“Following on the heels of the San Francisco Symphony’s rosy year-end fiscal report, the San Francisco Opera is ending its year with a $40,437 surplus on an annual operating budget of $61.1 million, a big boost in contributions and an increase in revenue from ticket sales.”
Tag: 12.17.07
Legendary Seattle Music Club Closes
The Crocodile Cafe was at the center of the Seattle music scene in the 1990s. “Word of the closure spread quickly through the city’s music blogs, with surprised Croc fans mourning the passing of a place that played such a vital part in Seattle’s vibrant club scene in the 1990s.”
Why Did JM Coetzee Leave South Africa?
“Why would a novelist who has written so powerfully about the land of his birth pack up and leave? Were his 2002 move and his taking of Australian citizenship last year a betrayal of his homeland, or a rejoinder to a country whose new government had denounced one of his most important novels as racist?”
Chronicling The Decline Of Reading
“The Book Industry Study Group estimates that sales fell from 8.27 books per person in 2001 to 7.93 in 2006. According to the Department of Labor, American households spent an average of a hundred and sixty-three dollars on reading in 1995 and a hundred and twenty-six dollars in 2005.”
Interactive Long-Distance Dance Classes
The Minnesota Shubert Center’s ever-growing Arts Education and Technology Program uses a Web connection that provides a live audio-video feed, as the performers and students interact as if they’re in the same room, viewing one another on a large screen.
Is Our Digital Progress Coming To An End?
The digital age has been driven by the ability to make smaller and smaller chips. “Preparing for the day they can’t add more transistors, chip companies are pouring billions of dollars into plotting new ways to use the existing transistors, instructing them to behave in different and more powerful ways.”
US Senators Threaten To Revoke FCC Vote On Media Ownership
“A group of 25 senators sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, warning they would “move legislation to revoke the rule and nullify the vote” if the FCC lifts ownership restrictions in the 20 biggest U.S. cities.”
Latin Music Takes Off Digitally
“Sales of Latin digital albums numbered 477,000 units by December 10, according to Nielsen SoundScan — 1.6 percent of all Latin albums sold. That figure is still significantly less than the 10.4 percent portion of album sales overall that were digital, but far exceeds the 293,000 digital album sales tallied for Latin music in 2006.”
Doing The Art Basel Math
The recent Art Basel was the biggest (art) show on earth. “More than 11,000 art dealers participated. If each of them presented five artists (and most showed more), that means there were in excess of 55,000 artists looking for a response from collectors, curators and writers. Plenty of these artists went home with nothing but silence.”
Hollywood Sets International Box Office Record
With 14 days to go before the end of 2007, the major studios have already beaten last year’s $8.6 billion record at the overseas boxoffice.