“Among the initiatives that the ballet has undertaken [under its new executive director]: forgoing costly, full-company tours unless they are underwritten; experimenting with a dramatically smaller ensemble touring group; and creating and opening a spring festival, ‘Architecture of Dance’.”
Tag: 06.15.10
UK’s Oldest Cinema To Get £1M Makeover
“This month, the adorable, historic Phoenix cinema in East Finchley, now in its 100th year, … is finally to receive the careful restoration it has always deserved and should be open again in September. The 13-week closure will allow for £1m of building work to refurbish its Edwardian features and all the art deco flourishes hidden inside.”
Trying To Take Control Of Your Dreams
“‘Am I awake or am I dreaming?’ I ask myself for probably the hundredth time. I am fully awake, just like all the other times I asked, and to be honest I am beginning to feel a bit silly. All week I have been performing this ‘reality check’ in the hope that it will become so ingrained in my mind that I will start asking it in my dreams too.”
How A Great White Shark Is Like A Summer Blockbuster Movie
“It often goes unremarked, but the first July 4th movie was actually set over the July 4th weekend. If you want a trenchant analysis of what Newsweek called ‘Jawsmania,’ in fact, your best bet has always been to check out Jaws itself.”
Toronto Film Fest Nears 90% Of Fundraising Goal For New Theatre
The Toronto International Film Festival “announced a $9.5 million [Cdn] boost through several gifts, bringing the total to $171 million [Cdn]. That’s still $25 million short of its $196 million campaign goal, but the way TIFF does the math, it has now raised 90 per cent of the money required for the building itself. The raising of extra money needed to complete its operating and endowment needs will be dealt with after the building opens.”
The Tobacco Police Go After Winston Churchill’s Cigar
“In the well-known original image, Churchill makes a ‘V’ shaped symbol with his fingers – while gripping a cigar in the corner of his mouth. But in a reproduction of the picture, hanging over the main entrance to a London museum celebrating the wartime leader, he has been made into a non-smoker through the use of image-altering techniques.”
Love Songs May Actually Work, Research Finds
“A new study from – where else? – France suggests listening to love songs may increase women’s receptivity to amorous advances.” (Thank heaven for social science.)
Damien Hirst To Open His First Gallery
The filthy-rich artist has submitted plans to create a gallery space from an old munitions factory in London’s Hyde Park. His plan is to install “the cream” of his personal collection, “including works by artists including Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Giacometti and Jeff Koons” (plus the diamond-encrusted skull, naturally).
Make Your Own Damien Hirst Diamond-Crusted Skull!
Why should Hirst and Banksy have all the fun? A concern called iArtist London “provides (relatively) easy-to-use looking kits for creating your own versions of famous works by contemporary British artists like Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Marc Quinn, and Banksy.”
On The Offensive Against A (Nonexistent?) Ticketing Scam
A new campaign cautions “West End theatregoers to watch out for online ticketing scams.” But do such scams exist? “There just isn’t the demand. As a fraudster, there’s very little point in selling fake theatre tickets on the web because you can’t sell them quickly at high enough prices, or in enough bulk, to turn a quick profit and disappear.”