In response to the latest flurry of celebrity run-ins, city officials will meet today in Los Angeles to outline plans for curbing unsavory behavior by paparazzi. The “personal safety zone” proposed by one city councilman was deemed nearly unenforceable, but another plan would legitimize the paparazzi – freelancers by definition – through credentials, and thus, rules.
Author: French Clements
D.C. Museum Has Big Plans Following $85 Million Renovation
Washington DC,s National Museum of American History promises to “shed new light on American history, by bringing light into the building and by establishing new ways of interpreting American history” when it reopens this fall.
Digital TV Jitters – Test City Prepares For Signal Switch
The rest of America switches to digital TV next year. But this September, Wilmington, NC gets to play the Guinea Pig, and people are nervous. “Having this flat, coastal city make the switch in the thick of hurricane season is just one concern critics have voiced about Wilmington being the nation’s only full-fledged test market.”
The Top Ten Hamlets
Theater critic Michael Billington makes his list of performances that have helped define the role. “Oscar Wilde famously said that ‘there is no such thing as Shakespeare’s Hamlet … there are as many Hamlets as there are melancholies’. One sees his point: there is something elusive and unpindownable about the role and, of all the great parts.”
XM, Sirius Merger Still Has A Last Hurdle
The U.S. Department of Justice might have approved the satellite radio merger, but Canada, where XM and Sirius also broadcast, has yet to sign off on the deal. “Having one company hold a significant share in two competing companies is sure to draw the interest of the Competition Bureau,” says one Canadian lawyer.
Where Are China’s Women Artists?
Even as China enjoys an unprecedented art boom, female artists there have found it tough getting recognized. That’s a shame, because it “is some of the most innovative work around,” writes one critic, who charts the reasons for their underexposure.
Ligeti Was a Great Composer. But Why?
He humanized the avant-garde, says one critic. “Ligeti had his own singular and unpredictable parameters. Sometimes he’s almost alarmingly funny, other times mesmerizing, uncanny, hyperbolic, touching, ironic – all the good stuff music used to do.”
Researchers: Ancient Blackberry Kept Track Of Early Olympics
The Antikythera Mechanism, found in a shipwreck a few years ago, say the scientists, was a kind of proto-Blackberry. It was an ancient clock/calendar that was used as a scheduling mechanism that corresponded to the ancient Greek calendar, and noted the Olympic Games.
Western-Inspired Japanese Films Come West
Japanese post-war filmmaking hit its stride with Nikkatsu Action Cinema, whose versions of film noir, melodrama, gangster films and westerns have received little recognition in North America – until now. “It’s like discovering an entire genre of filmmaking that you didn’t know exists,” says one aficionado.
Newport Reinvented, NPR Buys A Seat For You
NPR Music will broadcast certain concerts from two fabled music festivals in Newport, Rhode Island, starting this weekend with the Folk Festival, and next week with the Jazz. “Newport’s trying something different this year,” said the host of All Songs Considered. “It’s a good start, and I think it’s a good idea for us to be on the ground floor.”