Arts 12 - Digital Media: Current Directions

"Opera has emerged as the big winner in the first round of Sustain funding from Arts Council England, the new cash pot set up to help cultural organisations combat the effects of the recession." The largest award, £900,000 went to Welsh National Opera (which tours in England every year), with English National Opera receiving £750,000 and the Royal Opera House £700,000.... ArtsJournal mclennan

"Are rules made to be broken - or obeyed? Newly published research suggests your answer to that question depends largely upon whether you are mulling it over from a position of power. 'In determining whether an act is right or wrong, the powerful focus on whether rules and principles are violated, whereas the powerless focus on the consequences,' states [a new] study."... ArtsJournal mclennan

"Arts leaders have welcomed a report by the Home Affairs Select Committee [of Parliament] which recommends a raft of changes to the controversial points-based visa system, including the introduction of a fast track process, so that performers can enter the country at short notice in 'exceptional emergency cases'."... ArtsJournal mclennan

"I'm tired of traveling and tired of being underpaid. … And I want to spend more time with my family. But then I get asked [to direct] again, and it sounds interesting."... ArtsJournal mclennan

"Thank goodness there are no MPAA ratings for the live theater. A new stage musical about the San Fernando Valley's porn industry is currently in the development phase. The production is a partnership between New York's experimental group the Civilians and L.A.'s Center Theatre Group. The still-untitled show 'will explore the real-life stories of the people who work in California's pornography industry,' according to CTG."... ArtsJournal mclennan

Conductor Charles Hazlewood writes that he's "launching Play the Field, a new breed of orchestral festival … [n]ot in a cathedral or any august temple of the arts, but in a field on the Somerset Levels." He says that outdoor concerts "have tended to be indifferent performances by under-rehearsed orchestras and third-rate conductors … Has anyone heard the Amsterdam Concertgebouw orchestra perform in a field? Or Simon Rattle conduct under the stars?" (Well, there's Ravinia and Tanglewood, and the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl and the NY Phil in Central Park …)... ArtsJournal mclennan

"Let's Make A Deal, the 1960s and 1970s staple that featured audience members in wacky costumes taking a chance on what was behind door No. 3, will return to the CBS daytime schedule Oct. 5 with a new host but with many of the old games and structure." The comedy/game show will replace the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light.... ArtsJournal mclennan

"Charles Gwathmey, an architect who turned his love of Modernism and passion for geometrical complexity into a series of compelling houses and sometimes controversial public buildings, died in Manhattan on Monday. ... Mr. Gwathmey was part of a generation of architects who put their own aesthetic stamp on the 'high Modernist' style developed in the early 20th century by Le Corbusier and others."... ArtsJournal http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference

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