How Montreal Symphony Management Blew It On Charles Dutoit – 15 Years Ago

Robert Everett-Green points out that allegations of Dutoit’s bullying of musicians in rehearsal – allegations repeated in detail last week in two of Montreal’s francophone newspapers – were made very clear by the players in 2002. And when they were, Dutoit abruptly stormed away from his job, and the orchestra’s management was far more concerned with his feelings than those of the musicians. “It’s worth looking at the circumstances that may have led [the board] to brush off the players’ complaints for about 20 years.”

Omarosa, ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, and Reality-TV Politics

“Omarosa Manigault Newman, a three-time contestant on NBC’s The Apprentice, volunteered to enter a surreal house in which minor celebrities, acting out under constant media surveillance, conspire to eject their rivals one by one.
Then she went on Celebrity Big Brother. That it took the second experience (a CBS reality show) to get Ms. Newman to open up about the first (her tenure in Donald J. Trump’s White House) may not be the model of civic discourse that the founders envisioned. But it’s the one Americans voted for, and maybe the one we deserve.” (includes video)

Study: Top UK Arts Schools Are Now More Elitist Than Oxford, Cambridge

London’s Royal Academy of Music was bottom of the list – less than half (44%) of pupils starting its undergraduate courses last year were from state schools. The third-least accessible body was the Courtauld Institute of Art, also based in London, where 55% of new students were from state schools. By comparison, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge accepted 58% and 63% of students from state schools respectively in 2016/17. According to research by the Independent Schools Council for 2016/17, just 7% of UK children go to independent schools at any one time.

YouTube Has New Guidelines – And New Ways To Punish Its ‘Content Creators’

Basically, this is in response to a popular creator named Logan Paul, who violated the company’s policies several times (and posted videos about the abuse of dead animals). “The changes are straightforward: YouTube says it reserves the right to strip a channel of its ability to serve ads and its access to premium monetization programs like Google Preferred and its YouTube Partner Program, as well as the right to cease recommending a channel’s videos across its network, if that channel proves harmful to the broader YouTube community.”

Reg Cathey, Of ‘House Of Cards’ And ‘The Wire,’ Has Died At 58

David Simon, writer and creator of The Wire, announced Cathey’s death on social media. “Though he earned credits in dozens of television shows and movies, it was Mr. Cathey’s portrayal of Freddy Hayes — an empathetic, salt-of-the-earth barbecue pit owner whose restaurant provides a respite for Francis Underwood, the scheming politician in House of Cards — that earned him three Emmy nominations and one win for outstanding guest actor in a drama series.”

London’s King’s Cross Got A Three Billion Pound Upgrade, And For What?

Says Olly Wainwright: “For sure, it is more dry digestive than gelatinous trifle, but that is generally to be welcomed. It is also refreshing to find a development where as much, if not more, attention has been paid to the streets and spaces as the buildings that frame them. It may be the usual kind of overly managed pseudo-public space, but accusations of privatisation are unfounded, given that most of the site was off-limits to the public before.”