“Over the last four years the Getty Conservation Institute … has built an ambitious Web-based system that will allow archaeologists and conservators there, for the first time, to gain access to decades’ worth of records about Jordan’s sites and to monitor the condition of those sites much more easily.”
Tag: 08.25.10
(Re-)Writing the Oxford Dictionary of Dance (Everything’s Changed)
Judith Mackrell: “It is only 10 years since Debra Craine and I wrote the [Dictionary]. Yet, in terms of the technology used to research it, it could almost have been a century ago.”
Are Cuts to UK Arts Spending a Good Idea? No! Yes!
Says one theatre director, “We exercise a social function with our art. But we also offer an excellent return on public funding.” Says another, “The lion’s share of Arts Council funding goes towards supporting organisations that it has always been supporting, and, as a result, the same things are done again and again.”
Assembling the Merce Cunningham ‘Capsules’ (It Isn’t Easy)
“What appeared at the time to be an act of savvy foresight has, however, proven surprisingly problematic due to the piecemeal nature of choreographic notation, and the difficulty of transmitting movements that were deeply idiosyncratic and often based on chance. “
Scandal – We’ve Gotta Have It, Part II: The Usefulness of Scapegoats
“Scapegoats help the rest of us out by taking hits for the group; … they allow the community to ritually purify itself, offloading its guilt and other toxins onto designated candidates. … Let me be clear: Scapegoats don’t have to be innocent victims. … In fact, criminals have always made excellent scapegoats.”
Putting The Thousand and One Nights on Stage
“With an international cast from the Arabic-speaking world and new [bilingual] texts adapted from the 3,000 pages of original stories by Lebanese writer Hanan Al Shaykh, [director Tim] Supple is hoping to ‘smash the clichés that exist, the distortions that exist’.”
NY’s Last Yiddish Bookstore Will Soon Be Homeless
“Every few months news seems to arrive of another nail in the coffin of Yiddish. … [Now the city is losing] the one spot where among the huddled, dusty shelves you could schmooze about Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer with a salesman who spoke the language.”
Movie Ticket Prices Have Taken Big Jump In 2010
“At least so far, theater owners have gotten away with the biggest year-to-year increases in ticket prices ever — with average admission costs spiraling upward more than 40 cents in 2010, or over 5 percent. Meanwhile, attendance has stayed largely flat, dropping less than 1 percent, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.”
Met Opera Extends $25 Rush Tickets to Weekends
Orchestra seats for nearly all Friday and Saturday performances this coming season will be available under the new program. While ticket buyers must wait in line at the box office for weekday rush seats, the $25 weekend tickets will be distributed by online lottery.
Edinburgh Fringe Artists Struggle With Sponsorship by Beverage Makers
“As befits an industry with so many teetotallers, recovering alcoholics and drinkers unwittingly developing a trilogy of future shows on their battles with sobriety, comedy has always enjoyed a close but troubled relationship with alcoholic endorsements.”