Will American tourists refrain from going to Canada because of terrorism fears? Will Canadian arts ventures that depend on American tourists suffer this summer? “And thanks to the shrinking U.S. dollar, Canada is no longer the bargain it used to be. The result could be a summer of discontent for arts groups that flourish only when they draw large numbers of Americans, such as the Stratford and Shaw festivals.”
Tag: 06.07.06
Canadian Book Buyers Angry About US Markup
Canadian book buyers are grumbling because though the Canadian dollar has risen dramtically against the US dollar, they’re still being charged a premiukm. “It’s very conspicuous to people, so they have been murmuring their discontent. The breaking point came when the Canadian dollar hit 90 cents. The murmur turned into a crescendo. There is no beneficial exposure (to the strong dollar) on the part of booksellers; that windfall is going to someone else. But we are in the line of fire.”
The Dawn Of Live Internet TV?
“Two well-known talk-show names are going head-to-head starting next week with original, high quality, Web-only TV-type shows. Talk shows, specifically.”
A Critic On Board?
Tyler Green reports that New York Times art critic Grace Glueck is on the board of the Berkshires’ Clark Museum. “Would the Times allow its labor reporter to serve on the board of a labor union? Or could a Times science reporter sit on the board of the American Lung Association? What about its religion columnist: Would it allow him to serve on the board of a church, even if, say, he didn’t write about that church? (Glueck last wrote about the Clark in 1991.)”
Altered Reality – The Play’s The Thing
A reality show tries to pick a play that can be produced in London’s West End. “Is a West End play different? You’d think the answer would be a straightforward no – a play is a play is a play – but if anything emerges from the first episode, it’s that the concept is indeed nebulous. Sonia Friedman and her fellow judges, agent Mel Kenyon and actor Neil Pearson, row spectacularly as they sift through the 30 shortlisted entrants (cherry-picked from over 2,000 submissions: more than double the number of people who applied for Pop Idol, according to Younghusband).”
Believe In Flamenco
“If you assume that flamenco is all phony histrionics, you’ve probably never seen Soledad Barrio in action. Her performances start with a quiet, silky grace, but by the end she is more creature than human.”
Tony Hall’s Covent Garden Turn-around
“When he took over five years ago, leaving his post as director of BBC News to do so, Hall was described in the press as having taken on the ‘dirtiest job in the arts’. The opera house was emerging from a particularly dark period; indeed, the television fly-on-the-wall documentary series The House had shown it as chaotically organised and financially in tatters.” Now “the ROH has now balanced its books for the seventh consecutive year and Hall, once the arts world outsider, has just renewed his five-year contract.”
Photographer Arnold Newman, 88
Arnold Newman, the portrait photographer whose pictures of some of the world’s most eminent people set a standard for artistic interpretation and stylistic integrity in the postwar age of picture magazines, died yesterday in Manhattan.
Revisting The Da Vinci Code Plagiarism Case
Did Dan Brown plagiarize large sections of The Da Vinci Code? “One of the things that was interesting about it was that you can have a strong case in the this-doesn’t-smell-right sense and that has no bearing on the legal definition of copyright infringement.”