A year ago there was much excitement in Richmond, VA, as a campaign to build a new $168 million performing arts center kicked into gear. But the project has bogged down and “what so many had hoped would become Richmond’s saving grace — a grand music hall that would complete a renaissance on East Broad Street — has been derailed. For the arts center, the going won’t get easier anytime soon. If fund-raising was already difficult in part because of negative publicity, as the foundation asserts, it promises to get worse as Wilder continues his assault on the business community, making the performing arts center his personal punching bag of taxpayer waste.
Tag: 06.08.05
The Great Book Giveaway (Will You Read It Then?)
Robert Chalmers’ book has been a critical success, but it hasn’t been selling well. So he’s decided to hit the streets of London to give it away. “The likes of HarperCollins and Macmillan can blanket-bomb towns with those huge bookshop displays. I’ve always wondered whether ‘ordinary people’ with no influence or literary connections would actually like my books – I mean, it’s not like they’re Dostoyevsky or something. So, we had this joke in the pub a while ago… and now, well, here we are.”
Why Won’t Aussies Watch Aussie Movies?
“Last year record numbers of Australians stayed away from Australian films. In January, the Australian Film Commission released figures showing that in 2004 the local share of box office takings was just 1.3 per cent. A record low. In international terms, that’s appalling. In figures for 2003 quoted in April’s inside film magazine the US domestic film share of local box office was 95 per cent.”
Robot Dance With Me
“The world’s first ballroom-dancing robot is set to take to the floor for its first public performance this week at the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Developed by scientists at Tokhuro University, the Partner Ballroom Dance Robot (PBDR) is able to predict the steps of a human partner based on body movement and react accordingly on its three wheels.”
Tony Can’t Save La Cage
“On Sunday, La Cage aux Folles won Tony Awards for best musical revival and choreography. On Tuesday, producers of the $10 million revival said the show will close June 26 after a disappointing seven-month run of 229 performances.” Mixed reviews hurt the show’s box office, and had recently been playing to half-empty houses at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre.
Pittburgh Cherry Picks A Cleveland Director
“[Pittsburgh’s] City Theatre has a new managing director, Greg Quinlan, former managing director of the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland. Starting Aug. 15, Quinlan will team with artistic director Tracy Brigden to run the $2.4 million not-for-profit South Side company that owns two theaters and specializes in the production of contemporary plays.”
Is America Obsessed With Ethics?
How exactly did American life become so saturated with ethical dilemmas? From Deep Throat to Tom DeLay to journalists who invent characters and plagiarize each other’s work, hardly a day seems to go by anymore without someone, somewhere, causing severe moral outrage. “Does that proliferation mean we’ve become a less ethical society? It’s hard to know. One man’s blatant violation can be another’s technicality… Ethical questions that seem clear-cut in theory – I would never lie – can become complicated in reality.” Of course, gray areas of ethics have always existed, but only in the age of instant information and amateur journalism have they become so likely to cause serious problems for so many individuals.
Shriver Wins Orange
Lionel Shriver has won the tenth £30,000 Orange Prize for Fiction for her seventh book, We Need to Talk About Kevin, a novel about a mother’s hatred for her son.
LACMA Hires A New Prez From Within
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has found half of the team it plans to install to replace departing president and director Andrea Rich. “Melody Kanschat, a 16-year administrator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will take over the museum’s presidency July 1, museum officials said. The move is part of the restructuring that will make the presidency the second-ranking job in the institution.” The top job will be director, and LACMA’s search to fill that position is ongoing.
Everything Must Go!
“Over the next three months, Miramax Films, founded and operated by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, will release at least 10 movies, including seven films that have been gathering dust on the studio’s shelves for up to four years. The backlog is so profound that the directors of three of those films have started, filmed and almost completed new movies with other studios in the time it has taken Disney-owned Miramax to bring their earlier films to theaters… The release of several of the Miramax movies was held up partially by the very public divorce of the Weinsteins and Disney, which bought the studio in 1993. With the Weinsteins set to leave Disney and Miramax on Sept. 30, the brothers say they are determined before their exit to supervise the debuts of movies they produced and purchased.”