“The 109-year-old symphony, which bills itself as the oldest American orchestra west of the Rockies, said it needs to enter bankruptcy to cut its debt and reduce its payroll by as much as half.”
Tag: 12.20.09
What People Steal From Bookstores
“As it turns out, the list of most-purloined fiction authors at many stores resembles the contents of the X-Case; it’s a list that is predominantly — and often exclusively — male. Why are thieves shunning the distaff?”
This Year In Classical Music – A Tale Of Two Orchestras
“When it comes to the future of classical music in America, the most significant and promising concerts of 2009 were the inaugural programs of the new music directors at major orchestras on opposite coasts.”
“Our Town” Hits New Records
“In the past decade alone, there have been more than 4,000 productions of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. On Wednesday night, the one that has been playing at the Barrow Street Theater in the West Village broke the record that the original Broadway production from 1938 set for its longest run: 337 performances, and counting.”
New Research Suggests Michelangelo Was Different Than He’s Been Portrayed
“We tend to think that he’s petty, and we assumed that he was too great a genius to get along with people, and that’s just not true. We have enough evidence that shows he had a huge number of friends, and he is very loyal to them and his family.
Susan Boyle Was YouTube’s Most-Watched In 2009
Her “Britain’s Got Talent” videos attracted more than 120 million views worldwide. list released Wednesday marks the first time that YouTube has ranked its most-watched videos in any year since its 2005 inception.
A Mega-Vegas Project With Architecture As Star
“It’s certainly unlike any shopping arena you’ve ever encountered, with acres of open space, daringly bold white walls, those trademark Libeskind jagged edges everywhere and — totally unheard of in Sin City — a generosity of natural light pouring into the building.”
Theatre Lives! (But Shouldn’t It Be Better?)
“Sorry to have to break it to all those cultural Cassandras out there, but we’re not going to get off that easy. The theater, to borrow from Stephen Sondheim, is still here. Neither the housing bubble nor the financial-services industry free fall were enough to put the nail in the coffin. We’ve made our overpriced bed — now it’s time to figure out how to dream better in it.”
‘The Most Powerful Female Writer-Director-Producer Currently Working’
Nancy Meyers “is one of those rare people in or out of Hollywood for whom power is not an end in itself but a means to an end – in her case, the ability to get films like What Women Want, The Holiday and Something’s Gotta Give made precisely as she envisions them.”