Monday, January 23
A New Take On Low Tuition And High Standards A study shows that only "3% of the students in America's top colleges come from families in the lowest income quartile and only 10% from the bottom half. Most students are relatively well-off, and their numbers include plenty of racial minorities who receive preferential status independent of their economic circumstances." The City University of New York is trying something new. "For all its imperfections, CUNY's model of low tuition fees and high standards offers a different approach. And its recent history may help to dispel the myth that high academic standards deter students and donors. “Elitism”, Mr Goldstein contends, “is not a dirty word.” The Economist 01/19/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 8:43 am
Does Science Need A Private I. Corps? Recently, several scientific papers have been exposed for fraud. "In the wake of these and other science scandals in the past several years-ranging from fabricated findings to misleadingly incomplete data-some editors of science publications are rethinking their roles and asking themselves whether they should act more like muckraking investigators than purveyors of scientific discovery..." Boston Globe 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 8:35 pm
What If Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine? A Japanese scientist suspects that laughter may affect the health of genes. "If we prove people can switch genes on and off by an emotion like laughter, it may be the finding of the century which should be worth the Nobel Prize or even go beyond that." Discovery 01/20/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 6:01 pm
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Ancient Tomb Under Roman Forum A 3000-year-old tomb has been found underneath Rome's Forum. "Archaeologists were excavating under the level of the ancient forum, a popular tourist site, when they dug up the tomb, which they suspect is part of an entire necropolis." Yahoo! (AP) 01/19/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 9:53 am
Iowa Historical Museum Fires Director The director of Iowa's State Historical has been fired after performance of the museum failed to live up to expectations. "His work gained little public attention, and attendance by school groups in 2005 fell to its lowest mark in seven years, according to a department report." Des Moines Register 01/22/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 8:53 am
Museum Removes Five Klimts After Anonymous Threat Vienna's celebrated Belvedere Museum has taken down five paintings by Gustav Klimt after receiving an anonymous threat from an individual who threatened to destroy them. "Sources in the gallery said the mail had threatened the paintings would be destroyed to stop them being restored to heiress Maria Altmann, niece of their orginal Jewish owner who was driven out of Vienna and stripped of his possessions by the Nazis in 1938." The Belvedere had agreed to return the paintings earlier in the week. Monsters & Critics (UK) 01/20/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 1:02 pm
Native Galleries Welcome In Toronto, But What Do They Accomplish? The Royal Ontario Museum has finally opened its long-awaited gallery focusing on the history of native peoples in Canada. The gallery seems primed for success, but it brings up an uncomfortable irony for North America's aboriginals: having been forced from their land, mistreated for centuries, and generally denied the opportunity to reestablish their native culture, native peoples are now forced to view their history through the prism of the white man's museums. "How can the museum transcend the guilty legacy of cultural vandalism that haunts it?" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/21/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:56 pm
Police Recover $60 Million Stolen Salt Shaker "Austrian police have recovered a $60m 16th Century figurine stolen in 2003 called Saliera, or salt cellar, after a suspect turned himself in. Experts established it was an authentic work by Florentine master Benvenuto Cellini... It was found on Saturday, buried in a wooden case near Zwettl, a town about 55 miles north of Vienna." BBC 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:27 pm
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Classical Music - The Next Innovation Composer Osvaldo Golijov is "being hailed as classical music's Messiah," writes Andrew Clark. "The human fire of creativity today is not necessarily where people think it is. I don't think it lies in the classical conservatoire system. Maybe Björk will produce the next masterpiece rather than someone from classical tradition. It's a question of relevance to the world." Financial Times 01/23/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 8:38 am
Louisville Orchestra Musicians To Play Opera, Ballet Musicians of the Louisville Orchestra say they'll continue to play for the city's opera and ballet companies through the rest of this season even if the orchestra itself goes out of business. The musicians are locked in a contract dispute with management. Louisville Courier-Journal 01/23/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 7:29 am
Global Recorded Music Sales Down Global music retail revenues fell about 2 percent last year. In 2004 they remained flat at $33.6 billion, punctuating a four-year slide. The drop in overall sales came "despite a threefold increase in digital music revenue to $1.1 billion from $380 million, while illegal file-sharing volumes changed little. The new downturn, based on data from three-quarters of the global market, underlined major challenges facing record companies..." Yahoo! (AP) 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 6:17 pm
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Rebuilding Gulf Coast Arts, An Update "A poll taken by the National Endowment for the Arts in September estimated damage to art institutions and performing-arts organizations to total at least $82 million -- not including losses by individual artists." Four months later, the arts are trying to rebuild... Houston Chronicle 01/20/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 9:05 am
What Defines A Citizen? "Perhaps never before in human history has so much energy been devoted to trying to establish citizenship tests to define national identity. Judging from the debates raging and the confused choices made, there is as little agreement within each country as there is between them." The New York Times 01/23/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 8:44 am
Google Declines To Turn Over User Info "Google is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the internet's leading search engine — a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance... The government wants a list of all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week — a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries... Yahoo, which runs the internet's second-most used search engine, confirmed Thursday that it had complied with a similar government subpoena." Wired 01/20/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:34 pm
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McCoy Tyner On Top "At 67, pianist McCoy Tyner plays solos that can be as intense as they were when he was part of the fiery music the Coltrane quartet conjured on a nightly basis. But he has also grown more subtle and more reflective over the decades. No matter his stylistic approach to the keyboard at any given moment, Tyner remains downright magisterial. Sometimes spiritual, sometimes whimsical and often both, he makes powerful jazz." Detroit News 01/22/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 8:13 am
The Changing Face Of Mozart "More nonsense has been written about Mozart than almost any historical figure except Jesus Christ." He was poisoned by a jealous rival, he was a musical manifestation of God, he was an offensive and boorish idiot savant - the myths abound, and they are all demonstrably false. "Every generation has admired Mozart, but some more than others and in remarkably different ways. The changing perceptions of the man and his music are themselves almost a small social history." The Age (Melbourne) 01/21/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:37 pm
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Does It Pay To Be First? Premieres draw attention to theatre companies. But what do they do for the company? "Anybody who's running a theatre in America today has to serve two masters: You have to serve the aesthetics of the community and give them shows they want to see, and we have to serve the art form or else we're just doing museum pieces. Theatre is live and future-oriented, and I'd hate to think we're just doing the familiar. Institutional theatre has got to take risks." Backstage 01/20/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 5:27 pm
Spamalot Heads Home The Monty Python-inspired musical, Spamalot, is headed back to its spiritual and linguistic home. The wacky show, which has broken ticket sales records on Broadway, will begin a run in London's West End this fall. The Guardian (UK) 01/21/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 1:10 pm
Rings Engagement Will Be A Costly One, But Sales On Track "The final cost of the long-awaited stage adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which begins previews at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre on Feb. 2, may exceed its projected budget of CAN$27-million... [Still,] the most ambitious and expensive stage show in history seems to be on track. As of this week, advance sales were closing in on $15-million." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/21/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:53 pm
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A Big Little Magazine Quits After 80 Years The New Leader is closing after 80 years of publication. "The New Leader has a circulation of roughly 12,000, down from a peak of about 30,000 in the late 1960's, and like most magazines of its kind, it runs at a loss - some $400,000 a year in this case. Back in the 50's, it was said to receive occasional support from the C.I.A., but it has been more reliably sustained by contributions from, of all places, an institute financed by Tamiment, the famous Poconos resort and proving ground for the likes of Sid Caesar and Danny Kaye." The New York Times 01/23/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 8:30 am
Turkey Drops Charges Against Writer A Turkish court has dropped charges against a prominent writer for "insulting Turkey" after the government declined to accept the charges. "Brussels had described the case as a litmus test of Turkey's EU membership credentials. The European Union's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the court's decision to drop charges was "good news for freedom of expression in Turkey". But he warned that Ankara must tackle loopholes that restrict freedom of speech in other cases." BBC 01/23/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 7:23 am
Turkish Government Declines Charges Against Author The Turkish government won't approve charges of "insulting Turkey and Turkishness" against Orhan Pamuk, the country's most prominent author, leaving the decision to a local court that could drop the case. Yahoo! (AP) 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 6:26 pm
Does Dishonesty Power The Publishing Industry? As much fun as it may be to debate the seriousness of James Frey's literary crimes, it's really not as big a deal as many are making it out to be, says Simon Caterson. In fact, America's literary history is chock full of scandals and hoaxes, and sometimes, it even seems that the entire inustry is powered by near-constant controversy. The Age (Melbourne) 01/21/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:42 pm
Sony Gets Into The E-Book Game E-books have been touted for years as the next big thing in literature and technology, but they've never caught on with the reading public in a big way. Later this year, though, Sony will attempt to succeed where others have failed with a new generation of electronic readers featuring a high-tech screen utilizing tiny "microcapsules... that look far more like ordinary paper than a liquid crystal display... The E Ink technology also conserves batteries because current is used only when pixels need to change their color -- between virtual page turns, the Reader consumes no current at all." Wired 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:30 pm
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Can Hollywood Make A Comeback? "Hollywood took 7% less at the box office in 2005 than in 2004 and growth in sales of DVDs has slowed. Internet video threatens the satellite and cable systems of companies such as News Corporation and Time Warner. Dozens of advertisers are shifting budgets from television to such places as the internet and billboards. Brand-owners hate it that people are using digital video recorders to avoid their pitches. And if media firms move on to the internet themselves, they risk losing their films and television programmes to pirates. No wonder that on media island they are downcast. Yet, if Hollywood teaches one thing, it is that stories can be re-made and dreams can come true." The Economist 01/19/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 9:26 am
On The Edge Of A TV Revolution Google's deal last week to acquire dMarc Broadcasting for up to $1.24 billion is a good signal about where the TV industry model may be headed. In one scenario, viewers ought to be able to get any programming they like whenever they want, however they want it... The New York Times 01/22/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 7:18 am
A Plan To Fix Hollywood: Make Fewer Movies So movie theatre attendence is down. Hollywood's financiers have noticed, and have a plan to do something about it. "The major media companies are significantly reducing their financial commitment to the motion picture sector. Substantially fewer films will be produced over the next year or two. And a significant portion of the production costs of the reduced slate will be borne by hedge funds and other investment groups." Variety 01/22/06
Posted: 01/23/2006 7:11 am
West Wing Gets The Ax After seven seasons, NBC is canceling "The West Wing." "There's a point when you look at the ratings and say, it feels like it's time." Yahoo! (AP) 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 6:12 pm
Fine Actors For Obscenity? For Doing Their Jobs? Screen Actors Guild National President Alan Rosenberg is protesting a plan for FCC legislation that would fine actors for obscenity on TV. "SAG members work primarily on scripted projects – we are hired to perform a role. To be threatened with half a million dollars in fines for doing our jobs is incomprehensible," he said during the committee’s Jan. 19 hearing on decency in Washington D.C. Backstage 01/20/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 5:57 pm
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Rock On - The Dance Puzzle "Modern dance would seem suited to rock: ordinary people, everyday clothes, ordinary families, movements that embrace myriad social dances that the music spawned. Yet curiously, it was ballet that provided the first major forum for rock..." The New York Times 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 8:18 pm
The Finest American Ballerina? "Now 38 years old, in her 20th year at the New York City Ballet, Wendy Whelan has attained that rare high plane of soul-and-body synchrony where command of technique serves the spirit of a performer with something to say. Often in ballet the soul begins to wax only as the body starts to wane, and many dancers ready to converse with God find they are physically unable to keep from mumbling. But Whelan has mastered the archetypal ballet themes of Beauty, Time and Death while still in her prime." New York Times Magazine 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 8:12 pm
Birth Of The Flamenco "Flamenco is born more in the singing, and in the playing of guitar. The dancing comes later. There are the basic palos - alegrías, tangos, siguerillas and so on - and from there you can have a very wide map, like a river." The Telegraph (UK) 01/22/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 6:56 pm
PBT To Bring Back Orchestra On A Limited Basis Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has reached an agreement with its 47 musicians to restore some live music to its performances for the 2006-07 season. PBT laid off its orchestra last summer and has been using recorded music this season - the musicians filed an unfair labor practices complaint in retaliation. "PBT leaders have promised to hire the musicians for two of the company's five productions during its 2006-07 season, which will be announced in two weeks." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/19/06
Posted: 01/22/2006 12:19 pm
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