No going out in the rain, no late charges…movies on your computer are the Next Big Thing at what’s being billed as the ”world’s first virtual video store.” You can keep it, says Patti Hartigan, struggling to decide which of the 67 movies available she wants to see. Boston Globe
Author: Douglas McLennan
Toronto Symphony strike looms
Even Canadians run out of patience eventually. – CBC
Atlanta Ballet orchestra musicians go out on strike
They say they will picket company’s opening of Hunchback of Notre Dame next week. Performance to use recorded music. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BETTER ALTERNATIVES?
Stern publishing puts its chain of alternative weeklies up for sale (Village Voice, Seattle Weekly among them) but the price is so high, observers predict it’ll be gobbled up by a media giant. If so, what will be so alternative about them? – Chicago Tribune
The real thing
The authenticity of some of Van Gogh’s paintings have been in doubt for years. This week Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum announced a project to clear up any questions. AP
CLOSE TO THE THRONE
The closest thing to a papal election in the British art world is deciding who will be the new president of the venerable Royal Academy. The job has grown in recent years – but so have the RA’s fortunes and the intrigues behind getting the job. Financial Times
South African art –
– was largely invisible outside its home country during the years of apartheid. A new New York show puts together artists’ work since apartheid ended – and demonstrates a nation struggling with its identity. New York Times
Audience-friendly
It’s expensive, it has its own rules, it’s intimidating – Beverly Sills talks about making opera more accessible. – The Arizona Republic
Country Music Awards Lowdown
Slicker and more stylized than a page out of Architectural Digest, polished, polite and very, very mainstream. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution
IF LA’S POETS ALL WENT AWAY, would anyone notice?
Brendan Bernhard ponders the low stature of poetry in our society at the end of the millennium. – LA Weekly