‘Radicals Make The Best Posters’

“In Lebanon the propaganda posters of Hizbullah and its allies are a heady mix of bright colour, simple logos and distinctively Arab calligraphy and portraits… [they] harnessed contemporary graphic design and made it their own: Jerusalem in glowing colours features alongside clenched fists and AK-47s; the four-sided Syrian symbol rises like a sun; car bombs go bang like Roy Lichtenstein paintings.”

Claudio Abbado Has An Interesting Proposition For La Scala

For more than 15 years the revered maestro has declined every invitation to return to the famous(ly tempestuous) opera house where he was music director from 1968 to 1986, when the house’s (famously) cantankerous orchestra chased him away. Now Abbado says he will come back to conduct for no fee – if Milan’s government agrees to plant 90,000 new trees in the city.

Dallas Theatre Center Builds A Repertory Company

“It’s in our best interests at the Theater Center to keep talented actors in our community. It’s in the artistic community’s best interests to have a pool of artists who are continually rejuvenated and challenged to work throughout the community. And it’s in the interests of Dallas as a city to have artists who live amongst us and are creating art for us.”

The Best Music Journalism Of 2008?

“Music journalism still managed to find a way to sink itself even deeper into shit as it got sloppy and arrogant, bloated, full of bad ideas, and proved itself much better at sniping at itself than showing support among its ranks (resembling the GOP more and more nowadays). As always, there are some glimmers of hope and some promising ideas that the biz should pursue, but you still have to wade through the bloodbath of job and magazine losses just to get there.”