Michael Kaiser: “What we really need is a debate over federal arts policy. Most people do not know that no fewer than nine government agencies provide support to arts in this nation. That is not a typo. … The problem is not that federal funding for the arts is unwarranted; the problem is that we need to be assured, as citizens, that we are getting the most value for our money.”
Tag: 07.06.09
Mezzo Joyce DiDonato Breaks Leg Onstage, Keeps Singing
“Fans arriving at the Royal Opera House in London for tomorrow’s performance of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville are in for a surprise when the curtain goes up. In addition to the expected star cast, headed by the great Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, they will see an unexpected performance by a star in a cast, after the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato decided to go ahead with her performance, despite fracturing her leg during Saturday’s first night.”
What’s Another Word For A 44-Year Book Project?
“Work on the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1965. The mammoth enterprise has survived fire and funding problems and has had to be constantly updated to incorporate new words,” but it’s finally being published this fall. “It contains almost the entire vocabulary of English, from Old English to the present day, giving a unique insight into the development of the language.”
Box-Office Numbers Mean Zilch If Inflation Isn’t Factored In
“The problems with our growing fixation on box office figures–they don’t account for costs of the film, they don’t include home-entertainment revenue, etc.–have been chronicled in the past. But as long as we continue to indulge this obsession, shouldn’t journalists at least factor in inflation, instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist?”
Blind Protest Use Of Kindle For College Textbooks
“Instead of welcoming May’s news that numerous colleges were experimenting with Amazon’s Kindle DX as a way to bring digital textbooks to their students, advocates for the visually impaired are strenuously objecting to it.”
British Library Puts World’s Oldest Bible Online
“Along with the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Sinaiticus is considered the oldest known Bible in the world. Originally more than 1,460 pages long and measuring 16in by 14in, it was written by a number of hands around the time of Constantine the Great.”
Protester Hijacks Trafalgar Square’s “Living” Plinth
The man leapt on to the plinth ahead of housewife Rachel Wardell, who had been due to be the first with her two young children. His banner stated: “Save the children. Ban tobacco and actors smoking.”
How The Hollywood Formula Began
“If you want the human embodiment of Hollywood predictability, you can’t do better than Wycliffe A. Hill. A profoundly obscure writer of silent five-reelers, Hill is also the unheralded inventor of something more enduring: the attempt to engineer movies that will bring “the most satisfaction to the largest number of people–the mob, in other words.”
Arts Education Funding Under Stress In NY Legislature
“The issue of arts education brings us to the basic question of what type of society we wish to build. Today’s eighth graders are the next generation of civic and business leaders.”
Trend: Artists Trying To Save The World?
“The last five years have seen an unprecedented flowering of eco-awareness and activism throughout the arts, at home and abroad. From giant multiplexes to 50-seat fringe venues, from sweaty stadiums to intimate galleries, artist are talking – and singing, and writing, and painting – about the planet’s inexorable drift towards disaster.”