“Good news for the Joffrey Ballet. The company is expanding its roster of dancers to 45. The three new company members have widely diverse backgrounds” – there’s a woman from the southern US who apprenticed in Orlando, a Japanese man who studied at Britain’s Royal Ballet School, and a French male graduate of the Paris Opera Ballet’s academy.
Tag: 06.20.12
Once-Promising DC-Area Arts Center Swamped By $56M Debt
A decade ago, Fairfax County, Virginia had dazzling plans for the Workhouse Arts Center, housed in a former prison in Lorton. But with the first phase of construction completed one year ago and operations underway, the center is carrying a $56 million debt load, and management is scrambling to change offerings and business models to keep the enterprise from collapsing.
Musicians’ Union Tries To Get EU To Make Airlines Accept Instruments
“Musicians across the globe have launched a petition demanding European legislation be updated to ensure fair treatment for performers travelling on planes with their instruments. The International Federation of Musicians (FIM) has launched the petition.”
Why Do Nigerian E-Mail Scammers Write Such Obviously Bogus Messages?
“The question many people have asked themselves after receiving an email like this is: Who would fall for this crap? … Why, given the scam is relatively well known these days, would a scammer still purport from Nigeria or from another West African nation given the association of advance free fraud with the region? In retrospect the answer to this question is obvious.”
Film Critic Andrew Sarris, 83
“Courtly, incisive and acerbic in equal measure, Mr. Sarris came of critical age in the 1960s as the first great wave of foreign films washed ashore in the United States. From his perch at The Village Voice, and later at The New York Observer, he wrote searchingly of that glorious deluge and the directors behind it.”
A New Type Of TV Studio Emerges – Built Around YouTube
“It’s going to be pretty complex. This new kind of TV industrial complex … will emerge where you’ve got the NBC/Comcast/Universals butting heads against some really talented guy who just graduated NYU film school.”
What Happens When The Show Can’t Go On?
“The full house erupted with possible solutions. One patron suggested that Rose herself read the role, script in hand, or have one of the other performers double the part. Another — perhaps knowing the theatergoing community a bit too well — asked if there was an actress in the house who could finish out the second act. No one wanted to leave, especially not after a very enjoyable 90-minute first half.”
Vandalism Of Picasso Caught By Smartphone Video
“The vandalism was caught by a stunned museum-goer, who was filming Picasso’s Woman in a Red Armchair with his cellphone camera when a man in a suit jacket and sunglasses strode up, held up a stencil against the work — one of nine Picassos at the Menil — and spray-painted in gold on the 1929 canvas.”
In LA, Opera Is Increasingly Being Produced Outside LA Opera
“A more delicate issue: the perception that organizations such as the L.A. Phil, Long Beach Opera, and The Industry, a new company, are upstaging L.A. Opera by doing more inventive productions of opera and opera-like music theater.”
Is Our Definition Of Artificial Intelligence Wrong?
“The annual Loebner competition, where participants attempt to show that a machine can pass for a human in conversation, is based on Alan Turing’s theory that such a test would be an adequate demonstration of intelligence. But Turing was wrong. A machine should not demonstrate intelligence by emulating a human. In fact, in some regards today’s expert systems are displaying intelligence far beyond the capability of a human.”