In a Halloween package with articles such as “Death, Career Move” and “Ghoulish Gold: Celebrity Body Parts Market,” the Capitalist Tool™ gives its list of the top moneymakers in the Great Beyond. Not surprisingly, Elvis Presley tops the list (John Lennon is only seventh); Albert Einstein is no. 4; newcomers to the list include Heath Ledger (no. 3) and Paul Newman (no. 11).
Tag: 10.27.08
Why Al Franken Isn’t Just Another Sonny Bono
“It’s understandable that people might, at first blush, think of [writer, comedian and U.S. Senate candidate Al] Franken as the equivalent of Sen. Carrot Top–or the next Jesse Ventura, a fellow Minnesotan to whom Franken is incessantly compared. … Actually, while Franken has done lots of straight comedy, he began his career as a political satirist–a very different thing. Satire is a form of political commentary.”
Mark Ravenhill Begs: Playwrights, Don’t Read Aloud
“The skill of the playwright is that they can hear dialogue in their head and write it down. When they come to speak it aloud, they rarely do their own work justice. I’m sure audiences feel that somehow they are getting the authentic voice of the writer. But I would argue that the voice of the text is a very different thing from the way the author sounds: it’s best left to actors to track down and present it.”
AC/DC, Accompanist Of Dire Economic Straits
“Last night came final and irrevocable proof that the country is entering tough economic times, unseen since the 80s: AC/DC have returned to the top of the album charts for the first time in 28 years.”
Why Aren’t Women Writing Big-Idea Books?
“Books like Freakonomics, defining significant cultural or economic trends with a punchy title, never seem to be produced by women. But why?”
As If Times Weren’t Tough Enough For Hedge Fund Wives
“Tatiana Boncompagni, the author of ‘Hedge Fund Wives,’ a novel to be published in May by News Corp.’s HarperCollins, sued her sister Natasha over claims she copied parts of the manuscript and sought copyright protection as its co-author. Tatiana Boncompagni … accused her sister of secretly copying parts of ‘Hedge Fund Wives’ this year during family visits in New York and Milwaukee.”
With $128 Million, Met Opera Led Arts Fundraising In ’07
“The Metropolitan Opera led all U.S. arts organizations in fundraising from private sources with $128.1 million in 2007, according to a survey of 400 nonprofits by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.” Also raking it in last year were Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Miami’s New World Symphony, the San Francisco Opera Association, and the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.
Dylan Thomas’ Birthplace Is Restored
“The restoration of Dylan Thomas’s birthplace has been completed on what would have been the poet’s 94th birthday. … A [Swansea] businessman and his wife have spent three years restoring the former student bedsits to how the house would have looked when Thomas lived there.”
Ananiashvili To Bid Adieu To ABT With Swan Lake
“Nina Ananiashvili will give her final performance with American Ballet Theater as part of its spring 2009 program at the Metropolitan Opera House, it was announced.”
Parks Gets First Master Writer Chair At Public Theater
“It looks like the Big Orange is soon to lose another playwright to the Big Apple. Suzan-Lori Parks, the Pulitzer-prizewinning playwright (‘Topdog/Underdog’), has been awarded the first Master Writer Chair at the Public Theater in New York City.” (Surely the timing of the announcement, made hours before playwrights were to face down producers over the paucity of scripts by women staged Off Broadway, is a coincidence.)