director for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in Australia.”
In Florida, Detroit Symphony Gains Ground, Turns A Profit
“Schlepping across the Sunshine State might not be as sexy as marching through Europe. But it was still a landmark week for an orchestra trying to shake off the malaise of a $3.8-million deficit, sharpen its artistic edge, raise its national profile and forge deeper ties with its donors, wherever they happen to live.”
Antebellum Portraits Of Black Pa. Couple Discovered
“A year after the Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted, on long-term loan, a pair of exceedingly rare portraits of a pre-Civil War black Philadelphia couple, another pair of similar portraits has surfaced in the city. Actually, they were all but hiding in plain sight.”