Category: today’s top story

“Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine will miss the remainder of this summer’s season at Tanglewood to have a kidney removed. His condition, due to a cyst “causing pressure and discomfort,” will require six weeks of recuperation, with Levine hoping to be ready to conduct the BSO’s season opening at Symphony Hall in the fall.”

“London’s theatres enjoyed their most successful year on record in 2007, with attendances exceeding 13m for the first time… The Society of London Theatre’s annual report said that box office takings last year rose to almost £470m.”

“Essentially, our civilisation is tilting towards anti-authoritarian contests. Audiences, not judges, select winners. Call it the American Idolisation of culture. On TV, contestants get voted off without explanation. Quality is measured by thumbs, up or down. Scholarly analyses have turned into irrelevant extravagances for snobs. Many US papers have abandoned thoughtful, detailed reviews altogether. Publishers, editors and, presumably, readers want instant evaluations and newsbites, preferably with flashy pictures. It is Zagat-think, simplicity for the simple-minded.”

“Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users’ names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.”

“From the end of August until 2012, Britain will host (and pay for) a ‘Cultural Olympiad’, programmed by order of the International Olympic Committee as an essential ancillary to the sporting events. I’d like to ask bluntly: who wants it, who needs it?”

“When the highest-grossing films get panned by critics, what good are critics? As publishers across the country dump their reviewers, this is not exactly a rhetorical question. Believe it or not, though, critically acclaimed films generally do better than critically panned films at the box office–if you measure their performance in the right way.”

“The producers alliance said its package was worth more than $250 million in additional compensation to SAG members and was patterned after previous deals negotiated with Hollywood writers, directors and AFTRA.”

The show has been a huge success. And it seemed revolutionary. But did it really have an impact on the theatre or on Broadway?

New York City Waterfalls, Olafur Eliasson’s $15.5 million quartet of temporary cascades dotting the New York Harbor, formally opened on Thursday morning with a ceremony at South Street Seaport. Officials billed “Waterfalls” as the city’s grandest public art commission since Christo and Jeanne-Claude flooded Central Park with saffron-colored fabric panels for The Gates in 2005.

“As the floors swivel, the silhouette of the tower will mutate. The floors will be divided by horizontal wind turbines which will generate enough energy to power the structure. The roof will be clad with solar cells. The dwellings will be manufactured as a series of pods in a factory outside Bari in southern Italy, transported to the site and attached to the concrete column. “