Gustav Mahler’s Physiognomy

“Mahler nevertheless perceived his Jewishness to be an encumbrance, even a physical disability. He told a friend that being a Jew was like having one arm shorter than the other. … His appearance was protean to an uncanny degree. Even people close to Mahler described him in contradictory ways: old, young, sickly, strong, pallid, swarthy.”

Live Nation Looks To Sell Its UK Theatres

“The global live entertainment group, which sold its US theatres in a $90 million deal in 2007, is accepting bids for a package of 17 UK venues. This includes two of the West End’s largest and most profitable sites – the Apollo Victoria and Lyceum theatres. […] A total of more than 30,000 theatre seats across venues in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh, among others, are on offer.”

Scotland’s Stimulus Package For The Arts

“The Scottish government has announced details of a £5 million package of funds aimed at helping the arts and cultural sector through the current economic downturn.” The package includes a new £1.5m Digital Media Fund, a “new £1m Odd Fellows scheme … to support collaborations of artists from across different sectors,” and support for “entrepreneurs” and “rural innovation.”

Skylight Says Eliminating A.D. Wasn’t A Longtime Scheme

“Officials of the Skylight Opera Theatre came to the Journal Sentinel Wednesday, to comment on the company’s financial condition and the hotly controversial firing of artistic director Bill Theisen and other[s] last week. Much more to come on this,” but one thing they said was that “[n]o one dreamed, when [managing director Eric Dillner] was hired a little over a year ago, that he would take on the duties of artistic director.”

WSJ Publisher: Vampire Google Sucks Newspapers’ Blood

“The gloves are coming off in the intensifying battle between newspaper publishers and Google. In a keynote speech at the annual PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment and Media Outlook event Tuesday, Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton raised the rhetoric a notch, calling the Internet search giant a vampire ‘sucking the blood’ out of the newspaper business, and promised that new developments would level the playing field.”