A well-known expert on education is decrying cuts to arts programs in Canada’s schools. “We tend to think arts and sciences work completely differently, but the process is the same… Creativity fosters innovation, an economic necessity. It’s not the flip side of science and business, but a part of it.”
Author: sbergman
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
A Las Vegas critic recently discovered an online message board partially devoted to eviscerating his reviews of local performances, and (to hear him tell it,) he couldn’t be happier about it. “It’s been a one-sided conversation, favoring the critic, for far too long… So it’s only fair that what I write is subject to criticism itself (after it gets past my editor and the copy editors). And I can take it.”
The WaMu Effect
The effect of the collapse of Washington Mutual on the arts scene in Seattle, where the bank was based, has yet to become fully clear. What is clear is that the effect won’t be small. “WaMu, which billed itself as “the Friend of the Family” in advertising, gave $48.6 million to charity nationwide last year… The bank also matched donations employees made for as much as $10,000 a year.”
Is NY Antiquities Star Dealing In Fakes?
Carlton Hobbs “has been selling museum-quality antiques at eye-popping prices for the last three years and staking his claim to the top tier of the New York market.” But mere months after his brother, an antiquities dealer in London, was busted for manufacturing and selling fake antiques, Hobbs is facing a raft of similar allegations.
They’re Not Really Any Sillier Than The Bassoon
Violin lessons too hard? Oboe not your thing? Well, why not become a Tenori-on virtuoso, or a master of the Boing Boing? Seriously, these are actual instruments, and while they may not have a place in the orchestra, their inventors hold out hope that these tech-geek music makers will someday have a following.
Vladimir & Estragon Headed Back To Broadway
“Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin are in talks to star in Samuel Beckett’s modern classic,” Waiting For Godot, in a Broadway revival set to open in 2009. “The revival will slip in just under the wire of the April 30 Tony Award cutoff date, setting the stage for what could be a fiercely contested race for Best Actor in a Play.”
Remembering A Legend of the Stage
“On Monday night, at Stratford’s Festival Theatre, some of the most distinguished names in this country will gather to pay tribute to Richard Monette, who died on Sept.9 at the age of 64… Saucy, irreverent, ready for anything and totally in love with the theatre. That’s how I want to remember Richard Monette.”
Expanding Space
“More than 250 guests gathered yesterday… for a symbolic ‘wall breaking’ to launch construction of a $74 million, 220,000-square-foot expansion of the companion to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The new wing is to open in 2011.”
Paramount Cutting Back
“Paramount Pictures said it would cut the size of its future release schedule to about 20 films a year, including as many as four to be supplied annually by DreamWorks Animation and Marvel Studios. The announcement came after recent news that executives of Paramount’s DreamWorks unit would leave to form a new company.”
Sniffing Out News Bias Without Any, Um, Bias
The problem with media watchdogs is that they tend to come at their practice from a preset partisan position, and look only for journalistic offenses that target their side. “But what if there were a device that objectively flagged questionable elements in online news articles, poking and parsing words and phrases, and letting you contribute your own critiques?”