Tag: 04.02.09

Opera Columbus Cuts Staff And Last Production Of Season

“Budget troubles for Opera Columbus have forced the group to cancel a planned June run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, cut an employee and mandate unpaid days off for its remaining workers.” Ironically, the company’s February run of Turandot sold extremely well, but ticket revenue makes up only about one-fourth of the Opera Columbus budget.

Funding Expires, So A Calder Sculpture Garden Disappears

“For more than four years, sculptures by the inventor of the mobile adorned the grassy, tree-dotted Calder Garden…. Yesterday morning, the last piece was carted away, and the Calder Garden was no more. The plot will now be just a park maintained by the city. The sculpture garden’s funding by the Pew Charitable Trusts, announced as $5 million in 2001, simply expired, officials explained.”

In Singapore, Children Barred From Seeing All-Male Earnest

“Presenting Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ with an all-male cast dressed as men has raised a few eyebrows in conservative Singapore, leading the media regulator to request the company to prominently display an age advisory of ’16 years and above’ on all its publicity material, with the notice, ‘Re-interpretation, all-male cast.'” The production “has particular resonance in Singapore, where homosexuality is still a criminal activity.”

Gates Foundation Finds Pop-Culture Megaphone In Viacom

The Gates Foundation “is well known for its myriad projects around the world to promote health and education. It is less well known as a behind-the-scenes influencer of public attitudes toward these issues by helping to shape story lines and insert messages into popular entertainment like the television shows ‘ER,’ ‘Law & Order: SVU’ and ‘Private Practice.’ Now the Gates Foundation is set to expand its involvement and spend more money on influencing popular culture through a deal with Viacom….”

Counterintuitive But True: Some Small Booksellers Thriving

“Signs on the doors of two Coolidge Corner bookstores told a tale challenging the conventional wisdom. The one at Barnes & Noble said ‘Closed.’ The one on the independent Brookline Booksmith welcomed the chain’s customers and solicited their suggestions. Now, three months after Barnes & Noble departed, Booksmith savors modest growth in the midst of a recession that’s battering most retailers.” And it’s not alone.

A Month Before Premiere, Pirated Wolverine Goes Online

“In a case of piracy that some analysts called unprecedented, untold thousands of people watched a version of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ online Wednesday, a full month before its scheduled theater release. The film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, said it did not know how the unfinished copy of the comic book adaptation was leaked onto the Internet.”

If Shakespeare Was Sexy … Well, So What?

Heavy breathing over the handsome man in the might-be-Shakespeare portrait reflects our culture of celebrity and no more than that. “There’s nothing wrong with speculating about what Shakespeare looked like nor about what he might have gotten up to in bed. … The problems begin when baseless speculation about the life is used to interpret–and, more often than not, misinterpret–the work.”

Experts Conflict At Hearing On Asbestos At Smithsonian

“James August, an independent occupational health and safety consultant, said past policies for dealing with asbestos-containing materials had ‘serious deficiencies. . . . Smithsonian Institution safety policies have in all likelihood resulted in significant, albeit avoidable, asbestos exposure to building service workers.’ Daniel O. Chute, a certified industrial hygienist, said the institution’s asbestos control policy was sound.”