CopTool Holiday Gift Guide for Power Tools & More 2013

coptool.comcoptool.com: Each year we work to put together a list of some of the most popular power tools and related gifts from the previous year as well as a few classic staples nobody should be without. This year has seen some great new products hit the market that we think would really get any tool nerd excited to unwrap this holiday. Here are just a few of the hot items which we’ve broken down to several different groupings.

“No Animals Were Harmed” is a lie: Exposé reveals abuses on Hollywood sets

Salon.com: “No animals were harmed” in the filming of 2011′s “Life of Pi,” but the tiger “damn near drowned.” That’s just one of a litany of abuses against Hollywood’s four-legged actors, according to a scathing exposé in the Hollywood Reporter. THR obtained incriminating evidence from six anonymous AHA whistle-blowers. Their sources included this email from AHA monitor Gina Johnson concerning “King,” the tiger who starred in “Life of Pi”:

Any given Sunday: inside the chaos and spectacle of the NFL on Fox

The Verge: It's 90 minutes to game time in Foxboro, Massachusetts, and Troy Aikman's not speaking to anyone. Around him, a dozen or so crew members, assistants, and friends chatter as they finish last-minute preparations, making sure Gillette Stadium is ready for football. They're testing cables and video feeds, rechecking stats, and setting up the fabric "NFL on FOX" backdrop that will turn this bland, gray, carpeted room into the tiny booth millions will soon see on TV.

Preview: barebones launches 10th season

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In his 10th year of bringing edgy plays to Pittsburgh, Patrick Jordan has come across a problem that, like the plays that resonate with him, has no easy answers. How do you promote a show with a title that says it all, but no one wants to say it? Asterisks, dashes and such helped get the word out on "The Mother------ With the Hat" when it was on Broadway for 112 performances in 2011, and now the-play-that-must-not-be-named has made its way to Pittsburgh via barebones productions.

'Potted Potter' puts madcap spin on J.K. Rowling saga

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It's by lovely coincidence that the term "potted" can refer to a simplified version of literature, as well as slang for "drunken." After a madcap 70 minutes of puppets, Silly String, disco, googly eyes and many, many hats, "Potted Potter" was both, and more, at the Byham Theater Wednesday night.

Sarah Silverman’s Bad Career Move: Being as Dirty as the Guys

Variety: There’s something simultaneously fascinating and maddening about Sarah Silverman – graced with genuine talent and a well-defined comedic persona on one hand, and a commitment to pushing past the edge in a way that blunts her appeal on the other. Despite all manner of career-friendly gifts – from her looks to solid acting chops – she’s limited herself by appearing determined to prove she can be as dirty and distasteful as the boys, an attribute very much on display in her HBO special “We Are Miracles,” which premieres on Nov. 23.

Girls Shouldn't Try Raunchy Comedy, Variety Critic Says

Girls Shouldn't Try Raunchy Comedy, Variety Critic Says: Variety's television critic Brian Lowry let slip a bizarre opinion this morning while reviewing Sarah Silverman's upcoming HBO comedy special We Are Miracles—namely, that because she's a woman, she shouldn't be "as dirty as the guys." Uh. What?

The Bedlam Troupe’s Many Roles On and Offstage

NYTimes.com: Theater economics being what they are, actors have grown accustomed to doubling and even tripling up on roles when performing in large-cast plays.

Arts head: Purni Morell, artistic director, Unicorn theatre

Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional: The Unicorn was founded in 1947 as a touring theatre that operated out the back of a van and took plays around the country for children. Its core founding philosophy was that plays for children should be treated as, made the same way and judged the same way as plays for adults. Today, the Unicorn serves an audience aged zero to 21-years-old. At the moment, the majority of our audience comes from London and we're about half school audiences, half family audiences. We programme around 30 shows a year, of which about half to two-thirds are our own productions.

InfoComm to Offer Discounted and Free Training at ISE 2014

www.avnetwork.com: “InfoComm has taken this unprecedented step of offering free classes in order to encourage ISE attendees to take advantage of the show’s excellent education opportunities,” said Terry Friesenborg, senior vice president, International Development, InfoComm International. “We want AV professionals in Europe to discover what their counterparts globally have learned about the annual InfoComm show—that InfoComm University training makes the trade show experience complete.”

PLASA Announces Rock Our World, Frank Stewart, and Eva Swan Award Winners for 2013

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The sixth annual Rock Our World Awards were presented at the PLASA Cocktails and Awards Reception on Thursday, November 21st, the evening before the LDI show. These awards, which recognize ground-breaking achievement by PLASA Members, were created to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designer or integrator who applies the technology in a real world environment.

Another Sad Farewell For August Wilson

Howard Sherman: If Trip Gabriel, the New York Times reporter who wrote yesterday’s story about the dire straits of the August Wilson Cultural Center in Pittsburgh, were steeped in Wilson’s writing, he might have noted a sad irony. In August’s final play of his ten-play Century Cycle, Radio Golf, the plot turns on the fate of a decrepit house in the Hill District, the setting for almost all of the Cycle plays. The home of the great Aunt Ester, a seer and guide who reputedly lived for centuries, is standing in the way of urban redevelopment, until one of the men spearheading the project begins to regret the loss of this historic home and fights, at great personal cost, to save it.

'Sirens' cast stunned, upset by show's closure

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Treasure Island’s decision to cancel the long-running pirate show “Sirens of TI” drew fire Saturday from cast and crew members who said they were totally blind-sided. The surprise announcement came a month after the 10-year-old attraction went into what was to be a two-month dry dock. Ten “Sirens” and 10 pirates performed four times a night since 2003, when prominent choreographer Kenny Ortega was hired to give the show a sexy vibe by turning it into a girls-against-guys duel.

Proto SkyHook Tool Tether System Review

ToolGuyd: Proto has recently introduced their new SkyHook tool tether and tether transfer system, which is designed to help keep workers safe without impeding their comfort or productivity. The SkyHook safety tether product line includes a wide range of tether-ready Proto hand tools, and there are also many retrofit kit options that enable you to attach SkyHook tethers and mounting points to your existing tools.

High School Theater Arts in India

HowlRound: India is a massive country with over a billion people and a cultural tapestry that spans throughout the ages. To speak of one part of this beautiful and complicated country, or of one person’s experiences, can be valuable, but is certainly not recognized as a national truth. Some of what I will share comes from my own experience and some has been shared with me by the amazing young artists I now know because of my time in India.

Watch: Craig Brewer Directs a Big 'Footloose' Dance Rehearsal All in One Continuous Shot

Movie News | Movies.com: If you're a fan of director Craig Brewer (and you should be), then the first thing you need to do is go download a free copy of the dude's first feature film, The Poor & Hungry, which Brewer is self-distributing as we speak. Not only can you buy what Brewer feels is his best film to date on Blu-ray, DVD and via digital download, but he's also giving folks the chance to download it for free by tossing him your e-mail.

REVIEW: Pittsburgh Public Theater toasts tensions in its strong 'True West'

TribLIVE: Brothers. Booze. Buttered toast. All three play a large part in Sam Shepard's “True West,” the latest in Pittsburgh Public Theater's Masterpiece Season. This volatile drama, directed by Pamela Berlin, builds to a crashing climax, dragging the audience along the way. Here, the standard American dream of success — house, family, career — is challenged by a less-civilized dream of a frontiersman who can make it anywhere, even in the desert.

Whoa, This Handheld Router Only Cuts Where Needed To Reveal 3D Models

gizmodo.com: Using motion sensors and a highly-accurate magnetic tracker, the computer is able to tell exactly where the tip of the cutting tool is at all times, automatically stopping the spinning bit when it hits material that's not supposed to be removed. So it's almost impossible to make a wrong cut or a mistake.

Every Actor's Nightmare, Inverted

HowlRound: Teaching has always made me nervous. Very nervous. Especially teaching young people. Put me on a stage? Fine. No problem. Learning lines, singing, movement scores? Love it! Give me a script and an ensemble: hallelujah. But present me with planning a curriculum for a high school class, and my heart leaps into my throat.

The LDI 2013 Award Winners Announced

News content from Live Design Magazine: The LDI 2013 Awards for Best Booth Design and Best Debuting Products Of The Year were presented in an awards ceremony at 5:30pm, Saturday, November 23 on the LDI show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Q+A Bob Crowley & Natasha Katz: Sets And Lighting For The Glass Menagerie

Theatre content from Live Design Magazine: Tennessee Williams’ award-winning 1944 play, The Glass Menagerie is back on Broadway this season at The Booth Theatre, with the creative team of scenic/costume designer Bob Crowley and lighting designer Natasha Katz. Natalie Robin chats with the designers.

Stratasys 3D Printing Helps Hyphen to Test and Perfect Commercial Digital Projectors

www.azom.com: Stratasys Ltd., a manufacturer of 3D printers and materials for personal use, prototyping, and production, today announced that Hyphen, the in-house rapid prototyping center of Christie Digital Systems, is utilising Stratasys 3D printing to rigorously test commercial digital projectors and explore new industries and applications.

Arts in prison: why cut our chance to create crime-free futures?

Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional: The arts are easily caricatured as a fluffy non-essential or, worse still, an unmerited luxury, especially when taking place in a prison or a probation setting. But a growing body of evidence suggests they can have a significant impact on offenders' lives, particularly in helping them move away from crime.

AV: The Role Of Critical Distance In Overall Microphone Placement

Pro Sound Web: A microphone is the first component in any speech recording or transmission system. Its function is to convert acoustic sound waves into an equivalent electrical signal. This signal can then be recorded, transmitted, amplified, or modified. However, a microphone cannot effectively sort out desired sound (direct speech) from undesired reverberation (reflected speech). Also, a microphone cannot improve the acoustic environment in which it is placed.

artist demographic

brettany shannon: Richard Florida, famous for his anointing the creative class with his 2002 The Rise of the Creative Class, asserts that the new creative class has overtaken virtually all other classes, both collars and the wealthy, and that they prefer high-tech locations in amenity-filled, diverse cities. Markusen says hold on. “Creativity” is a fuzzy concept from the start, which Florida confuses even further by his use of occupational code statuses

R2-D2 Is in Star Wars: Episode VII, and He’s Fan-Made

Star Wars Blog: The first behind-the-scenes photo from Star Wars: Episode VII hit Twitter last Thursday, featuring director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, and a certain blue and white astromech droid — who StarWars.com can now confirm will indeed be in the film. But who are the two men standing behind Artoo, looking very protective of the “overweight glob of grease”?

“The Motherfucker with the Hat” — barebones productions at the New Hazlett Theater

The Pittsburgh Tatler: Some motherfucker who’s fucking Jackie’s girlfriend Veronica (Ruth Gamble) has left his fucking hat behind, and Jackie (Patrick Jordan) wants to know: who’s the motherfucker with the hat? That quick summary of the play’s inciting incident tells you just about everything you need to know about the language and tone of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s sharp, engaging, and very funny play The Motherfucker with the Hat

Dance and Social Justice

HowlRound: Together with a host of collaborative choreographers, designers, artists and musicians, New Mexico School for the Arts’ Dance and Visual Arts departments created a site-specific community-centered performance at The Santa Fe Railyard. Our goal with this work was to create art from a place of liberation while “unperforming” inaccurate oppressive historical perspectives of others and, in turn, of ourselves, all the while subverting notions of where dance and performance happen and what it means to be an audience member.

Racist? Why Not Multicultural?

bestoftheblogs.com: When I read that a school principal in Oregon said that eating or even talking about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be considered racist, I began to wrack my brain. What about this staple from my childhood and still a quick go to favorite have about it that's racial?

Charge Your Phone From Your Power Tools With This Handy Adapter

gizmodo.com: Smartphones have become an essential tool in every line of work, from corporate accounting to carpentry. But often times those working on construction sites don't have easy access to a power outlet for a quick top-off when needed. They do, however, have access to power tools. And with this clever adapter they can harness a drill or saw's rechargeable battery to recharge their electronics.

Stanley Quickslide Knife Review

Tool Box Buzz: An interesting take on the utility knife. This Stanley tool features a skeleton design, with a compact profile, three positive stops, a belt hook, and a bottle opener. This tool puts the utility in utility knife.

Inside Spidey’s tattered web

New York Post: Michael Cohl, the producer of my favorite show of all time — “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” — told me the real reason the musical is closing in January:
“We tried to get on the Web site for Obamacare, but we couldn’t. We don’t have injury insurance, so we have to close the show.”
You can’t say the man doesn’t have a sense of humor.

Of stage and screens: Broadway websites play leading role

Crain's New York Business: Robert Diamond's initial brush with Broadway and technology began with Phantom of the Opera and a fascination with its leading man. "Hey, I'm a straight guy who loves Michael Crawford. When I was still in college I created the official Michael Crawford website," said the self-described nerd, who remains good friends with the celebrity.
His next venture was a little more professional. In 2003, Mr. Diamond launched BroadwayWorld.com with a $5,000 investment. It took several years before he quit his day job working for a publisher of technology magazines, but eventually the site became his bread and butter.

Bloomberg downsizes arts coverage, lays off stage critic

latimes.com: Bloomberg, the New York-based financial news giant, is shutting down its Muse brand of cultural journalism and has laid off its theater critic. The shake-up was part of a company-wide reorganization that came down on Monday and resulted in layoffs around the newsroom.

Five Things I Learned While Teaching a Class on Arts and Labor

hyperallergic.com: In August and September I facilitated a class focused on labor issues within the arts. Specifically, we looked at how and when artists receive or don’t receive payment for their work, and the broader implications of compensating artists. We looked at examples in the US going as far back as the 1850s, but focused most of our attention on recent history and contemporary practices.

The Habits Of Successful Young Arts Admin Professionals

Adaptistration: One aspect of #NAMPC 2013 I neglected to mention was just how enjoyable it is to mingle with a broad cross section of professionals at different career stages; which is merely a polite way to say that there was a wide variety of newbies, mid-carrier, and veteran arts pros in attendance. It’s especially enjoyable to interact with the 20-somethings, now more than ever because the post-downturn crop of inductees is very different in that they are not what you usually encounter, and I mean that in the most positive sense.

Union stagehands to picket Pearl Jam's Sports Arena concerts

latimes.com: Union stagehands will be picketing Pearl Jam’s concerts this weekend at the Los Angeles Sports Arena over the facility's use of nonunion stage crews for those shows.

Analyzing Electrical Hazards in the Workplace

Occupational Health & Safety: The need for analyzing electrical hazards in the workplace has been recognized by a small segment of the industry for many years. The petrochemical industry and many government institutions have performed research on this subject for more than 30 years. For the most part however, the electrical industry, at least at the user level, has largely ignored the subject, essentially reacting to catastrophic accidents rather than proactively trying to predict and prevent them.

Animals Were Harmed: Hollywood's Nightmare of Death, Injury, and Secrecy Exposed

Hollywood Reporter Exclusive: A merican Humane Association monitor Gina Johnson confided in an email to a colleague on April 7, 2011, about the star tiger in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. While many scenes featuring “Richard Parker,” the Bengal tiger who shares a lifeboat with a boy lost at sea, were created using CGI technology, King, very much a real animal, was employed when the digital version wouldn’t suffice. “This one take with him just went really bad and he got lost trying to swim to the side,” Johnson wrote. “Damn near drowned.”

Simply Stunning Examples Of Next Level Face Painting

fashionablygeek.com: When you think about face painting, you probably think of the booths set up at amusement parks and county fairs. You can choose from a variety of simple images like shooting stars or balloons, and the objects are painted onto your cheek in minutes. Photographer Alexander Khokhlov is showing us a different way to think about face painting with his “Art of Face” series. He’s focused on amazing makeup jobs that transform the face of the person underneath. They’re all amazing.

Bosch Offers New 10" Axial-Glide™ Miter Saw

Tool Box Buzz: After launching the Bosch 12-inch glide saw, professionals have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of a compact 10-inch version. Bosch has answered this call with the new CM10GD 10-inch Dual Bevel Glide™ Miter Saw. The second tool to feature the exclusive Axial-Glide™ System, the CM10GD offers unmatched smoothness and cutting control at all angles, as well as consistent precision throughout the life of the tool.

101 Plays by The New Americans, or on Latinidad

HowlRound: A couple of realizations have emerged from the National Gathering of the Latina/o Theatre Commons in Boston. Among them are two that pertain specifically to the knowledge and accessibility of Latina/o plays. We recognize that: 1. There is a great need for a catalog or list of Latina/o works for the general public, and 2. we need to determine which plays we presently consider to be influential works to us as theater makers. - See more at: http://www.howlround.com/101-plays-by-the-new-americans-or-on-latinidad#sthash.ljUXOju1.dpuf

Beastie Boys Say They Don't Want Music In Ads, But Fair Use Doesn't Care

Techdirt: On Friday, we wrote about the declaratory judgment lawsuit that toy company GoldieBlox filed against Universal Music, the Beastie Boys and a few related parties, arguing that their commercial, which parodies the BB's song "Girls" is fair use and not copyright infringement, following what they claimed was a threat from the band's lawyers. Over the weekend, some in the press started quoting a representative of the Beastie Boys who said no such threat ever happened

Paint by Robot: Super Awesome Sylvia’s WaterColorBot

Hack Things - We help software people make hardware: If you didn’t guess from the name, WaterColorBot is a robot that paints watercolors. It’s a bit like a 3D-printer in that it’s a robot that layers materials using a motorized 2D-dimensional working surface, except there’s only one layer and the material is ordinary watercolor paint instead of plastics. The included software was pretty straight-forward (it very easily connected to the WaterColorBot via a USB cable, and presented a circe-1994 level draw app user user interface). There’s an API, but I haven’t checked it out yet. I do with it was controllable over wifi from an iPad, but perhaps someone in the community will take that project on.

Change of Pace: TinyDuino Microcontroller Is Smaller Than a Quarter

Wired Design | Wired.com: TinyDuino is a fully Arduino-compatible hardware platform, complete with expansion shields (add-on boards that have specific sensors or lights, for you non-robot designers). But where an Arduino Uno is around the size of a credit card, the TinyDuino is smaller than a quarter, and its sibling the TinyLily is the size of a dime. The TinyDuino line is designed around three core elements: size, affordability, and expandability. The idea, says Burns, is to open up Arduino to a whole host of applications that simply aren’t possible with the larger board.

Four Easy Steps For Perfect Digital Gain Staging

Pro Sound Web: The term “gain staging” refers to setting the voltage at the input and output of every device along a signal chain. In other words, it’s setting the amount of “gain” that occurs at each “stage” of the signal path. In ABC gain staging, the engineer is looking to have the voltage at each point in the path coming in at a range known as “nominal operating level.” This is the level where the device functions optimally.

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Partners with Steiner Studios and NYC To Create Integrative Media Program

Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University has reached an agreement with Steiner Studios and New York City to create an Integrative Media Program at Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a city-owned industrial park in the waterfront Wallabout neighborhood.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Race

Createquity.: On March 7 of this year, my friend and I attended a screening of the film Right On!, a seminal creation of the Harlem spoken word poetry movement of the 1960s. Featuring 28 performances by a group called The Original Last Poets, Right On! is essentially a double-album-length music video that presaged MTV by over a decade. The film’s monologues-with-a-beat offer a brutally honest window into black urban life and identity in the midst of the civil rights era. According to the movie’s producer, as relayed by the marketing copy accompanying the event, it was “the first ‘totally black film’ making ‘no concession in language and symbolism to white audiences.’” It was intense, confrontational, and not quite like anything I’d seen before. I loved it.

Can Las Vegas Save 'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark'?

Forbes: “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will be ending its historic Broadway run on January 4, 2014,” said a spokesperson. “We are excited to report that the next destination for Spider-Man will be the entertainment capital of the world: Las Vegas. Further details will be announced in the weeks to come.”

Does “revue” also mean “recoup”?

The Producer's Perspective: I was having a toe-tappin’ good time at the super-well-reviewed After Midnight earlier this week, when I realized I was watching one of those unique Broadway experiences that featured incredible music, incredible dancing, and incredible absolutely amazing performers . . . but no story.

The Aesthetic Evolution of Eco Theater

HowlRound: Eco theater’s modern aesthetic began not in theater, but with the conservationist and naturalist writers of the nineteenth century. It can be argued that Henry David Thoreau, John Ruskin, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and their contemporaries radically redefined our conceptual relationship to the natural world. They sought to achieve not merely a balance with nature, but a reverence and subjugation to it. These writers and other conservationist and naturalist authors, artists, and politicians led in large part to the formation of our national parks and first environmental legislation. Later theorists and artists in theater and literature have come to call this early writing and the later work inspired by it, ecocriticism.

​8 Basic Life-Saving Skills Everyone Should Know

​lifehacker.com: We've featured a ton of survival and MacGyver tips over the years that could help you out of a fix, but what if you're next to someone else who's having an emergency? Don't just stand there as the person chokes or faints! Know what to do in these life-or-death situations.

Circuit Scribe Conductive Rollerball Pen

DudeIWantThat.com: A few random soundbites from Circuit Scribe, a rollerball pen filled with magical (i.e., specially developed reactive silver) ink that enables users of all ages with average or better fine motor skills to draw circuits on demand:
"Instant robot guts."
 "Goodbye breadboard."
 "No shaking, no squeezing, no goop, no smell, no waiting for ink to dry."
 "Circuit Scribe is for Makers, STEM Educators, Artists, Kids, & Life Hackers."

IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013 Marks Record Year for Exhibitors and Attendees

InPark Magazine: Approximately 29,000 amusement park and attractions industry professionals from 110 nations packed the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., for IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013 Nov. 18-22. The trade show floor buzzed with the business of fun as more than 18,200 buyers shopped their way around the largest floor in 10 years. This show brings to a close a record-breaking year as more than 43,000 people, including 28,000 buyers, participated in IAAPA’s Expos around the world: Asian Attractions Expo, Euro Attractions Show, and IAAPA Attractions Expo.

Can Architects And Engineers Work Without Models?

⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community: Three-D modeling revolutionized the engineering world, allowing designers to view digital mockups of their vehicles (wheeled, waterborne, or aerodynamic) from any angle instead of a handful of perspective drawings--but engineers still need to create scaled-down prototypes to test for wind, friction, and other real-world conditions--a pricey process. But what if you didn’t need models at all? Researchers at the University of Bristol are boldly claiming that their new algorithmic technique will do away with physical prototypes entirely.

Bosses May Use Social Media to Discriminate

WSJ.com: The study, a Carnegie Mellon University experiment involving dummy résumés and social-media profiles, found that between 10% and a third of U.S. firms searched social networks for job applicants' information early in the hiring process. In those cases, candidates whose public Facebook FB -2.78% profiles indicated they were Muslim were less likely to be called for interviews than Christian applicants. The difference was particularly pronounced in parts of the country where more people identify themselves as conservative. In those places, Christian applicants got callbacks 17% of the time, compared with about 2% for Muslims.

You Can't Take It With You at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: When You Can't Take It With You opened on Broadway in 1936, it took the theater world by storm, earning a Pulitzer for playwrights George S. Kaufman (a Pittsburgh native and Fifth Avenue High grad) and Moss Hart. It was timely, funny and edgy — just the sort of classic comedy the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama would select to celebrate its centennial.

Carnegie Mellon University To Open Applied Sciences Campus In Brooklyn

CBS New York: The city has announced plans for its fourth applied sciences campus. As WCBS 880′s Peter Haskell reported, the latest high-tech educational partner is Carnegie Mellon University. “It will be the first program focused exclusively on the fusion of technology and the arts, a synthesis that is critical to so many creative industries,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Students get on-the-job training in 'the show before the show'

Lifestyle - Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview High School graduate Josh Long gets several dozen people's immediate attention when he calls out, "Pipe coming in!" Long and Crestview resident Mike Patenaud can lower some often hefty equipment on the heads of unwary fellow stagehands at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center.

David Harewood and Orlando Bloom on Shakespearean Warm-Ups

NYTimes.com: Less than an hour before he was due to roar onto the stage on a motorcycle in “Romeo and Juliet,” Orlando Bloom strode along the gilded balcony of the Richard Rodgers Theater, contorting his mouth and making peculiar noises. “Imagine managing an imaginary menagerie,” he said so fast that the words blurred together, then repeated the tongue twister, more complex this time. He fluttered his lips like a horse, exhaling.

‘Spider-Man’ to Close on Broadway

NYTimes.com: The $75 million Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the most expensive theatrical production in history, will close in early January after months of declining ticket sales, one of the lead producers said on Monday night. A somewhat revamped version of the show is being planned for Las Vegas in 2015, according to the producer, Jeremiah J. Harris.

PLASA and ProSight Specialty Insurance Launch Insurance and Risk Management Reference Guide for Entertainment Technology Industry

Business Wire: ProSight Specialty Insurance (“ProSight”) member insurer, a global specialty insurance carrier in the film and live events industries, and PLASA, the professional association for businesses that supply technologies and services to the event, entertainment and installation industries, today officially released Entertaining Safety: The Entertainment Technology Professional’s Guide to Insurance and Risk Management, a comprehensive reference guide that covers the intricacies of insurance policies and general occupational safety, tailored specifically to the needs of entertainment technology companies. Entertaining Safety was unveiled at PLASA’s annual awards ceremony held in advance of LDI 2013.

Girls Against Boys: What's Wrong With the (Latest) Beastie Boys Lawsuit

Electronic Frontier Foundation: “Oh no!” said the email that went round the EFF office on Friday. Could it be true that the Beastie Boys had unleashed the legal hounds to shut down a parody ad that uses the group's classic misogynistic ditty, “Girls”? Surely not. As remix pioneers, the Beastie Boys are the veterans of many legal battles against copyright maximalists. The Beastie Boys aren’t copyright bullies, they fight those bullies. Right?

Steal Like An Artist

ExhibiTricks: The Museum Exhibit Design Blog: Some books just leap out at you and make you read them.
"Steal Like An Artist" by Austin Kleon has been one of those kind of books for me --- packed with ideas, quotes, and anecdotes that really resonate with me and my creative practice.
Rather than giving the whole book away in this blog post (which would really feel like stealing) I'll share one idea, one quote, and one way of working that will give you a sense of what author Kleon is up to.