“England’s nine screen agencies are to be merged to create a single body called Creative England. Culture minister Ed Vaizey announced the plans today, saying the new body will be chaired by John Newbigin, and will consist of three hubs, based in the north, the Midlands and the south.”
Tag: 11.29.10
OCPAC Is Not Enough: Anaheim, CA Wants Its Own Arts Center
“Anaheim got the stadium [for the L.A. Angels] and the amusement park [Disneyland]. The county’s performing arts center, however, ended up in Costa Mesa. Now, Anaheim wants a big performing arts venue for itself and the rest of North County and, to that end, launched a major capital campaign Saturday night.”
Why We Anthropomorphize
“[The] less evidence we have of another’s beliefs … the more likely we are to project our own beliefs into the voids. The same probably applies to anything else to which we attribute a personality or mind of its own, such as our car, our plant or our pet.”
How We Knew This Kid Would Become a Choreographer
Robert Battle, incoming artistic director of the Alvin Ailey company: “Anything I ever learned, I wanted to teach. When I learned martial arts, I would get my friends together and convince them they needed to learn martial arts. When I started to learn dance, same thing. … There was always this sense of wanting to lead.”
A Subprime Loan: Mozart’s Final Debt
“[An] aristocratic friend and fellow Freemason, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, had sued Mozart over a debt and won a judgment of 1,435 florins and 32 kreutzer in Austrian currency of the time (nearly twice Mozart’s yearly income) weeks before the composer died.”
The Hidden Talents Of The Bourgeoisie
“It turns out we’ve got the bourgeoisie entirely wrong. Far from being the champions of banality and the enemies of joy, contrarian economic historian Deirdre McCloskey says, they are true revolutionaries.”
Winners Of London Evening Standard Theatre Awards
“The new stars of British stage were recognised in a sweep of awards for youth led by teenage playwright Anya Reiss and former Skins actor Daniel Kaluuya.”
English National Opera’s Don Giovanni Stirs Controversy Over Rape Scenes
“The English National Opera’s latest production of the opera, which began its run on 6 November, has come under fire for its two rape scenes, one implying the gang rape of a woman by a masked mob wearing T-shirts featuring the image of Jesus Christ.”
US TV-Watchers Ditch Cable In Favor Of Alternatives
“According to research firm SNL Kagan, US cable operators lost 741,000 basic video customers in the third quarter of the year, the biggest decline since it started tracking the segment in 1980.”
Alex Ross: Why Do We Like Modern Architecture But Not Music?
“Explanations for the abiding resistance to musical modernism have proliferated, their multiplicity suggesting that none quite holds the key. One theory holds that a preference for simple tonality is wired into the human brain.”