Category: today’s top story

“George Orwell’s 1984 and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace are among the books people are most likely to have lied about reading, according to a poll. Two out of three people admitted lying about reading a particular book to impress someone, the survey released to mark World Book Day found.”

“In a body of work for which he won the Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards, Mr. Foote was known as a writer’s writer, an author who never abandoned his vision even when Broadway and Hollywood temporarily turned their backs on him.”

“The National Endowment for the Arts is fast off the block today with [stimulus] grant guidelines,” which it has posted on its website. “The deadline for applying is April 2, with grants being awarded as soon as July 1. Among the options is salary support — full or partial — for jobs that have been eliminated (or are in jeopardy) because of the current economic slide but are critical to carry out an organization’s artistic mission.”

“It’s a frustrating quandary for universities, orchestras and other nonprofit organizations in two dozen states. They have the money they need to save jobs, offer scholarships and put on a solid schedule of programs, but face state laws that keep them from using any of it.”

“Western dealers said it may be more difficult to sell high-value Chinese works of art after a collector refused to pay for two Qing bronzes on which he had placed the winning bid at a Paris auction last week. … The risk of Chinese government disapproval may make important items connected with its emperors unsaleable without detailed ownership records, they said.”

“Suddenly it seems as if everyone is going to the movies, with ticket sales this year up 17.5 percent, to $1.7 billion, according to Media by Numbers, a box-office tracking company. And it is not just because ticket prices are higher. Attendance has also jumped, by nearly 16 percent. If that pace continues through the year, it would amount to the biggest box-office surge in at least two decades.”

The corporation’s president says that the network, hit hard by an advertising downturn and faced with an unsympathetic Conservative government, may need “to monetize some of our assets.” Such a monetization “could mean anything from unloading Radio 3 to putting a website up for sale.”

“China said it will tighten control on Christie’s International’s activities in the nation, hours after the company auctioned a pair of Qing Dynasty bronzes in Paris, ignoring China’s calls to return the allegedly looted items. In a statement today, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, or SACH, ordered officials to scrutinize artifacts the London-based auction house imports and exports from China.”

“‘There were way too few opportunities for African-American opera singers in Chicago,’ said Marvin Lynn, executive director of the 11-member group [South Shore Opera Company], which will debut this weekend at the newly renovated South Shore Cultural Center. […] ‘If it’s not a black opera, we may or may not be featured. As a company, we want to present a range of work.'”

Roy Blount Jr. explains the Authors Guild’s complaint — which has angered the National Federation of the Blind — about the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech function. At issue is payment for audio rights to the books. “[P]ublishers, authors and American copyright laws have long provided for free audio availability to the blind and the guild is all for technologies that expand that availability. … But that doesn’t mean Amazon should be able, without copyright-holders’ participation, to pass that service on to everyone.”