Moses was bullish, visionary and imperial. He was impatient with obstacles, whether human, financial or topographical, and never saw a problem that engineering couldn’t solve. If the poor resented having to move out of the slums he wanted to clear, into other slums he chose not to know about, so be it. He was building a global capital, and for that he was willing to inflict a lot of pain.
Tag: 02.07.07
SF’s Indie Books Lament
“Rising rents and competition from the chains have imperiled independents for years, but San Francisco used to think it was immune. Cody’s and other Bay Area stores helped spark the Beat movement, encouraged the counterculture, fueled the initial protests against the Vietnam War. In a region that sees itself as smart and civilized, bookshops were things to be cherished. No longer, apparently.”
IS OCPAC’s Prez Driving Staff Away?
That’s the allegation of several departing staffers at Orange County, California’s struggling Performing Arts Center. President Terrence Dwyer’s former second-in-command “characterized him as an inaccessible leader who discontinued customary weekly meetings with department heads… Among those who have left are the fundraisers in charge of special events and donations received through trusts and wills.”
Drama Princesses
A Chicago theatre company is using its craft to teach young girls about creative expression and build their confidence in dealing with the world around them. “Girls who choose to stick with the program through the spring semester… are paired with adult mentors who have experience in a variety of art forms, including theater, dance and music.”
Mr. Dreyfuss’s Opus
Richard Dreyfuss has made plenty of money and achieved plenty of fame as an actor. But these days, he’s not taking many acting jobs, having swapped his Hollywood lifestyle for a new career as an educator. Moreover, Dreyfuss is convinced that he can reinvigorate the traditional public school “civics” course as an exciting and engaging way of teaching children the importance of participation in the American democracy.
Keeping The Books In A War Zone
The job of a librarian probably sounds like a nice, quiet, intellectual profession. But when the library in question is in Baghdad, it’s anything but. The director of Iraq’s National Library has been keeping an online journal detailing “the daily hurdles of keeping Iraq’s central library open, preserving the surviving archives and books and, oh yes, staying alive.”
Okie Outreach
John Steinbeck’s classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, might not seem like the best libretto for an opera. For one thing, it’s awfully long. For another, destitute Dust Bowl denizens singing in grand operatic style? Seems a bit much. But the opera, which gets its premiere this weekend in Minnesota, is intended as “a work that will bring new audiences for an art form long thought of as irrelevant by American audiences – if they’ve even thought of it at all.”
BBC Singers Get A New Leader
“David Hill has been appointed chief conductor of the BBC Singers, effective this summer. The ensemble, which regularly gives performances for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, is Great Britain’s only full-time professional choir.”
I Gave At The Office
“Another workplace-based fundraising campaign, similar to the United Way drive but designed to support arts and culture, launches next week in Kansas City. The regional ArtsKC Fund will begin with a ‘beta test’ in 27 area workplaces… Other workplaces will roll out their campaigns throughout this month, March and April. Planners have modest goals for the inaugural campaign: They hope to raise $150,000.”
Rostropovich Hospitalized
Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich is stable and in “satisfactory condition” after being admitted to a Moscow hospital with an unspecified illness. Rostropovich, who turns 80 in March, “was hospitalized last week in Paris, where he maintains a residence, and then decided to return to Moscow.”