“Foreign tourists will benefit, but the aim is to draw more French residents into the 18 museums, which include the Centre Pompidou and Quai Branly in Paris and the Marine Museum in Toulon.”
Tag: 01.04.08
The Booming Stradivarius Market
“These days, even damaged violins made by the master himself command prices of a million euros, while his finest sounding instruments sell for many times that amount. In May 2006, Christie’s auctioned the “Hammer” Stradivarius for some $3.5 million; top instruments are now valued at over $6 million. What’s more, buyers increasingly see Stradivariuses as a lucrative investment.”
Moscow Approved Plans For Largest Building In The World
Moscow planners have approved Lord Foster’s design for the world’s biggest building – likened by critics to an alien spacecraft and a “dahlia stuck in a string bag”. The British architect’s £2bn “city within a city”, Crystal Island, will be built on the banks of the Moscow river, with a total floor area of 2.5m square metres, making it the largest enclosed space ever to be constructed.
Minnesota’s Schubert Club Taps Phil Orch Exec
“The St. Paul-based Schubert Club has named [Philadelphia Orchestra Vice President] Kathleen van Bergen as its new executive director. She’s filling a position left vacant for the past 18 months by the death of the music organization’s visionary leader, Bruce Carlson… The organization is one of Minnesota’s oldest and most revered cultural institutions.”
Hey! That Guy’s Writing! Get Him!!
When Tonight Show host Jay Leno returned to work this week without his striking writers, there was an assumption on the part of the union that WGA member Leno would not do any writing of his own for the show until the strike was resolved. Instead, Leno has been performing full-length monologues, and the guild is not pleased.
Fixing Philly’s Planning Problem
Those who care about architecture in Philadelphia have been continually frustrated by the city’s haphazard approach to urban planning. “This big-league city treats critical land-use questions with the amateurism of a small town. Actually, many small towns do it better.”
Riedel’s Crystal Ball
New York theatre pundit Michael Riedel sees more labor strife and a revamped Tony awards broadcast in the air in 2008. “Ancient rules governing which shows can and cannot appear on the Tonys will be jettisoned, and popular hits [from past years] will get as much stage time as this year’s crop of nominees.”
Strike Fallout Just The Latest Late Night Drama
“Late-night network talk shows are soap operas dressed up as entertainment; their return after two months of reruns turned out to be yet another chapter of a national psychodrama, not about the rift between writers and producers, but about the perennial Oedipal struggle for succession — ‘The Tonight Show’ and its discontents.”
Bad News From Saskatchewan
“The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra is in debt to the tune of about $300,000, a musicians union official said Thursday… The deficit is equal to about 25 per cent of the symphony’s operating budget, although it’s not clear how the organization got so far into debt.”
Orchestrating Change For Parisian Youth
“In the heartland of French rap music, Zahia Ziouani is striking a chord with struggling youths in a Parisian suburb who flock to her music school and are joining her symphony orchestra.” The ensemble draws on the poverty-stricken Paris suburbs, known mainly for producing a generation of angry, disaffected rap stars.