“Millions of people now spend several hours a week immersed in ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing games’ (MMORPGs). These are often Tolkienesque fantasy worlds in which players battle monsters, go on quests, and build up their virtual power and wealth. Some synthetic worlds are deliberately escapist; others are designed to be as lifelike and realistic as possible. Many have a strong libertarian bent.” But there’s another side to this: economics.
Tag: 12.14.05
Marin Alsop Rebuilds
Marin Alsop has some work to do to gain the confidence of her new orchestra. “Ms Alsop has an ambitious, survivor mentality, though, and this has helped her face the humiliating thumbs-down from the Baltimore Symphony players, whom she had guest-conducted seven times. She describes herself as ‘forever a New Yorker, a fatalist optimist tinged with cynicism’.”
Dance – Across Generation
Tere O’Connor: “What is wonderful about New York right now is that a large group of young makers are not referring to dance history they are not looking at the hierarchies derived from the idiotic , anachronistic power structures of the ballet world or other institutionalized systems. This has created in New York a situation in which young artists and old share a lot of time and thought outside of the constraints of a traditional old/young dialectic.”
Washington Ballet Labor Problems Threaten Nutcracker
Washington Ballet’s continuing labor problems have flared up again. The troupe’s performance of “The Nutcracker” is in jeopardy “because of an impasse between the dancers’ union and the company. At issue are a number of health and safety concerns, with the union claiming that too many strenuous rehearsals have led to injuries among the dancers.”
The Kimmel’s Budget Woes
Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center has serious money woes. “Four years after opening as Philadelphia’s answer to Lincoln Center, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is still posting persistent deficits and is looking at a number of moneymaking ventures – from buying parking lots to stripping the front of its building with electronic advertising.”
London’s Depressing Arts Governors
“There’s a certain type of arts board-er who seems depressingly prevalent at the moment. He (usually he) has made a fortune in the City. He genuinely loves the arts. But he regards arts administrators as a bit amateurish and thinks the fact that he’s run a bank qualifies him to “know best” about running a theatre (though no one would think of putting Nicholas Hytner, say, on the board of a listed company). He may harbour frustrated artistic ambitions. He likes the idea of being invited to interesting parties, or getting a knighthood. It’s time for this attitude to be rooted out once and for all.”
Surviving Hollywood’s Dark Year
This has been “Tinseltown’s most disappointing box-office performance in 15 years as audiences, dazzled by their entertainment choices and disappointed by the mediocre films on offer, turned away from the cinema in droves.” So what’s in store for 2006?
Opera In The Popular Culture (What It Is)
“Even as opera remains the butt of jokes, opera-styled pop — big, booming voices delivering mellifluous melodies over lush, orchestral arrangements — keeps popping up at the top of the charts. The field isn’t especially large, but it encompasses a fairly wide array of stars, from the male quartet Il Divo to teen soprano Charlotte Church, and from former Andrew Lloyd Webber star (and spouse) Sarah Brightman to occasional Luciano Pavarotti duet partner Andrea Bocelli.”
Canada’s Top Ten Films
The fifth annual list, which does not rank the films in order, is organized through the Toronto International Film Festival Group to promote Canadian film. Though Canada’s filmmaking veterans were highly visible this year, TIFF director Piers Handling referred to 2005 as a “powerhouse year” because the old guard were augmented by some strong first-time filmmakers.
How “Alt-” Will New Alt-Weekly Chain Be?
“A half-century after New York’s Village Voice launched the genre of alternative weeklies, there’s still plenty of war, injustice and corporate domination around. But the anti-establishment counterculture has moved topside. Rock ‘n’ roll jingles hawk luxury cars, mutual funds come with social consciences and alternative weeklies have become a profitable, parallel universe to the mainstream media. In an unmistakable sign that the counterculture has morphed into corporate culture,” now two “alt-weekly” chains are merging…