“A poll taken by the National Endowment for the Arts in September estimated damage to art institutions and performing-arts organizations to total at least $82 million — not including losses by individual artists.” Four months later, the arts are trying to rebuild…
Tag: 01.20.06
What If Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine?
A Japanese scientist suspects that laughter may affect the health of genes. “If we prove people can switch genes on and off by an emotion like laughter, it may be the finding of the century which should be worth the Nobel Prize or even go beyond that.”
Fine Actors For Obscenity? For Doing Their Jobs?
Screen Actors Guild National President Alan Rosenberg is protesting a plan for FCC legislation that would fine actors for obscenity on TV. “SAG members work primarily on scripted projects – we are hired to perform a role. To be threatened with half a million dollars in fines for doing our jobs is incomprehensible,” he said during the committee’s Jan. 19 hearing on decency in Washington D.C.
Does It Pay To Be First?
Premieres draw attention to theatre companies. But what do they do for the company? “Anybody who’s running a theatre in America today has to serve two masters: You have to serve the aesthetics of the community and give them shows they want to see, and we have to serve the art form or else we’re just doing museum pieces. Theatre is live and future-oriented, and I’d hate to think we’re just doing the familiar. Institutional theatre has got to take risks.”
Google Declines To Turn Over User Info
“Google is rebuffing the Bush administration’s demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the internet’s leading search engine — a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance… The government wants a list of all requests entered into Google’s search engine during an unspecified single week — a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries… Yahoo, which runs the internet’s second-most used search engine, confirmed Thursday that it had complied with a similar government subpoena.”
Museum Removes Five Klimts After Anonymous Threat
Vienna’s celebrated Belvedere Museum has taken down five paintings by Gustav Klimt after receiving an anonymous threat from an individual who threatened to destroy them. “Sources in the gallery said the mail had threatened the paintings would be destroyed to stop them being restored to heiress Maria Altmann, niece of their orginal Jewish owner who was driven out of Vienna and stripped of his possessions by the Nazis in 1938.” The Belvedere had agreed to return the paintings earlier in the week.
Marilyn Horne Treated For Cancer
Mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne has localized pancreatic cancer and is undergoing treatment that offers an excellent chance for full recovery, her manager said Thursday. Horne, 72, was diagnosed in mid-December…
St. Lawrence Get A New Violinist
The St. Lawrence String Quartet has a new violinist. It’s University of Toronto faculty-member Scott St. John. “When Barry (Shiffman)informed us he was leaving, we put together a short list of ‘dream’ candidates, Scott was the first name on that list, and when we sat down to play with him, we all realized he really is the perfect fit for the SLSQ.”
GM Quits Stratford Sponsorship (Wants A Different Vehicle?)
“In recent years GM had partnered with the Stratford, Ont., Shakespeare festival to provide it with more than $100,000 each season in money and in-kind assistance. GM vice-president of corporate affairs Dave Paterson said the decision to stop backing Stratford was made last summer in response to what he called “our very rapidly changing vehicle lineup.”
Regimental Theory – Big New Arts Center For Manhattan
New York’s Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue, “home to art and antiques fairs, is to be turned into a visual and performing arts centre in an ambitious $50 million renovation.”