“Ordinary people with no special skills can use tongue clicks to visualize objects by listening to the way sound echoes off their surroundings, according to acoustic experts at the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain. […] Martinez and his colleagues are developing a system to teach people how to use echolocation, a skill that could be particularly useful for the blind and for people who work under dark or smoky conditions, like firefighters – or cat burglars.”
Tag: 06.30.09
New York International Ballet Competition: ‘A Deeply Depressing Affair’
Alastair Macaulay: “Not that its standards of delivery were low; what was dismaying was that the competition … elicited from the dancers a great deal of what is anti-artistic, sensationalist and trite about ballet.”
Fabio Luisi Named Next Generalmusikdirektor In Zurich
“The Zurich Opera has named noted Italian conductor Fabio Luisi as its next general music director starting in 2012. Luisi, the current director of Dresden’s Semperoper, on Tuesday welcomed his appointment at a ‘wonderful house with an exceptional orchestra.'” He succeeds Franz Welser-Möst, the Cleveland Orchestra’s music director, who leaves Zurich for the Vienna State Opera in 2010.
KenCen Takes ‘Arts In Crisis’ On The Road
“Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser will meet with arts leaders in all 50 states and Puerto Rico over the next year, he said, beginning with visits to New York, Kalamazoo, Mich., Indianapolis and six other cities in the next two months. Since February, the center’s ‘Arts in Crisis’ initiative [www.artsincrisis.org] has offered emergency planning advice for fundraising, budgeting, marketing or other strategies as box office revenues decline, along with donations and endowment income.”
Jude Law/Donmar Hamlet Headed To New York
“That collective ‘oooh’ you just heard from Broadway is the sound of theatergoers whose solid (or sullied) flesh has melted and resolved itself into a dew after learning that Jude Law is headed their way.”
Met Opera Strikes Money-Saving Agreement With Stagehands
“The Metropolitan Opera and stagehands’ union Local One have struck a deal, postponing a promised salary increase this summer in exchange for an extra year on the current contract, with the raise to come a year from now.”
Ezra Merkin Sells His Rothkos And Giacomettis
“Bombarded by lawsuits accusing him of fraud” – his hedge funds lost $2.4 billion in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme – “Merkin and his wife have arranged to sell their impressive collection of paintings by abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, as well as some valuable sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, according to legal papers filed Tuesday. An anonymous buyer has agreed to pay $310 million for the trove” – money that will go into a victim compensation fund.
After 17 Years, Mamet’s Oleanna Will Finally Play Broadway
“The revival of David Mamet’s 1992 play, starring Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman and directed by Doug Hughes, opened at the Mark Taper Forum on June 5 to largely positive reviews. It will open at the John Golden Theater on Oct. 11. … Oleanna had its world premiere in May 1992 in Cambridge, Mass., around the time of the he-said/she-said Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings … [and] premiered off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre the same year.”
Meanwhile, The Little Mermaid Is Leaving Broadway
“Ariel and her underwater friends have officially run out of air. Producers … announced today that the musical will end its run Aug. 30 after 685 performances and 50 previews. A national tour is set to begin in fall 2010. Based on the 1989 Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in January 2008 to scathing reviews.”
Vibe Magazine Abruptly Shuts Down
The soul/hip-hop equivalent of Rolling Stone revealed its demise without warning on Tuesday. “In a memo to staff members announcing the closure, Steve Aaron, chief of the Vibe Media Group, wrote that for months, the company tried in vain to either find new investors or ‘to restructure the huge debt on our small company.'”