Arts 11 - Digital Media: History & Foundations

Children's laureate Anthony Browne, an author and illustrator, "is concerned that the pressure of national curriculum tests means priority is given to reading rather than drawing. He believes that the two should be prized in equal measure and any failure to promote art could lead to a shortage of talented artists in later years."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"The safe stolen from Common Goods Books, a St. Paul shop owned by Garrison Keillor, has been found, but the store's manager still is curious about how the burglar got it out. Sue Zumberge said she is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and the safe 'was at face height for me.'" She also recalled, "When we opened the store and we were talking about security, Garrison said, 'Do you really think my neighbors would steal from me?'"... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Opera Company, Dorset Opera, London's Chelsea Opera Group and University College Opera, and Haslemere's Opera South all have a history of using amateur choruses in some of their productions. They're not the only ones. "Many of these groups have a reputation for presenting challenging or unusual repertory," and "[a]ll of them aim higher than a good old romp through G and S."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

McEwan says the protagonist of his next novel "is a Nobel prize-winning physicist who faces media attacks after he suggests that men outnumber women at the top of his profession because of inherent differences in their brains, rather than any gender discrimination. McEwan found himself under a similar kind of fire last summer, besieged by the media after he told an Italian newspaper that he 'despise[d] Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest'."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"It was supposed to symbolise a new beginning, but the B of the Bang has met a sad end. The last of the 180 hollow spikes on the sculpture next to Manchester City's Eastlands stadium have been cut off for recycling, leaving the 56m (184ft) sculpture a shadow of its former self. Only the steel core remains after councillors decided it had to come down earlier this year."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"After a period of pretty-pleasing Netflix to let me poke around its clandestine Chicago-area hub, and see what wonders await and how its ubiquitous red-enveloped packages are processed, I was given an address and a time to arrive and asked not to blab about it. ... To get there, I was told to go to Carol Stream, to be there around sunrise. I imagined it was like coming upon Narnia -- one stares at it awhile until the entrance becomes evident, which turned out to be sort of true."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

Nancy Sinatra: "My father, Frank Sinatra, and singers like Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby and Perry Como fought for years for performance royalties from radio stations, arguing it was unfair that performers are not paid.... This fight isn't just about featured artists. There are thousands of background singers and session musicians who deserve to be paid for their work, too."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"The creators of 'The Laramie Project,' the acclaimed play about the 1998 murder of a 21-year-old gay man, Matthew Shepard, are finishing work on an 80-minute epilogue to the original work that will be given its debut simultaneously at dozens of theaters across the United States on Oct. 12, the 11th anniversary of Mr. Shepard's death. ... Tectonic's goal is to recruit 100 regional theaters, universities and other arts organizations to hold staged readings of the work...."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"In a new paper, a pair of statisticians at the University of Vermont argue that linguistic analysis -- not just of song lyrics but of blogs and speeches -- could add a new and valuable dimension to a growing area of mass psychology: the determination of national well-being."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

More than 10,000 tickets to Gustavo Dudamel's Hollywood Bowl debut as Los Angeles Philharmonic music director went on sale to the general public on Saturday. They were snapped up "at a pace more common for concerts by pop stars, not classical musicians," and in the process, "about 550 of the estimated 800 patrons who showed up at the Bowl, some of whom arrived early in the morning and waited for hours in the heat, went home empty-handed."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"Florence 'Floss' Schumacher, a doyenne of Orange County's social and arts scene for nearly three decades who was instrumental in establishing the Orange County Performing Arts Center and several performing arts organizations, has died. ... She played a key role in the beginnings of resident companies at the performing arts center -- the Pacific Symphony, the Pacific Chorale, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the now-defunct Opera Pacific, which folded last year after 22 seasons."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

The Los Angeles City Council is to vote today on whether to sponsor a $30 million loan for renovations to the glamorous but frequently dark Kodak Theatre, whose lease holders plan to sign Cirque du Soleil to a 10-year contract. "Designed to accommodate the Oscars and other red-carpet awards shows, the theater has not been an attractive venue for many other types of programs, and a good number have gone to competitors in Hollywood or the LA Live entertainment complex downtown."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"Plans by German scholars to reprint Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' as an academic treatise were rejected by the state copyright holders, who said a new edition of the book could fuel support for far-right groups. The Bavarian authorities this week reaffirmed a 64-year-old ban on the book after the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History, or IFZ, applied for permission to reprint the work."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb are unlikely to spend more than a few hours in custody even if they are sentenced to a prison term tomorrow by Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto. The Crown is seeking eight to 10 years in prison for the founders of Livent Inc.," while "Drabinsky and Gottlieb are asking for conditional sentences or house arrest. ... The legal precedents suggest a term much closer to what the prosecution is seeking...."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"[U]nless you are Keats or Kane or Dunbar or Büchner, most young playwrights and theatre-makers eventually go on to become mid-level artists. But what sort of career support do they go on to have? Or are they simply forgotten in the endless rush for the new? ... Ultimately, theatres must start seeing that they have a responsibility to really help playwrights to develop their careers and not just look to the next great find."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"They are complaining that the charity sells donated stock, receives 80% business rate reductions - as do other charities - and largely employs volunteers. The smaller running costs, they argue, allow it to undercut rivals. They say it is no surprise that Oxfam, which now has 130 specialist bookshops across the country, has become the biggest retailer of second-hand books in Europe."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

Ever since June, when it eliminated the position of artistic director and got rid of the beloved figure who held that job, Milwaukee's Skylight Opera Theatre "has suffered demonstrations, petitions, mass resignations of performers, subscriber revolt and Facebook vitriol interpreted by management as violent threats. Happy, um, 50th birthday, Skylight."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"Before global finance crashed, Robert Jain, the head of Credit Suisse global proprietary trading, commissioned twelve artists through the private curator Kipton Cronkite to create works inspired by Wall Street terminology." Bad timing, turns out. "There's a painting of gathering clouds inspired by 'hedge fund' called Ominous ... there's a light-box of snarling red bulls...."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

"A number of London's West End theatres are to boost their security to counter worsening audience behaviour, owners have said. It comes after reports of drunkenness and even fights during performances. ... The deteriorating behaviour is being blamed on cheap tickets, attracting younger audiences, and a liberal attitude to alcohol in theatres."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

Five years ago, Modernism/Modernity, "the quarterly of the Modernist Studies Association, ran a review essay of the writer David Foster Wallace's story collection Oblivion. The essay was a put-on, a leg-pull, a sham, in ways that take some explaining for nonspecialists in recent American fiction. But no one publicly called attention to the con until last month." In the meantime, some grad students mistook it for the real thing.... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference