Officials in Tampa Florida have relented in insisting that an artist scrape the rust off a public sculpture he made. The artist – Bradley Arthur – insisted that the rust wasn’t an error, but part of his artistic intentions for the piece.
Tag: 03.12.04
From Bombay To New York (By Way Of London)
Meera Syal has a big London success in London with her musical Bombay Dreams. She’s hoping the show will translate to New York next month. “You wouldn’t have put money on Bombay Dreams. It isn’t based on a pop group’s output or a film, it features a whole new culture and an unknown cast. And even though [composer] AR Rahman is a demi-god in India, he was unknown to anyone here who didn’t watch Hindi films.”
Pop Critic Departs NYT
Neil Strauss, longtime pop music critic for the New York Times, has resigned after signing a deal to “ghostwrite porn star Jenna Jameson’s memoirs without telling his superiors first.”
What Makes A Great Violinist?
What makes a great violinist? “The Genius of the Violin festival, which starts in London later this month, is designed to display the instrument’s extraordinary versatility in everything from Bach to bluegrass. It is a tribute to the impresario Joji Hattori’s powers of persuasion that three of the world’s top fiddlers should be participants.”
Study: UK Book Industry Not Diverse
A new study of the UK publishing business reports that the industry is overwhelmingly white. “It says that nearly half those questioned felt they worked in a white, middle-class ghetto whose employees were drawn from a small ethnic pool. The findings in the survey, which was conducted by the Arts Council and the Bookseller, are supported by several senior publishing executives who say that nothing will change until recruiters look beyond Oxford and Cambridge.”
More Acropolis Museum Maneuvering (Will It Ever Be Built?)
A day after the Greek government ordered a halt to constuction of the Acropolis Museum, “court sources yesterday said that a senior prosecutor has ordered that criminal charges be brought against senior Culture Ministry officials who approved the project.”
Vendler Chosen For Jefferson Address
Helen Hennessy Vendler has been chosen by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver this year’s Jefferson Lecture. Vendler is “a leading interpreter of English language poets, a professor at Harvard for nearly 25 years, and has written extensively on William Shakespeare, William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney and John Keats.”
Virtual Orchestra Maker Files Suit Against Musicians
“A Manhattan company that makes a so-called virtual orchestra machine, an advanced synthesizer used to mimic the sound of live musicians, has filed an unfair labor practice claim accusing the Broadway musicians’ union of unfairly preventing theater and music companies from using its product.”
Is Gay The New Black?
“It’s never been more fashionable or popular to be gay or lesbian than now, if television coverage is anything to go by. If they’re not building or renovating homes, they’re winning Oscars and thanking their boyfriends, getting married in San Francisco, or “zhushing” straight guys. Does this mean queer is the new black?”
Virtual Orchestra Wins West End Les Miz Job
The British Musicians’ Union concedes that it can’t stop producer Cameron Mackintosh from using a virtual orchestra for Les Misérables. The virtual music box Sinfonia, “widely used in US touring productions, needs only one operator who can synchronise its output with that of any real instruments left in an orchestra and with the voices of singers on stage.”