Lessons For Rebuilding New Orleans

Those planning an approach to rebuilding New Orleans neighborhoods might take some lessons from a planned community in Denver. “It appears that people will accept modern design in an apartment or a loft or when affordability is the main consideration (since undecorated construction costs less). But when it comes to houses, most people prefer something more old-fashioned. A successfully rebuilt New Orleans—whoever plans it—is likely to be a similar mix, of edgy and traditional, of downtown plate glass and neighborhood picket fences.”

NY Man Arrested For Broadcasting Hizbollah Channel

American police have arrested a man for broadcasting a Hizbollah channel that the US Treasury Department has classified as a terrorist ntity. “Javed Iqbal, 42, was arrested on Wednesday on allegations that his Brooklyn-based company HDTV Ltd. was providing New York-area satellite customers with the Hizbollah-operated channel, federal prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.”

AOL To Offer Movies

AOL will begin selling movies online, in a deal with major studios. “The partnerships, announced Thursday, represent AOL’s latest efforts to become the destination for online video as the company tries to offset revenues it expects to lose from a recent decision to drop subscription fees for many high-speed customers.”

MacArthur “Geniuses” Go For Non-Profits

The foundation famous for its “genius” awards is giving money to up and coming non-profits. “The Creative and Effective Institutions Awards range from $250,000 to $500,000. The winners all have annual budgets of $2.5 million or less, and, though small, they are considered comers in their fields. The awards are an extension, of sorts, of the foundation’s famous five-year, $500,000 grants for creative individuals, but those “genius” grants have no strings attached. The grants to the non-profits were sized to meet specific needs or purposes.”

YA YA – Adults Go Teen

There’s a growing audience for a category of book publishers call “young adult.” But the new readers aren’t kids, it’s adults. “Children’s books have a more upbeat ending, and a lot of people are looking for that. They want something a little more entertaining or fluffy, so they come to the kids’ section, only to find out that these books are not necessarily fluffy at all. Like Harry Potter – it makes you think.”

San Diego Musum Returns Painting To Mexico

The San Diego Museum has returned a painting in its collection to Mexico. The painting, ‘Expulsion From the Garden of Eden,’ painted in 1728 by an unknown artist, was cut from a frame and stolen in 2000 from a church in San Juan Tepemasalco, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. “Many questions remain unanswered as to how the painting ended up at the museum. No arrests have been made despite a two-year investigation into how the artwork was smuggled into the United States.

A Serious New Home For Toronto Film Fest

Construction of a new $173 million home for the Toronto Film Festival is expected to begin next year. “Festival Centre — its official name will be determined in the next 12 months — will contain five theatres, the largest containing 548 seats, the smallest 80… as well as a soaring lobby, a library, a ticket office, an art gallery and an education centre, among other services. ‘Ours will not be a multiplex, though we thought a lot about them, what they do well and what they don’t do well’.”

Is The Age Of Star Clout Waning?

Stars still sell movies. “But the traditional — and often extreme — deference shown A-listers is changing along with the economics of Hollywood, as demonstrated by Tuesday’s public eviction of Tom Cruise from Paramount Pictures’ back lot. The Internet is growing fast as an entertainment channel, and the cost of producing blockbusters is rising almost as quickly. That emboldens studio chiefs working for publicly traded companies to challenge the fickle power of the most popular stars.”