“Even as information technology is changing our economy in ways that make exclusive college degrees ever more valuable, it’s also giving institutions like Yale new opportunities to be less exclusive, by educating people at a distance. This creates an ethical dilemma for Yale and its ilk. Hoarding intellectual resources in an era where they can be distributed far and wide at no cost seems selfish and counter to the spirit of higher education. But distributing those resources too far and wide could undermine the exclusivity on which Yale’s fame and fortune are based.”
Tag: 06.06.08
Broadway Falls Just Short Of Record Year (Blame The Strike)
“Legiters can blame the shortfall on the stagehands strike, which darkened more than 25 productions over a 19-day stretch in November that included the ultra-profitable Thanksgiving frame. The strike and its repercussions provide the grains of salt to be taken with many of the observations gleaned from the 2007-08 season — from how much money was made to how many straight plays Broadway can sustain.”
New Zaha Hadid Dubai Arts Project Seems To Emerge From The Sand
“This landmark development will accommodate an opera house, playhouse, arts gallery, performing arts school and themed hotel on an island in Dubai Creek just off the mainland part of the district. All of these facilities will be state of the art to host world class performances and exhibitions.”
Art Basel Stays Steady Despite Drop In Americans
Collectors from Russia, Asia and the Middle East are taking up the slack of fewer Americans at Switzerland’s Art Basel.
Dance Writ (Very) Large
“David Michalek that projects images of dancers on three 12-metre-tall screens in hyper-slow motion. For these towering figures, each five-second dance movement plays out over 10 minutes in minute detail. That yield is a study of the dancer, both in physical form and emotional expression, writ large in a public arena, with audience interaction en masse considered crucial to the experience.”
Is LA’s Signature Building Being Allowed To Decay?
LA’s Disney Concert Hall is five years old and thriving, and the LA Philharmonic has significantly boosted its profile as a result. “But while the Music Center is aglow over Disney Hall, it shows no pleasure writing checks. Anything the center can do on the cheap, it does. Disney is not well cared for.”
Young Frankenstein Actors Hit With Huge Pay Cut
“Like CEOs in the troubled airline industry, Young Frankenstein creator Mel Brooks and producer Robert F. X. Sillerman have embarked on a cost-cutting rampage in a desperate effort to keep their Spruce Goose of a show aloft. Their most dramatic move: slashing the lead actors’ salaries by 50 percent.”
Showcasing The Art Of Philly’s Skyline
“Galleries devoted to architecture are well established in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. But despite being the second oldest AIA chapter in the country, founded in 1869, Philadelphia has lacked its own showplace.” But that’s about to change, following the opening of a new architecture museum in the city.
Drawing A Crowd
A New York artist looking for a way to shock the public into paying attention to his work appears to have found one after he stenciled “The Assassination of Barack Obama” onto the window of the storefront housing his latest collection. Also paying attention: the NYPD and the Secret Service.
A Jazz Festival That Looks Unflinchingly To The Future
“With its devotion to the jazz avant-garde, [the New York-based Vision Festival] serves as a gravitational center, pulling musicians in from the margins. Its programming… confirms the continuing vigor of experimental improvised music.”