“Kristen McNally … and five dancers from The Royal Ballet, worked on a dance to a Kanye West song, incorporating suggestions from the audience at the Apple Store in Covent Garden.”
Tag: 04.13.11
Hero Worship – America’s Burgeoning Award Culture
“Activists are heroes. Coal miners are heroes. People with terminal cancer are heroes. A word once reserved for the extraordinary is now applied to the merely admirable.”
Recording Industry Complains About Grammy Changes
“They complain that the changes were done behind their backs, are meant to cater to the interests of television and major record labels and that they discriminate against ethnic minorities and performers of genres outside the mainstream.”
Boston Symphony In The Netherworld (The Conductor Search)
“The conductor search is on. Call it prospecting for the perfect mate or Saturday-night date. He or she doesn’t exist, but some people are much, much better than others. There’s looks and talent and experience, but there’s also chemistry, and those don’t always happen together.”
FCC, Broadcasters Argue Over Need For Auction For Airwaves
“At issue was the FCC’s desire to reclaim some of the airwaves, or spectrum, broadcasters use for next-generation cellphones and tablet devices such as Apple’s iPad. The FCC and some telecommunications companies have argued that there is a shortage of spectrum on the horizon and a solution is for broadcasters to voluntarily auction off some of their spectrum.”
Strike “Inevitable” At NY City Opera At End Of April
“Regrettably, it became obvious to us that NYCO is merely stalling the negotiating process. Our members in City Opera’s chorus and production department have devoted their entire professional careers to City Opera, have already made tremendous financial sacrifices to help City Opera survive its fiscal problems, but at some point enough is simply enough.”
America’s Most-Challenged Library Books
“Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, winner of a National Book Award for young people’s literature, has become one of the most challenged books in the U.S., according to the American Library Association.”
Public Broadcasting Survives The Budget Ax
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which passes federal funds to public radio and TV stations, is slated to receive $445 million from Congress — essentially the same amount it received in its last appropriation, according to details of the continuing federal budget resolution released Tuesday.”
Rome’s Cinecitta Studios Now A Private, For-Profit Business
The complex, founded by Mussolini’s government, “sits on 99 acres of public land, uses public-owned buildings and depends on public tax breaks, but it is a private, for-profit enterprise with a list of glittery investors.”
Orange Prize Shortlist Includes Three First-Time Novelists
“Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife, Emma Henderson’s Grace Williams Says It Loud, and Kathleen Winter’s Annabel made the shortlist announced yesterday for the £30,000 prize for women writers.” The other finalists are Emma Donoghue’s Room, Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love, and Great House by Nicole Krauss.