“After just four months, it’s once again time to fill the director’s position at the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, following Václav KasÃk’s resignation Aug. 31. KasÃk, the former director of Czech Radio, [had been] named – without a selection process – as head of the Philharmonic by former Culture Minster Václav Riedlbauch in May.”
Tag: 09.08.10
Hip-Hop Dance Crew Gets Long-Term Vegas Gig
“The Monte Carlo casino-resort has replaced longtime Las Vegas Strip headline magician Lance Burton with … Jabbawockeez, the first-season winner of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew” competition.”
Google to Go Where Web TV Went Before
“CEO Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow full Internet browsing via the television, would be free, and Google would work with a variety of program makers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers.”
David Hare on Mad Men: It’s Not About the ’60s
“But surely the reason that the alcohol, the sexism, the insecurity, the duplicity, the bare-faced lying and the status anxiety at work have taken such hold on the public imagination is because they so perfectly match our own experiences. Has anything really changed?”
Godard Might Show Up to Accept His Oscar After All
“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday it had received ‘a cordial, handwritten note’ from 79-year-old Godard in response to its notification that he would receive a statuette.” The note “indicated that, schedule permitting, he would come to Los Angeles for the November 13 Governors Awards event.”
British Musicals Become a Global Export Industry
“The appeal of a blonde-wigged and warbling Elle Woods shimmying through Legally Blonde in the Philippines, say? Or the interest in seeing Billy Elliott‘s gritty northern mining town replicated in South Korea? Major British productions no longer just travel back and forth across the Atlantic; they’re franchised across the planet.”
America Exports Civil War Reenactment to Britain
“It’s hard to say whether American re-enactors would allow a digital camera on the 19th-century battlefield. But in the U.K., rules are a bit more casual. Because there’s little personal connection to the Civil War, the British can have more fun with it.”
Artists Do the Curating at Reopened Israel Museum
“What do Marcel Duchamp’s readymades have to do with a Chinese mandarin’s robe? And what is the link between the crowns of African kings and a synagogue in South America? These are some of the questions raised by three contemporary artists who were asked by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to select pieces from its vast collections to create their own special exhibitions.”
Big Ratings, Bigger Controversy for Ramadan Soap Opera
The serial Ma Malakat Aymanukum (a Quranic phrase meaning “what your right hands possess” or “what is rightfully yours”), broadcast nightly on Syrian TV during the holy month, directly tackles such touchy subjects as the veil, corruption, religious extremism, “honor killings” and the violent repression of women.
Iraqi Version of Candid Camera Just Makes People Angry
“In this Baghdad version of Punk’d, famous Iraqis – actors, singers and sports figures – are … [stopped] at a routine checkpoint. Hidden cameras then capture the reaction as soldiers accuse the passenger of carrying a homemade bomb. … But this is Iraq, not MTV. Here, it gets ugly fast.”