The Getty is beginning its search for a new director of the Getty Museum. A ten-member search committee has been formed, and a timetable set…
Tag: 03.17.05
Barnes And Noble Reports Bad Quarter
Though sales were up in its stores, Barnes & Noble has reported a decline in profits for the last quarter of 2004. “For the three months ended Jan. 29, the retailer earned $115.6 million, or $1.56 per share, compared with $130.2 million, or $1.65 per share in the year-ago period. The New York-based company also warned that profits for the first quarter and for all of 2005 will be lower than analysts expected.”
Mein Kampf Climbs Bestseller List In Turkey
Hitler’s infamous book has unexpectedly been selling up a storm in Turkey. “The book was first published here in 1939, when Axis and Allied countries were competing for Turkey’s soul as they tried to woo it away from the neutrality it would maintain until the very end of World War II. But since January, the book has sold more than 50,000 copies and is number four on the best-seller list drawn up by the DetR bookstore chain.”
BBC To Cut 1,500
The BBC will cut 1,500 jobs, on top of cuts already announced. “Details of the latest cuts were leaked to the BBC’s Labour Affairs Correspondent Stephen Cape, by a senior well-placed source. The source said that every BBC department would be affected by the job losses, including news, sport, children’s programmes and new media.”
The Automatic Critic
Who needs critics anymore? They’re unreliable. The latest web services will do your cultural sorting for you. “These web-based applications seek to recommend music not through descriptive reviews, but through affinities calculated by a computer algorithm. Websites like Movielens.org and Filmaffinity.com endeavour to tell you what you will like by having you tell them what you already like. This form of definition-by-association is supplanting the good old-fashioned review as the primary way for consumers to discover new music, movies and literature. Using a recommender application is like consulting your friends for music or movie advice, except on a grander scale.”
Study: American College Kids And Their TV
A new study says that college students watch an average of three hours, 41 minutes of television each day. Viewing peaks in the late-night hours for college males, interrupting any cramming for exams. But it’s less, by about an hour, than the amount of time an average American spends watching TV each day.”
UK Arts Funding: Little Guys Suffer, Big Guys Get More
Government arts funding in the Uk is supposed to be flat over the next few years. But “companies including the Royal Opera, English National Opera, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company will get a 2.75% increase – the estimated inflation rate – in 2007-08 even though the council estimates that its own standstill funding means a real loss of £34m. The council said it rejected ‘equal misery for all’, and the consequence is double misery for some, particularly the 121 groups which lose all their money, and a further 54 which will face drastic cuts.”
Despite Protests, Springer Tour To Go Ahead
Despite calls by a Christian group urging Britain’s regional theatres not to carry Jerry Springer, The Opera, it looks like a tour will go forward. “Christian Voice wrote to 250 theatres earlier this month urging them to boycott the controversial musical. But the musical’s producer, John Thoday, told The Stage newspaper that theatres had been largely supportive of the tour. Jerry Springer – the Opera is due to open in Plymouth in January 2006.”
Family Claims Painting In Montreal Museum Was Looted
The heirs of a Dutch art dealer are trying to recover a painting hanging in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. They say it was part of a collection looted by Nazis. The museum says the work, called The Deification of Aeneas, will remain on its walls until it can be determined whether it was sold legitimately.”
Why Attack ENO For Producing A Musical?
English National Opera is producing “On the Town.” “There is more to opera than Mozart and Wagner, and if Johann Strauss could upgrade from music hall to opera house then why not Oscar Hammerstein? La Scala, after all, is preparing to stage Lloyd Webber’s Phantom and, as for preserving the purity of the naked voice, it is an open secret that New York’s high-church Met has, on occasion, amplified a mezzo or two. Covent Garden took on Sondheim and the National Theatre has made Cole Porter core repertoire without anyone questioning their core purpose. Why, then, is ENO under fire when all it wants to do is reach a wider audience?” Well…