“In the next 18 months, eight new theaters with more than 4,000 seats will open in Greater Boston, ranging from the 2,500-seat Boston Opera House, large enough for Broadway blockbusters, to intimate ‘black boxes’ designed for experimental theater and dance.” In a city long short of good performance space, the building boom will give Boston audiences a stunning array of choices for the first time.
Tag: 03.17.04
O Queens, My Beloved Verseless Home…
The much-maligned borough of Queens, in New York City, is in need of a new poet laureate. “The winner must be someone who has lived in Queens for at least five years and has written, in English, ‘poetry inspired by the borough.'” The trouble is, in three months of searching, the borough has yet to find a single writer who fits that description.
Mountain Laurel Exec Resigns
The chief executive of the Pennsylvania-based Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts, which was seeking to be the new summer home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra before collapsing under a mountain of debt this winter, has resigned shortly before a meeting of the center’s bondholders. Blaney was hired five weeks before Mountain Laurel’s opening weekend in 2003, after the center’s first CEO, Christopher Dunworth, was unexpectedly fired.
One Hurdle Down, Two Giant Chasms Left To Clear
The Florida House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to restore $21 million in annually guaranteed arts funding to the state budget, one year after cutting the subsidy in order to balance the budget. But the restoration still faces a decidedly rocky path to victory, with key Republican legislators vowing to fight it in the State Senate, and Governor Jeb Bush threatening a veto if it ever reaches his desk.
Why Shouldn’t Science Be Pretty?
“In 1993, two computer scientists devised a Java applet (PDF) to make energy fields not only visible, but really rad-looking. Each year, John Belcher at MIT holds the ‘Weird Fields’ contest among his physics students to see who can use the program to create the most aesthetically pleasing image by writing simple formulas for electromagnetism.” The point isn’t to create the most useful or efficient formula – just to come up with the one that looks the best. So what’s the point? None, really, but Belcher believes firmly that his students benefit from a well-rounded approach to the world, and if that means using science to get them to create art, so be it.
The Indies Gather In Austin
Even as the majority of music industry heavies watch their album sales slip ever further down the profitability chart, and continue to tilt at the file-sharing windmill, thousands of independent musicians, producers, and fans are descending on Austin, Texas for a music festival with a decidedly pro-innovation slant. “South by Southwest, or SXSW, has a special following among artists and fans who are interested in shaping the future of the media industry. The bands and artists who appear at SXSW don’t have Britney’s marketing budget, so they turn to the Net to attract attention and find new fans. In essence, these artists and fans are vanguards.”
Not Bad For A Guy Who Just Lost His Job
Former BBC chief Greg Dyke, forced out of his position at the head of the UK’s public broadcaster following the furor over reporter Andrew Gilligan’s story accusing the Blair government of “sexing up” a dossier concerning Iraqi weapons capabilities, has been honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Royal Television Society. BBC staffers rallied to Dyke’s side when he resigned in January, and much was made of how popular a leader he was.
Archaeologists: Stonehenge Tunnel A Bad Idea
Archaeologists are protesting the British government’s plan to build a £200 million 2.1km tunnel tunnel under Stonehenge. They charge that the project will result in “irreversible damage to the World Heritage site”.
Ireland Goes Chick-Lit
“Irish literature, that glorious outpouring of eloquence and wit created by great men such as Jonathan Swift, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Sean O’Casey and George Bernard Shaw has in our time fallen into mainly female hands.”
Idolizing Lit Idol
Lit Idol was conceived as a way to spark interest in writers (well, Pop Idol has done pretty well for ___ “Some 1,400 aspiring authors entered the Lit Idol contest. Five judges, including Curtis Brown’s Ali Gunn, narrowed the field to five finalists. About 900 people voted online, which counted 25 percent. The final tally was taken at the book fair Monday night, where about 150 publishers, agents and authors cast their votes after the finalists read.”