Tag: 09.09.05

Art Out Of Disasters? Forget About It

“Down in New Orleans they do not need a symphony; they need bottled water, food, clothing, money, diapers, dry goods. Put down your pen and take up your wallet—there are thousands of musicians who, like me four years ago (but worse), find themselves suddenly without a home. Send them trumpets, not trumpet sonatas, as these are gigging musicians who have no means by which to make a living. Buy their records. Give to help organizations. You cannot help them heal with your music—not yet, maybe not ever—but you still can do something. They need your help, not your attempt at catharsis.”

Is The Human Brain Still Evolving?

Yes, says a team of scientists who have found a mutation in genes found in the brain. “This distinctive mutation is now in the brains of about 70% of humans, and half of this group carry completely identical versions of the gene. The data suggests the mutation arose recently and spread quickly through the human species due to a selection pressure, rather than accumulating random changes through neutral genetic drift.”

Mid-Lockout, CBC Appoints A New Leader

“The [Canadian] government has appointed screenwriter and journalist Guy Fournier as new chairman of the CBC’s board of directors, prompting hope among the broadcaster’s locked-out employees that the board will move to resolve the four-week-old dispute. Fournier, who was also instrumental in founding Quebec’s Télévision Quatre-Saisons network, was named to the board for a four-year term in February and takes over a top job that has been vacant throughout the build-up to the labour showdown.” The union representing the locked-out CBC workers made hopeful noises about Fournier’s appointment, but an independent watchdog group says that a change in board leadership will likely do little to change CBC president Robert Rabinovitch’s hard-line stance towards his employees.

PBT Cuts Nutcracker Again

The financially troubled Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, which recently made waves with a decision to lay off its orchestra in favor of recorded music, has canceled five of the performances it was scheduled to give of The Nutcracker this holiday season. It was the second such announcement in only a few months: back in June, PBT announced it would cut Nutcracker back to 17 performances from the 23 it mounted last year. The ballet says that its holiday schedule has been hurt by the addition of the traveling Radio City Christmas Spectacular into Pittsburgh’s fall arts lineup, but members of the laid-off ballet orchestra suggest that the public may not be interested in attending a Nutcracker with canned instrumentals.

One Singular Sensation Without A Home

The glut of shows looking for homes on Broadway has gotten so bad that an $8 million revival of one of the Great White Way’s biggest smash hits ever has been reduced to begging for performance space. A Chorus Line, which ran on Broadway for 15 years, is slated to open in fall 2006, but it hasn’t even been able to get signed as a backup booking. In addition to the booking jam, “there is also the question of just how well A Chorus Line has held up over the years and whether audiences will flock to see a revival of a show that hasn’t been gone all that long (it closed in 1990).”

TIFF’s Global Outreach

Film buffs are, by nature, always looking for the next hot thing in moviegoing, but sometimes, even the devotees need a push to begin looking seriously at unfamiliar work. So goes the thinking behind the Toronto International Film Festival’s “Planet Africa” project, which has recently been retired after ten years of specifically promoting African films at the fest. The idea is not to create a one-time celebration of underappreciated cultures, but to bring those cultures permanently onto the North American radar screen by making them a valued part of the festival.

Denver Prepares To Inaugurate Its New Gem

“To celebrate what designers believe is a world-class opera house, a run-of-the-mill classical concert just would not do. Something very special was called for, and that’s what Opera Colorado plans to deliver Saturday evening with the first performance in the $92 million Ellie Caulkins Opera House… The opening of a new opera house anywhere is noteworthy, because the construction of such buildings is so rare. Some companies have to perform in less-than-ideal venues designed for multiple functions or adapted from other uses. For this 2,268-seat facility, Boulder acoustician Bob Mahoney and Semple Brown Design created a lyre-shaped theater that they believe can compete with any of the world’s top opera houses in terms of sound, comfort and technical sophistication.”

Chicago Reading Project Goes Retro

Chicago’s citywide group-read project, known as “One Book, One Chicago”, is four years old, and this fall, the city’s mayor has decided that it’s time for Chicagoans to expand their literary horizons across the Atlantic. The new selection is Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, and several academic and theatrical institutions around the city will be hosting events, lectures, and performances based on the book. As usual, Chicago booksellers and libraries were tipped off about the selection ahead of time, so as to be sure that plenty of copies will be available.

ABC To Add Spanish To Primetime

This fall, ABC will become the first American network to make its primetime schedule available in Spanish, as part of an effort to draw in the country’s ever-expanding Hispanic population. The network will use a combination of voice-dubbing and closed captioning to translate its entire lineup of entertainment programs. Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority population in the U.S., make up 1/7 of the overall population, and studies have shown that a high percentage watch mainly Spanish-language channels, eschewing the programming offered by the larger broadcast networks.