The CEO of the San Antonio Symphony, David Green, is leaving his post after 2-1/2 years on the job. He will be replaced by Jack Fishman, executive director of California’s Long Beach Symphony.
Tag: 07.23.08
Kuwait Plans A New £132 billion Futuristic City
“The extraordinary scale of the metropolis – a 1,001-metre skyscraper, wildlife reserves, and homes for 700,000 people – is matched by a plan to also build an international rail network linking it to Damascus, Baghdad, Iran and China. Inspired by Dubai’s spectacular growth, the Madinat al-Hareer, or Silk City, is intended to create a trading future and a diversified economy in a city which would become a crossroads of the Arab world.”
Getting Rich On YouTube – Avril Levine Makes $2 Million From Video
“Last year, Nettwerk Management uploaded the official Girlfriend video to the popular video-sharing website. Twelve months later, thanks to a coordinated fan campaign, the video has clocked up almost 100m hits from around the world. And where there are page-views, there are ad-views. Even after YouTube takes its cut, “there’s about a $2m (£1m) cheque waiting for her for all her YouTube plays.”
How To End “Illegal” Downloading Of Music? A Tax
The British government isputting forward “proposals that would enable millions of broadband users to pay an annual levy which would allow them to copy as much – previously illegal – music from the internet as they wanted. The money raised would be channelled back to the rights-holders, with artists responsible for the most popular songs receiving a bigger slice of the cash.”
Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame Needs Major Restoration
“About 778 of the famous pink stars, which are embedded in a stretch of pavement in and around Hollywood Boulevard, need replacing. Many, including that of Dynasty actress Joan Collins, have been deemed unsafe.”
Who Thought Preserving Digital Books Would Be Hard?
“As libraries shift more of their resources to holdings that either originate as digital or become digital through scanning, it’s become clear that just because something lives in the virtual stacks doesn’t mean it will be around forever. Now librarians are having to… determine how digital holdings fit into their central mission: preserving works so that they can be accessed not just today, not just tomorrow, but indefinitely.”
JK Rowling Tops “Highest-Paid” Celebrity List
“Harry Potter author JK Rowling earned more than any other celebrity, according to the annual Celebrity 100 list, taking home $300m (£150m) last year. Since Rowling’s first story about the boy wizard arrived in bookstores in 1997, 375m copies of her books have been sold worldwide. The final instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has sold 44m since it came out last July.”
Why Foreign Investors Like Landmark Buildings
“Is New York still New York if its trophies are sold off to foreign interests? Why do peak oil investors love our landmarks? What’s next? The Seagram Building? And why not the Empire State Building? Or Rockefeller Center (again)?”
A Manifesto For Children’s Arts Rights
“The Manifesto for Children’s Arts, published by charity Action for Children’s Arts, and the first of its kind, criticises the UK for failing to deliver Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child – which states that the government should ensure all children have access to cultural activities.”
Unlocking The Magic Of The Brain
Researchers “argue that the collective wisdom of magicians, honed for millenia by the gazes of suspicious crowds, contains insights for investigators of human perception and cognition. A science of magic, they write, could take both cognitive science and magic to new heights — and that’s not all. It could help people defend themselves from the tricks of advertisers.”