“Monty Python’s famous Dead Parrot sketch is actually a lot older than thought – 1,600 years older. An ancestor of the comedy sketch has been found in a joke book dating back to Greece in the 4th Century.”
Tag: 11.13.08
Met Drops Next Season’s Ghosts Of Versailles
“Cutting costs in the wake of the economic downturn, the Met[ropolitan Opera] is dropping next season’s highly anticipated revival of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles that was to feature the company debut of Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth. Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas Hampson, who also were to appear, instead will sing in a less-costly revival of Verdi’s La Traviata, Met general manager Peter Gelb said Thursday.”
Why Are Female Authors So Seldom In Awards Limelight?
Brian Schofield, who found himself shortlisted last week for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, doesn’t blame publishers or jurors for the total absence of women from the list. “But does the literary industry as a whole – agents, editors, booksellers and critics – currently offer disproportionate encouragement to aspiring male writers to produce the kind of serious-minded, bookish work that gets on shortlists, compared to young female writers? Now, I suspect, we’re on to something.”
After Pockmarked Big Bird, WGBH Sues Over ‘Digital Mural’
“First of its kind in the region, the state-of-the-art display covering the western wall of the new WGBH headquarters debuted amid fanfare last year, when it began beaming an ever-changing array of images … to the half-a-million Boston-bound motorists who pass by it each week on the Massachusetts Turnpike.” But the screen, “marred by dark spots,” was turned off in June, and WGBH is suing the maker of its “digital mural.”
If You Build A Book Fair, Writers (And Readers) Will Come
The Miami International Book Fair, the nation’s oldest, was started 25 years ago — in part to counter Miami’s lack of reputation as a literary town.
How To Market A Dead Author
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an unlikely best-seller — it’s the first book in a trilogy of thrillers written by Stieg Larsson, a previously unknown Swedish journalist who died of a heart attack in 2004. Knopf Editor-in-Chief ‘Sonny’ Mehta, who snapped up the rights to the thrillers, says he was attracted to the ‘absolute ambition’ of the trilogy. … Still, the fact that the trilogy’s author is dead complicated things.”
S.F. May Limit Exec Salaries At City-Funded Nonprofits
“As compensation for executives of large corporations has come under scrutiny nationwide, San Francisco lawmakers are considering a proposal to limit the salaries of executives at nonprofit organizations that receive city funds. The proposal by Supervisor Jake McGoldrick seeks to limit salaries and benefits for executives to six times the total compensation of their lowest-paid full-time employee.”
NEH Chairman Cole To Step Down In January
“Bruce Cole, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities for the past seven years, announced yesterday he is leaving in January to join the American Revolution Center in Valley Forge, Pa. His departure gives the incoming administration of Barack Obama the opportunity to name the heads of both national endowments.”
Smithsonian Nurtures Native American Composers
“For the last three years, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has been mounting one of the more adventurous concert series in town, showcasing new classical music by Native American composers. Admit it — you didn’t know there was such stuff.”
SoHo Mural Needs Restoration (And Maybe A Cat Upgrade)
“Using only oil paint, the artist Richard J. Haas created an entire cast-iron facade in SoHo more than 30 years ago. Ever since, his five-story trompe l’oeil mural at 114 Prince Street, near Greene Street, has beguiled so many people that it might be thought of as New York’s first big two-dimensional architectural landmark. … Today, however, … Mr. Haas’s mural stands defaced, its entire second-story base covered by tags.”