A $1.9 million lawsuit against New Orleans’new museum of Southern art accuses its founder of using Louisiana taxpayer money to build a private museum on public land, sidestepping the state’s conflict-of-interest laws and illegally naming it after himself. The museum opened last August and has about 2,700 paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings and pieces of pottery. Museum officials say Ogden donated more than 1,200 of the works came his personal collection. However, the suit also says Ogden uses his relationship with the museum for his own financial gain.”
Tag: 05.07.04
National Treasure – Scottish Opera
There’s a debate in Scotland over the fate of Scottish Opera. The company has been a big critical success, but it’s broke and in dancer of going out of business or being scaled back considerably. “Scottish Opera is, for those outside Scotland, one of the great cultural achievements of Scotland, and one of the great ambassadors for Scotland’s commitment to high culture. The Scottish Parliament is now the custodian of one of the great cultural institutions of the United Kingdom and people will be looking from all round the world to see how Scottish Opera now fares under this new autonomous government.”
How Cambodian Dance Almost Died
Cambodia has a royal dance tradition that goes back centuries. But “in 1970, a coup sent Cambodian royalty into exile, and while the dance was still practiced in the palace, it became a part of the University of Fine Arts. When the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in April 1975, the university was closed and all of Phnom Penh’s residents were forced to leave. From 1975 to 1979, former palace dancers went into hiding for fear that they would be executed for their association with royal traditions. The only dance and music allowed during that time were Maoist-style songs that celebrated the revolution.”
iTunes Expected To Raise Download Price
Say goodbye to those 99-cent downloaded songs. “The five major record labels have been in negotiations recently with Apple over pricing and other issues associated with the year-old download service, which was launched to great fanfare last April. All five of the deals – with Universal, Sony, BMG, EMI and Warner Music – have already been signed, sources say, and the new pricing is already being rolled out for albums.” Prices are expected to go up to $1.25 per track.
Ontario – Is Censorship On The Way Out? (Goody!)
A Canadian court has ruled that the province of Ontario’s ability to censor movies might be unconstitutional. “Not that the disappearance of the Ontario Film Review Board’s powers of censorship would be anything but welcome, wise and way overdue, just that the constant possibility of censorship — the very idea that you lived in a province where some anonymous citizen had the power to decide what you could and could not see — was a kind of galvanizing fact of life in those days.”
A Bribe To Make Canadian Drama
Canadian TV producers have all but stopped making dramas. So the CRTC is hoping a little bribe might help. “The carrot will be more allotted advertising minutes per hour in return for more home-grown content, and increased viewership of that content, the broadcast regulator said yesterday as it released details of a three-point package.”
Opera At Pop Festival? Really?
Opera at the pop orgy that is Glastonbury? And Wagner yet? What a concept. “All agreed that this was a landmark event, a marriage of opposites, the very thing that the word ‘crossover’ had been invented to describe. I’m surprised, frankly, that it’s taken the festival organisers this long to make their point.”
What You Get For $100 Mil In Hollywood These Days: Average
“The cost of making a movie at a major Hollywood studio rose 9 per cent last year to an average $64-million. Add to that the average $39-million spent on TV commercials, print ads and other promotions, and you’ve got a per-film total of $103-million, the first time in history that an average movie’s costs — the ordinary, the median, the norm! — top $100-mil. I reiterate, these are now our average films.”
Who Bought $104 Million Picasso?
The name of the person who bought a picasso painting for a record $104 million hasn’t been revealed. “Buyers identities do trickle out, however, as there are only a handful of very rich people in the world who consistently spend this kind of money and get approaches from galleries to display their wares. Unless you believe in Dr No keeping his pictures in a cave, it’s going to be very hard to hide this picture. It’s always secret if only because the world’s very richest people are hiding from two kinds of character – thieves and burglars, and they are also hiding from the taxman.”
US – Shutting Out Cuban Artists
More than 150 Cuban artists have recently been refused visas to perform in the United States. “U.S. officials say the restrictions implemented in November are among a series of measures designed to further isolate the hemisphere’s only communist regime and pressure Cuban President Fidel Castro to make democratic reforms. The officials contend that Cuban artists are using concert tours in the United States to promote the sales of CDs and other products, with a majority of the profits ending up in Cuban government coffers.”