Indianapolis’s Phoenix Theatre, Having Gotten A New Building, Dumps Its Founder-Director

“Bryan Fonseca, who founded the Phoenix Theatre in 1983, is leaving the organization after 35 years of serving as the group’s principal director and main artistic force … The stunning move comes in the midst of a major transition for the theater, which just moved into a newly built, $11 million downtown facility.” A press release quotes Fonseca as saying, “The board of directors believe that the institution now needs to redirect its energy to a solid fiscal focus, that there are other leaders more capable of putting their energies into meeting the [company’s] remaining financial demands.”

Why Did The New York Times’ Former, And Famously Difficult, Critic Decide To Write A Book?

Michiko Kakatuni couldn’t stand the lies – the lies coming from the White House about journalists, and a lot more. She says, “It was an evolution of what I did at the Times, where I tried to take part in the conversation of ideas, both in fiction and nonfiction. This was like running a marathon instead of doing a lot of sprints.”

Noise – Your Enemy? Or Your Friend?

In the twentieth century, natural quiet—or, rather, the absence of radios and car horns and the presence of honking geese and howling wolves—became central to the conservation movement and the creation of natural parks. One founder of the Wilderness Society suggested in 1932 that designated wild areas would “interest the folks in the inexpensive joys of nature in lieu of the jarring jams of jazz.”

U.S. Public Radio And TV Are Raising More Money Overall, But Smaller Stations Are Falling Behind

“On the positive side, the overall trend is growth. Radio revenues are up 18 percent to $1.03 billion, according to Moustapha Abdul, CPB’s director of station analysis. TV revenues grew 10 percent to $1.27 billion. But a closer look reveals that revenues actually dipped 4 percent among 194 radio grantees with annual budgets of less than $1 million and 5 percent among 75 TV grantees with budgets under $5 million.”

Inside New York’s Number-One Saxophone Repair Shop

“The shop — in the heart of the Diamond District, on West 47th Street — is crowded with used instruments and the whimsical sculptures that [Perry] Ritter creates during his downtime from spare saxophone parts. … His workbench is nestled in one of the densest commercial hives in the city, in a building largely occupied by jewelry merchants.”

Prop Masters Who Made Fake Money For Film Shoot Tried In Hong Kong For Counterfeiting

“The question, local cinephiles say, is why the police even bothered to seek charges. They say the case illustrates how onerous rules are needlessly hampering a local industry whose golden age of Bruce Lee kung fu films and Wong Kar-wai dramas seems long past, and which is now struggling to compete against rising competition from studios in South Korea and mainland China.”

Visitors To Big UK Museums Are Down

While visits fell across the five London museums by 4.4% there was an 11% surge at Asian museums. The report suggests this was fuelled by “an emerging middle class with rising levels of education, cultural awareness and disposable income,” and “exposure to global cultural trends through online and social media”.

He Strolled Into Art Museums All Over Europe And Stole Liberally. And Then…

For over six years, Stéphane Breitwieser, an ordinary Frenchman with an extraordinary love of art, trolled museums and private collections across Europe, helping himself to the pieces that caught his eye. He amassed a private collection of his own, to the tune of 239 pieces of art and priceless artifacts from 172 institutions totaling over a billion dollars. He was one of the most prolific art thieves in modern history.