The Philadelphia Inquirer got a new theatre critic – Toby Zinman – this year. Some in the city’s theatre community have grown to hate her work, so they set up a blog to air compaints. ‘We Love Toby! The Blog’ is an ascerbic rebuttal to reviews the bloggers don’t like. The blog is sometimes savage, but Zinman says she doesn’t read it…
Tag: 08.28.06
For Somali Immigrants, Bilingual Children’s Books
“Imagine being the parent of a small child who wants to read a bedtime story, but you’re just learning English and you can’t find children’s books in your native language. That has been the plight for many Somali parents new to [Minnesota], but the Minnesota Humanities Commission hopes to change that with the publication of four children’s books with both English and Somali text. The first, ‘The Lion’s Share’ (‘Qayb Libaax’), will be available in October.”
New Orleans, Where Gallows Humor Lives
“They say that comedy is tragedy plus time. What they don’t say is how much time it takes to turn a massive death toll into a laugh riot,” Josh Levin writes, pondering the defiant humor that has thrived in New Orleans in the year since Hurricane Katrina. “So, what’s so funny about a devastating hurricane?”
Vital Signs Poor? Cue The Harpist!
A study at New Jersey’s Morristown Memorial Hospital, where a harpist strolls the recovery room, is looking into the effectiveness of harp music as a healing aid for heart-surgery patients. Researchers believe “the gentle arpeggios of the harpist might have helped regulate … heart rate, blood pressure and breathing…. Results will be collected as part of a four-week study, one of several around the country trying to measure the health benefits of music in hospitals. One research project by a doctor at the Carle Heart Center in Urbana, Ill., has suggested that harp music in particular helped stabilize irregular heartbeats.”
The Pitchfork Phenomenon
“Though the music industry has seen drastic changes in recent years, what has remained constant is the fact that most listeners still find their music with the assistance of a filter: a reliable source that sifts through millions of tracks to help them choose what they do (and don’t) want to hear. The filters we traditionally depended on – music magazines, radio stations, music video channels, even the recommendations of a trusted record store clerk – have diminished in influence enough to give a player like Pitchfork room to operate.”
EFF To Barney: Back Off!
The owners of the Barney brand have been extremely aggressive in going after anyone they think is infringing on their copyright. “On Wednesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in New York against Lyons Partnership of Allen, Tex., which owns the Barney brand. The group’s aim is to bring an end to what it characterizes as the partnership’s relentless harassment of Web site owners who parody the Barney character, chiefly through threatening cease-and-desist letters from Lyons’s law firm in New York, Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty.”
Canadians Are Watching More Movies
They’re buying more theatre tickets. “They’re watching just as many movies at home, mainly on DVD, which accounts for 77 per cent of home video sales, said the report released Monday. About 70 per cent of Canadian households owned DVD players in 2004. But revenues from film distribution to cinemas rose sharply, up 16.6 per cent to $446.3 million.”
Dramatists Speak Out Against Theatre Critic
The Dramatists Guild of America is protesting theatre critic Hedy Weiss’ reviews of eight projects in the Chicago Sun-Times a few weeks ago. “These musicals were presented in workshop. Every musical in workshop is understood to be a work in progress. Workshopping a new musical provides an opportunity for writers to evaluate their work as it evolves, protected from the consequences of critical appraisal. This security allows writers to take chances, to be bold, maybe even to embarrass themselves—in short, to do their work.”
Cruise/Redstone Feud A Fraud?
Was the verbal war between Paramount’s Sumner Redstone and Tom Cruise and his agents at CAA just a show? “Such wars of words can leave lasting scars. Yet the mudslinging between Redstone and CAA may be largely a show for each side’s power base. Their interdependence is underscored by the dozen movie projects involving CAA clients pending at Paramount.”
Who Will Run Bayreuth?
“The battle for the succession has been fierce in recent years, but the frontrunner is now Wolfgang Wagner’s chosen heir, his 28-year-old daughter Katharina — great-granddaughter of Hitler’s favorite composer. Yet it remains uncertain when or whether she will take over as director of the Bayreuth Festspiele, which closes on Monday night for the season. Her strong-willed father may not give up the post or another might still seize the crown.”