Male TV Drama Leads Lack Color

Why has there neve been a successful TV drama series with a black male lead? “There is a feeling that the vast majority of the audience is not black, and having a black lead dominating the show makes most viewers feel shut out since they don’t work with an African-American in a dominant position in their daily life.”

SF Opera Goes Back On The Radio

“The San Francisco Opera will broadcast its performances once a month beginning April 1 on classical radio station KDFC (102.1 FM) — the first time in 25 years that the company’s offerings will be heard regularly on the air. … In addition to the KDFC deal, the Opera has joined a coalition of opera companies whose performances will be broadcast nationally and internationally by the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago.”

Nice Design, Mr. Calatrava. Now, What About Traffic?

“Two weeks from disclosing their final plan for the nation’s tallest building, the project’s developer and architect offered fresh details Monday night, trying to calm fears about traffic and presenting their own plan for a nearby park to honor Chicago’s founding father. ‘We have given a lot of importance to the relationship to the city,’ said the skyscraper’s architect, Zurich-based Santiago Calatrava….”

Talking Arts In DC, Sans Conservative Caution

As Americans for the Arts gathered in Washington, “the guest of honor was Robert MacNeil, the journalist, who gave a bold and perhaps even controversial speech that included sustained criticism of religious fundamentalism.” He decried “‘the swing to Puritanism’ that ‘gained energy when political consultants and lobbying organizations discovered the catnip (and the fundraising power) of pandering to those who could be persuaded that art is decadent, or immoral, or homosexual, and destructive of finer values.'”