On the list of best classical events in America’s first city this year: the NY Philharmonic’s trip to North Korea, and Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday celebration. The worst list is headed, of course, by the Gerard Mortier debacle at City Opera…
Tag: 12.18.08
Want To Publish A Bestseller? Get A TV Star To Write A Memoir
Two years ago in London, publishers were “ringing showbiz agents and asking whether their biggest clients had ever thought of doing a book.” It worked: “Throughout this autumn, at least seven or eight of the Sunday Times non-fiction top 10 have been memoirs by television faces.”
Was It Illegal To Freeze Ballet BC’s Bank Account
“Although Scotiabank says it was within its rights to freeze a Ballet British Columbia bank account and use its funds to pay off a credit-card debt, an expert in insolvency law suggests such actions could be in violation of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.”
Film and TV Actor Sam Bottoms, 53
“Sam Bottoms, who started his acting career as a teenager in The Last Picture Show and played surfer Lance Johnson in Apocalypse Now, died Tuesday in Los Angeles of brain cancer. He was 53. He was the brother of actors Timothy, Joseph and Ben Bottoms and the husband of producer Laura Bickford. “
Even Damien Hirst Can’t Sell In This Art Market
“New York art dealer Christoph Van de Weghe had eight works by Damien Hirst in his booth at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair earlier this month. He sold only two… The unsold works included an $850,000 cabinet filled with cigarette butts and a blue canvas with 15 butterflies.”
Arts Council To Survey State Of English Dance
“In Britain, dance has historically regarded itself as the Cinderella of the arts, excluded from the glitzier levels of publicity and funding enjoyed by film, theatre and music, and lacking a voice in more than one respect. But perceptions are changing…”
Two Leonardos In One
“A curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris has stumbled upon some unknown drawings on the back of a painting by Leonardo da Vinci that look like they might be by the Italian master himself, the Louvre said on Thursday.”
Broad Blasts LACMA/MOCA Merger Proposal
Eli Broad, who has offered to bail out Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, is blasting an alternative plan put forward by LACMA to merge the two museums. “The question, he said, is which bailout carries a stronger guarantee of secure funding for MOCA’s endowment and exhibitions: his $30-million offer or LACMA’s merger proposal, to which no price tag has been publicly attached.”
When Architects And Their Projects Go Bad
“Clients in search of iconic statements often hire star architects from out of town to come up with big ideas, while asking local or regional firms to collaborate and carry out details… What happens when such relationships don’t gel? The Cleveland Institute of Art has been finding out with [its] proposed $55 million expansion.”
Finally, Some Competition For Ticketmaster
“January 2009 could be the start of a new era for concert-ticket buyers who are fed up with exorbitant prices, extraneous service charges and a lack of competition in the marketplace. That’s when Live Nation will start taking on Ticketmaster in the United States – with plans to do the same in Canada by 2010 – and there are already promises being made about how the new competition will empower the consumer.”