For more than two decades, violinist Stewart Kitts held a prestigious leadership position in the Florida Orchestra, and was one of the Tampa Bay area’s brightest cultural lights. He had come from a musical family, and was in the process of raising three children of his own. But somewhere along the line, Kitts got divorced, began dating a drug addict, and became addicted to crack cocaine himself. Less than two years later, his arrest record reads like that of an inner-city gang member, and he has been officially dismissed from the orchestra following a failed intervention last season.
Tag: 10.07.05
Silicon Valley Leaders: We Need Culture To Stay Ahead
A survey of business leaders in California’s Silicon Valley reports that they believe their ability to “recruit creative talent is dropping compared with other global centers of technology. They cited the lack of an energetic urban core and insufficient leisure and cultural activities as among key reasons.”
Agriculture Destroying UK’s Ancient Sites
“Some of the oldest highways in Britain, built over 5,000 years ago to guide Bronze Age man across the treacherous wetlands of the Somerset Levels, have been completely destroyed by modern agriculture.”
Manhattan Development Board Angrily Rebukes Pataki
New York Governor George Pataki’s decision to bar the International Freedom Center’s proposed museum from Ground Zero apparently didn’t sit well with members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, who yesterday issued an extraordinary rebuke of the governor. “The board cannot do much beyond complain, since the Freedom Center declared itself to be out of business almost immediately after Governor Pataki removed the museum from the cultural building last week. Yet their complaints amounted to remarkable political theater in a process where intramural disagreements are usually kept well hidden. The board members’ willingness to speak openly about their frustration almost certainly reflects a high degree of discouragement and even anger.”
Cash Crisis At Canada’s Nat’l Ballet
“The National Ballet of Canada is in financial jeopardy following a disappointing season that saw a significant drop in ticket sales… The ballet has a deficit of $448,000 for the 2004-05 fiscal year, bringing its debt to $1,140,000 — with the biggest source of the shortfall occurring at the box office. Combining ticket sales at Hummingbird Centre and box office from touring, the ballet was down $541,000 over the previous season. Audiences appear to have voted with their feet on the merits of last season’s mostly contemporary offerings. The 2003-04 season ended with a deficit of $690,000 — attributed to problems with fundraising and lower than expected government support.”
PBT Protests Grow In Size, Volume
The pickets organized by Pittsburgh-area musicians to protest the decision of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to dance to canned music for the season is attracting support from musicians and union stalwarts nationwide. “Among the pickets [at last night’s performance] were 25 music students from Carnegie Mellon University; musicians from New York City, Toronto, and Akron; local stagehands; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians in full dress with white ties; and T-shirt-clad members of the Service Employees International Union and Teamsters.”
Will Oprah’s Name Alone Be Enough To Sell Purple?
When Oprah Winfey announced that she was contributing $1 million towards the production costs of the upcoming Broadway production of The Color Purple (Winfrey starred in the movie version of Alice Walker’s acclaimed novel,) the show’s producers saw stars in the shape of dollar signs dancing before them. But while the Oprah branding (which is now prominently trumpeted in every ad for the show) has helped advance sales, it hasn’t yet turned into the fiscal windfall some expected. “Conventional wisdom is that as soon as Oprah starts plugging The Color Purple regularly on her television show, the box office will take off. But there are some red flags here that are worth waving.”
Deadly Serious
A major exhibition at the Tampa, Florida-based Museum of Science and Industry consisting of 20 Chinese corpses, split open to reveal muscles and organs and manipulated into jaunty poses, has been attracting interest and controversy in roughly equal parts since its opening in August. “The corpses are, depending on whom you ask, magnificent figures created in the spirit of education or an insulting mockery created in the service of greed… The bodies are displayed in various states of simulated animation alongside placards that dryly explain basic elements of anatomy.” Florida’s anatomical board, which regulates the importation and treatment of corpses, is objecting vociferously, but the museum insists that it is acting responsibly.
Big Media: Digital TV Doesn’t Need Educational Restrictions
“Viacom Inc. has asked a federal court to overturn new rules requiring more educational TV programs for children and setting tighter limits on kids’ exposure to advertising in the age of digital television… The government has long set guidelines for broadcasters to set aside a certain amount of educational programming for children with commercials limited to 12 minutes per hour of kids’ programming… But the FCC has formulated new rules to take into account the nation’s move toward digital transmission of TV signals and the phaseout of analog broadcasting… The new FCC rules would extend the children’s programming requirements to those new channels, something the major entertainment companies are resisting.”
Why Do We Love Lolita?
It’s been 50 years since Vladimir Nabokov penned Lolita, but the tale of a pedophile and his “nymphet” stepdaughter remains as baldly shocking and strangely moving as the day it was published. In fact, it’s one of the top-selling books of all time. Some scholars suggest that it is Nabokov’s unquestionably beautiful way with language that attracts us and gives his book such lasting appeal. But there may also be a darker obsession with underaged children as sex objects hiding beneath the surface of our literary interest. “How is it that a pedophile protagonist remains sympathetic enough to draw audiences? Why does this backward fairy tale — Prince Charming as a monster — endure?”