From the first days of airports, architects have struggled with their design, even as they “have become as ubiquitous–and about as glamorous–as bus stations. Perhaps that’s really the new model. In the talented hands of a Piano or a Foster, the bus station will be light and airy, but the kind of theatricality shown by the first generation of airports now seems out of place.”
Tag: 07.21.09
Michael Jackson Concert Film In The Works
“New Michael Jackson songs may be years from release, but a documentary about the late singer could be in cinemas worldwide before the end of 2009. The promoters of Jackson’s aborted [London] O2 residency are in talks to sell the rights to nearly 80 hours of rehearsal footage, with plans to release a concert film.”
Latest Swine Flu Victims: The Royal Ballet
“The Royal Ballet’s inaugural visit to Cuba last week has been hailed a triumph, but a spokeswoman has also confirmed that a few dancers came down with swine flu during the trip. Speaking for the London-based company Monday, Elizabeth Bell confirmed that five dancers contracted the H1N1 virus and a sixth showed flu-like symptoms.”
L.A. County Supervisors Vote That Ring Festival May Focus On Wagner
“The board voted down a motion written by Supervisor Mike Antonovich asking the opera company to shift the focus of the festival away from Wagner, the renowned 19th century composer who is widely admired for his operas and detested for his virulently anti-Semitic personal views. Instead, the board voted to approve a substitute motion from Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky in support of L.A. Opera and the Ring Festival.”
Otto Heino, ‘The Oldest, Richest Potter In The World,’ Dies At 94
“[T]he Ojai-based master potter, educator and symbol of the midcentury California studio crafts movement … along with his late wife, Vivika, reformulated a lost-to-the-ages Chinese glaze that made him a multimillionaire.”
Philly’s Prince Music Theater Is Not Shutting Down
“Amid growing rumors about the Prince Music Theater’s ability to continue operating – and a remark from its stage Monday night that indicated it would be closing – its producing director, Marjorie Samoff, says that the Center City theater plans a 2009-10 season that includes its annual renters plus at least three productions the Prince will mount.”
Industrial Plans Could Make Salt Lake’s Spiral Jetty ‘Unrecognizable’
“Dia Art Foundation leaders say that the latest proposed expansion of evaporation pools in the northern end of the Great Salt Lake significantly threatens the ‘integrity’ of Robert Smithson’s iconic Spiral Jetty and that the pools could change the Jetty‘s part of the Great Salt Lake so substantially that it would render a ‘new’ northern end of the lake unrecognizable.”
Picking Up Another Language Can Even Change Your Face
“Each language has one central vowel … in French, it’s uuu; in English, it’s the schwa sound. ‘It’s that central place that shapes your face at rest,’ [linguist Alton Becker] said. So language can subtly alter the positioning of the muscles in your face, at least for a time.”
Doctor Atomic Symphony CD Delayed By Bad Spelling
Composer John Adams’s latest recording was all set for release when somebody realized that there was a typo in conductor David Robertson’s name on the cover. So new covers have to be put on every copy of the CD, and the Nonesuch label is putting back the shipment date to July 28.
Troubled Tenor Rolando Villazón Comes Through Throat Surgery
“In a note on his website, the 37-year-old singer said: ‘I am very happy to tell you that my [vocal cord] surgery went very well, and that everything looks even better than we could have hoped. I have begun the re-training process, and am in very good spirits.'”