It was said to be the only reliably punctual thing in all of Italy: performances at Milan’s opera house start precisely at the scheduled curtain time, with no latecomers admitted until the first interval. That has now changed, and La Scala’s superintendent says it’s to protect his staff from physical harm.
Tag: 12.17.14
San Francisco Gets To Keep The Bay Bridge Light Sculpture
“After a two-month campaign, the nonprofit Illuminate the Arts announced Wednesday that it had raised the needed $4 million to reinstall the Lights permanent fixture on the western end of the bridge.”
Hollywood’s Other North Korea-Themed Project Just Got Canned
“New Regency has ditched plans to produce Pyongyang, a paranoid thriller starring Steve Carell that was to be set in North Korea. … New Regency is 20% owned by News Corp., parent of 20th Century Fox. The studio had indicated to New Regency that it would not release the project.”
Why John Waters Is a National Treasure (By Jerry Saltz)
“No one gets the cross-section of showbiz and fandom like him. In giving us these extraordinarily particular individuals and distinct visages – both psychological and visual – Waters gets you to know in your bones that the more we are part of a vast crowd of people who idolize someone or something, the more alone and special we feel in our idolization.” (includes slide show of Waters’s art)
$10 Million Of Art Stolen In One Of America’s Biggest Art Heists Is Recovered In LA
“After an undercover operation at a West Los Angeles hotel in October, federal authorities detained Raul Espinoza, 45, who tried to sell the paintings — which are valued at $10 million — for $700,000 cash. The nine works recovered were among the dozen stolen from an Encino home on the morning of Aug. 24, 2008.”
Lawsuit Over California’s Artist Resale Royalty Payments Nears Decision
“Payments are supposed to be made to any artist who is an American citizen or who is a California resident — if his or her work is being sold by a California owner, regardless where in the United States the sale occurs. The royalty right extends 20 years after an artist’s death.”
No Prosecutions Over West End Theatre Ceiling Collapse
“A council investigation found the collapse happened because of the age of the roof, which dates back to the theatre’s original construction in 1901, and no laws had been broken. … The accident at the Apollo Theatre last December left 88 people injured when plaster fell from the roof … during a performance of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.”
Theatre Is Definitely Not “A White Invention,” Says UK Culture Minister
Responding to actress Janet Suzman’s controversial comments of last week, Ed Vaizey said, “Every community has a tradition of performance and theatre so I wouldn’t agree with those comments. … If you talk to the black, Asian and ethnic minority community, the frustration is they feel this conversation has been going on for 30 years, and nothing has changed. I have a lot of sympathy for that.”
What We Actually Know So Far About Sony, “The Interview” And North Korea
Here’s a rundown of what is and isn’t certain, who is affected, and how.
Worrying About Stuff May Be A Sign Of Intelligence (Your Mother Is Totally Vindicated)
“Correlation doesn’t imply causation, of course, but this is not the first paper to have found a link between anxiety and intelligence. On the other hand, Penney and his colleagues also found an interesting association in the other direction: The more respondents said they replayed past events over in their minds, the lower they ranked on non-verbal intelligence.”