A production of the mega-musical Phantom of the Opera is taking up permanent residence in Las Vegas. “Clear Channel Entertainment, a unit of Clear Channel Communications (CCU), will produce a 90-minute, $35 million version of the Tony Award-winning musical, set to open in the spring of 2006 at the Venetian hotel-casino.”
Tag: 07.24.04
Not To Mention The Whole Spelling Issue
The English language as we know it today has deep roots in both Latin and Greek, and that dual history can sometimes cause conflicts, especially when two different words develop independently over the centuries to mean the same thing in two different English-speaking cultures. For instance, North Americans use the Latin-based word “quadriplegic” to describe an individual who has lost the use of all four limbs; in the UK, the common form is the Greek-derived “tetraplegic.” So, who cares? Well, linguists do, especially since many such idiomatic expressions have begun to gradually vanish from several Western languages.
CBC Chief Dodges Flying Memos
The new chief of the CBC’s English-language TV division has had a rough first week on the job, as he seeks to distance himself from a controversial memo which recommended privatizing large chunks of the public broadcaster and splitting the TV channel into three specialty networks. Richard Stursberg insists that, while he may have been involved in discussions which touched on the subjects contained in the memo, he does not support any of its proposals, and wants to use his position to strengthen the CBC’s regional presence, and to make it “more Canadian” in general.
Getting Smaller To Increase Visibility
“For years, American cartoonists have complained that their world is getting smaller. Plagued by slumping readership and beholden to high profit margins, daily newspapers are busy reducing the size of comics and cutting those that fail to gain support from older readers. Meanwhile, cartoonists who want to try something different, like mammoth Sunday strips, sometimes get the cold shoulder from editors. So it’s ironic that the next big thing in the comics world is a small cell-phone screen. But the distributors of strips from Crankshaft to Dick Tracy are working to get a foothold in that tiny space, and at least two cartoonists say they’re thrilled to get the exposure.”
The Stooges Get A Literary Pedigree
“Screenwriter David Sheffield won this year’s Faux Faulkner contest by imagining what it would have been like if William Faulkner… had written for the Three Stooges. Sheffield’s 550-word script, “As I Lay Kvetching,” has Moe, Larry and Curly renovating a home with the eye-gouging, nose-twisting slapstick guided by plenty of Faulknerian stage directions: ‘At last it is Curly who picks up the plank, rough hewn and smelling of sweet gum, and — feeling the weight and heft and fiber of it — swings it innocently (bending to retrieve the tool, the ball-peen hammer dropped casually on Larry’s toe) and feeling the awful force of the blow as it (the plank) catches Moe upside his head.'”
Pushing Absolutely No Hot Buttons
Whatever happened to the grand old art of political buttons? Once upon a time, a presidential election brought us such memorable and wearable gems as “I Like Ike” and “I’m Daft About Taft” – and few could forget the classic Goldwater button that emphatically declared “In your heart, you know he’s right,” and the anti-Goldwater parody that shot back, “In your heart, you know he’s nuts!” These days, though, every button from every campaign looks the same – blue backgrounds, American flags, the names of the candidates, and nothing else. At what point did one of America’s cleverest forms of politicking become such a deadly bore?
Cleveland’s Multimedia Center Gets A Big Boost
A $1.6 million gift from a Cleveland foundation has jumpstarted the funding campaign for a unique multimedia center which will combine the operations of the city’s public TV station WVIZ and public radio station WCPN (known collectively as Ideastream) with “broadcast and dance studios, offices, classrooms and a small theater.” Organizers hope that the project can revitalize Cleveland’s theater district while providing a much-needed center for arts education. $17 million of private money still needs to be raised for the center to become reality.
A Decidedly French Approach To Diversity
“After 15 years of soul-searching, France has decided to create a Museum of Immigration. Why now? For generations, France successfully absorbed waves of Poles, Russians, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese — and remained French. Then over the past 30 years millions of migrants flooded in from the third world, and it was France that changed. A Museum of Immigration is a fairly typical French response, one financed by the government and intended by politicians and bureaucrats to address a social problem through culture. Yet while willing to open a museum, France’s cultural elite continue to resist embracing the creative energy represented by French artists, writers and performers of African, Arab and Asian descent.”
You Mean There Are People Who Don’t Like Bill Clinton?
Bill Clinton’s 900-page memoir may not be a critical favorite, but it has been a runaway bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. But critics recently noticed that the version of “My Life” being enjoyed by readers in the UK differs in several important respects from the stateside version. The changes, which are almost all in passages in which President Clinton pointedly criticizes Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, are due to the differing libel laws in the two countries. Whereas the burden of proof in a libel case falls on the complainant in America, UK law forces the defendant to prove the veracity of contested statements, which Clinton’s people feared could have opened the door to a Starr lawsuit.
Who Cares Who Used To Own It?
The British Museum has spent the last several years answering charges over the way it acquired several of its most prized pieces. But is the argument even focused on the right topic? “Controversy over ownership of its treasures obscures the British Museum’s purpose. By offering everyone insights into cultural history, argues its director Neil MacGregor, the museum promotes a greater understanding of humanity.”