“The New York Philharmonic and the union representing its 106 musicians agreed today to a new five- year contract that will boost salaries and pension payments. Players’ minimum pay for the current season will rise 4.6 percent to $118,560 from $113,360, the orchestra said today in a statement. By the 2011-12 season, minimum annual salaries will increase to $140,400.”
Tag: 09.26.07
Katha Pollitt, Human Being (Evidently That’s Forbidden)
Katha Pollitt’s confessional collection, “Learning to Drive,” a departure from her usual political writing, has been met with derision and discomfort. “So why would someone like Pollitt — so far out of the trenches of confessional journalism — dive in headfirst? Well, perhaps she feels she has a lot to say about the way human beings trust and love and how the smartest among us willingly go deaf and dumb, how the most confident of us go soft, how the savviest get blindsided.”
Under Musharraf, Pakistan At Last Gets National Gallery
“The biggest surprise for most Pakistanis is that the National Art Gallery ever opened at all. It took a marathon 28 years to develop and build, and was a victim of financing shortfalls, bureaucratic inertia and repeated shifts in power under alternate military and civilian governments, which often undid what their predecessors had started.”
Keep Those Actors Indoors!
“Toronto directors and performers love to drag their audiences outdoors to the most untheatrical locations. Over the last decade, we’ve seen theatre on the beach, dance in parks, Shakespeare under the Gardiner Expressway, drama in a leaky warehouse, staged history in a hot storefront and choreography over an abandoned railway track… But the truth is, to make theatre, one needs a little night magic, and nothing destroys that magic or makes it more difficult to be established than exposure to the natural or urban environment.”
When Do-Gooding Doesn’t Do Much Good
A new film purporting to shine light on the horrific underworld of international sex slavery is getting a decidedly mixed reaction from those who work to undermine such human trafficking operations. On the one hand, making the public aware of the problem is a noble cause. But the film is based on a much-disputed newspaper article, and law enforcement officials worry that the movie’s dramatic license will cause parents to focus on phantom threats to their children.
Are More Bestsellers Good For The Book World?
Book critics and the publishing world seem to be split over whether the decision by the New York Times to split its paperback bestseller list in two is a positive development or not. “These lists do give crucial exposure to new books, but they are also just one more marketing tool for publishers.”
LA’s Black Theatres Waiting For Promises To Be Kept
“On the still riot-marred landscape of South L.A., “potential” has become a hackneyed word, a political euphemism for improvements in black neighborhoods that were discussed after the riots in 1992 but never materialized. Yet there is one unlikely area of redevelopment where ‘potential’ still resonates beyond the rhetoric: theater.”
And They Still Don’t Let Any Of Them Kiss Each Other
“The number of gay characters depicted on TV is falling on network series but rising on cable, a study by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found.” In particular, cable leads the broadcast networks when it comes to placing gay characters in leading roles.
Huge Art Claim Filed In Holland
“Just as the Dutch government was moving to discourage new claims for restitution of art looted during World War II, the heirs of a Dutch Jewish art dealer have filed one of the largest claims to date for paintings now held in Dutch museums.”
Stieglitz Collection To Be Shared In Return For $$
“Fisk University’s board of trustees has agreed in principle to share ownership of its prized Alfred Stieglitz Collection with the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas in exchange for $30 million… The founder of Crystal Bridges, the Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton, also pledged $1 million to renovate and maintain the Fisk gallery that houses the collection and to finance an art internship.”