'Play It Again, Marvin!' rekindles Hamlisch memories

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: He’s been gone for less than a year. But already we are realizing that there was no one quite like Marvin Hamlisch, such a singular conducting, composing, storytelling sensation that he stood alone in the pops firmament.
The tributes and accolades haven’t stopped. While New York City pulled out a string of Broadway, rock and film stars, most recently at a Public Theater gala, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra dealt with the personal side of the man who they set on his own starry Pops pathway, which gradually encompassed six orchestras.

Yale Offers A Course That's Cross-Listed Between Physics & Theatre Arts

space.io9.com: "The Physics of Dance" is run by Sarah Demers from the physics department, and Emily Coates from theatre arts. It's an introduction to physics and dance, classical and modern. It takes interdisciplinary studies and bumps it up a notch, not just teaching how physics can be used to analyze dance, or using dance to explore a science concept as in Dance Your PhD, but fully integrating a curriculum of both disciplines.

Summer Concert Series: Where is your CM Hoist?

blog.cmworks.com: Who doesn’t love the summer time and seeing a great concert with your favorite band from the past or present? A few of my associates recently shared photos from their favorite summer concerts: Charlie Daniels Band (past!) and the Arctic Monkeys (definitely the present).

Ask The Experts: Is It A Bad Idea To Live With My Co-Workers?

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: When you are starting out, or living in an expensive city (we're looking at you New York and San Francisco) roommates can be a necessity. But while your co-workers are awesome to spend 9 to 5 with, do you want to deal with their dirty dishes and late night guests?

A Colored Conundrum

HowlRound: If it is true that conflict is at the heart of drama then the 2014 Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Crossing Borders conference in San Diego, California had its share, as is often the case when any group attempts to tackle the issues revolving around identity and ethnicity in a public forum. The drama in this case began when TCG conducted an experiment to see what would happen if they created a space for affinity groups to divide themselves based on how attendees self-identify in four areas: gender, ability, sexual orientation and race/ethnicity. However, the self-identifying process did not create the kind of clarity within each affinity group that was intended—some white people attended a race/ethnicity affinity group.

A 20-Sided Pocket Art Director Gives You Free Design Advice

gizmodo.com: When deadlines are a-looming and your creative well has momentarily run dry; when a conversation with colleagues would result in a down-the-rabbit-hole discussion that time won't allow; or when a client wants a design change and you need guidance from an impartial third party; the Pocket Art Director wants to help you with your work. In other words: "Just get it done."

Malcolm Gladwell on Criticism, Tolerance, and Changing Your Mind

Brain Pickings: At a recent event from the New York Public Library’s wonderful LIVE from the NYPL series, interviewer extraordinaire Paul Holdengräber sat down with Malcolm Gladwell — author of such bestselling books as The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (public library), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (public library), Outliers: The Story of Success (public library), and his most recent, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (public library) — to reflect on his career, discuss the aspects of culture that invigorate him with creative restlessness, and update his 7-word autobiography.

'Last Billboard' project shares ponderable messages

TribLIVE: An East Liberty art installation is selling viewers on the idea that a billboard can be used for more than product placement.
“The Last Billboard,” a project of Pittsburgh artist Jon Rubin, sits atop the building at South Highland and Baum (above the Livermore). Each month, the 36-foot-long board broadcasts a new message, chosen by an artist Rubin selects from across the country.
“I like that it has an enigmatic presence in the city,” says Rubin of Point Breeze, who also teaches art at Carnegie Mellon University. “You can take what is said in many ways.”

Leonard Auerbach Named Fellow of ASTC

Stage Directions: S. Leonard Auerbach, a principal of consulting firms Auerbach Pollock Friedlander and Auerbach Glasow French, has ben named a Fellow of the American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC). Auerbach was a founding member of the ASTC and its first president. For more than 45 years, Auerbach has provided design and consultation on hundreds of projects.

In Performance: Margo Seibert of 'Rocky'

NYTimes.com: This week’s video features the actress Margo Seibert, with Chris Fenwick on piano, singing the number “Raining” from the Broadway musical adaptation of the 1976 movie “Rocky,” about a Philadelphia boxer.

Starting a Theater Company: Why You Failed & Getting People-Focused

HowlRound: I’m running behind. I need to adjust. Please bear with me.
These three statements are pretty indicative of my state of mind these days, as well as the status of this blog series. I wouldn’t blame the HowlRound staff if they never wanted to work with me again, considering that I haven’t turned in a blog post in over six months. (In reality, however, they are incredibly understanding and sought me out several times to see if I wanted to finish out the series.) Turns out, starting a theater company from the ground up is as much work as I was expecting…times ten.

Yale Offers A Course That's Cross-Listed Between Physics & Theatre Arts

space.io9.com: Class is held in a dance studio equipped with a white board, and students are tasked with calculating their choreography and dancing their equations.
"The Physics of Dance" is run by Sarah Demers from the physics department, and Emily Coates from theatre arts. It's an introduction to physics and dance, classical and modern. It takes interdisciplinary studies and bumps it up a notch, not just teaching how physics can be used to analyze dance, or using dance to explore a science concept as in Dance Your PhD, but fully integrating a curriculum of both disciplines.

giha woo simplifies drawing perfect curves with ellipser

www.designboom.com: we have a ruler to draw a line, a compass to draw a circle, and a protractor to measure an angle. however, we have never had any tool to draw an ellipse. giha woo has a solution to this problem in the form of ‘ellipser.’ the definition of a circle is a group of points located the same distance from a given location called the center. however, an ellipse is more geometrically complex. it is described as a curve on a plane surrounding two focal points, such that a straight line drawn from one of the focal points to any point on the curve and then back to the other focal point has the same length for every point on the curve.

Former Kelly-Strayhorn employee sues theater, claims firing was retaliation

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A former employee of the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater has sued the East Liberty arts organization, claiming she was fired in retaliation for warning co-workers and a former board member about a financial conflict of interest.
Candace Feldman, 31, of the Hill District, claims in the lawsuit that Janera Solomon, the theater’s executive director for six years, paid her father, Phil Solomon, between $30,000 and $36,000 a year to use his steelpan drums for an educational program called Soundwaves, which the theater started in 2012.

I turned Google Glass into opera glasses

The Verge: In 1983, at a showing of Strauss’ Elektra, the Canadian Opera Company changed opera forever. It introduced a concept that its creator termed surtitles, which projected translated lyrics alongside the performers. It allowed viewers to read the dialogue as they heard it sung in German, rather than having to read the plot beforehand or buy a paper libretto with the text. It also launched a veritable culture war.

This DIY Under-Desk Organizer Is Easy to Build, Even in Small Spaces

lifehacker.com: Getting your DIY on in a small space isn't easy, especially if every surface counts. This under-desk storage drawer gives you a place to keep your tools neatly organized, doesn't take up a lot of space, and is easy to build. It's the perfect companion for your apartment or tiny garage workbench.

Building a Wood CNC Router From Scratch

hackaday.com: [David Taylor] needed a CNC router to do some more complex projects — so he did what any maker would do if they’re strapped for cash — make it from scratch!
The impressive part of this build is that it was built entirely in his workshop, using tools he already had. A chop saw, wood lathe, drill and a drill press, and finally a table saw — nothing fancy, but now with the CNC router he has a world of possibilities for projects!

Capital Fringe will move into its permanent home in time for 2015 fringe festival

DC Theatre Scene: The Capital Fringe Festival has been a welcome sign of summer for DC’s theater community, as for three weeks each July, it connects exploratory artists with adventurous audiences with a multitude of creative, cutting-edge, and contemporary performances.
When it was announced that the space for Fort Fringe at 607 New York Avenue NW would be redeveloped, Capital Fringe embarked on an exhaustive search to find a new home, and happily, the group has agreed to purchase 1358 and 1360 Florida Avenue, N.E., currently home to the Connersmith Art Gallery and the (e)merge art fair.

Here's How They Get Models' Hair to Flip Around in Shampoo Ads

jezebel.com: Turns out, there are people whose jobs it is to wear green outfits and make things move on actors in scenes, only to be erased in post-production. These people are called "greenscreen fluffers" and they're everywhere, and they're nowhere.

How To Laser Cut Mylar Solder Stencils

hackaday.com: When you think about the difficulties of working with surface mount components, the first thing that often comes to mind is trying to solder those tiny little parts. Instead of soldering those parts by hand, you can actually apply solder paste to the pads and place all of the components on at once. You can then heat up the entire board so all of the parts are soldered simultaneously. It sounds so much easier! The only problem is you then need a solder stencil. You somehow have to get a thin sheet of material that has a perfectly sized hole where all of your solder pads are. It’s not exactly trivial to cut them out by hand.

Student Debt: Probably as Bad as We Thought

www.aflcio.org: The Brookings Institution, looking at data from 2010, has issued a report claiming the student debt issue isn’t as bad as people think. Using Federal Reserve data on households headed by 20- to 40-year-olds, they conclude that horror stories of people struggling with student debt are exaggerated. Problem is, more current data suggest student debt is more serious than Brookings suggests.

3D-printed composite is lighter than wood and stiffer than concrete

www.gizmag.com: Reseachers at Harvard University have developed a way to 3D-print a cellular composite with record lightness and stiffness using an epoxy resin. This marks the first time that epoxy is used for 3D-printing, and the advance could lead to the development of new lightweight architectures for more efficient wind turbines, faster cars, and lighter airplanes.

Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

The Energy Project: At 6 p.m. last Friday, I boarded a plane for Bangalore, India. At 1 p.m. Tuesday, I arrived back in New York after two days of meetings and traveling 34 hours across nine time zones. As you can imagine, I didn’t see much of Bangalore.
I’m not suggesting this model of travel for anyone, including me. The saving grace was that I experienced little jet lag in either direction. By contrast, many of the executives with whom I spent time in India were visibly exhausted when they arrived after their long flights, and probably even more so by the time they got home.

Joe Manganiello on Male Stripper Doc ‘La Bare,’ ‘Magic Mike’ Sequel

Variety: Joe Manganiello went from playing Big Dick Richie in 2012′s “Magic Mike” to directing “La Bare,” a documentary about a group of male strippers in Dallas. This might sound like the setup for a joke, but Manganiello is serious. A classically trained actor who studied Shakespeare and Ibsen at Carnegie Mellon University, Manganiello got his big break as the shirtless werewolf on HBO’s “True Blood.” He’s always harbored directing ambitions, and when he stumbled on the Texas strip club while researching “Magic Mike,” he started to think about making his own film. Manganiello financed the documentary himself (the budget was in the six figures), and shot it in eight days with the help of his brother Nick.

Twitter Hashtag Encourages Hollywood to #HireTheseWomen

jezebel.com: A hashtag on Twitter is helping highlight women working in Hollywood and encouraging the industry to take note of them.
When Women and Hollywood unveiled their totally depressing infographic about the lack of women directors hired by major studios recently, most people weren't all that surprised. The information revealed that by and large, the major Hollywood studios (the Big 6 as they are known) are not hiring women to helm major releases.

ASCAP Film and Television Awards: Composers Take a Cue, Get Their Due

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Performing rights organization ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) will hold its 29th annual Film and Television Awards on June 25 at The Beverly Hilton. The event will honor the composers of 2013’s top box-office films, the most-performed television scores and the most popular video soundtracks.

Stephen Sondheim Goes Into Damage Control Mode Following Tales of Disneyfied Into the Woods

The Mary Sue: Last week musical nerds clutched their hands to their bosoms and wailed unto the sky when word hit the web of Stephen Sondheim saying the movie version of Into the Woods is being hacked and slashed at by Disney until it resembles something appropriate for children. Infidelity subplot: Gone. Character death: Gone. Sexualization of the relationship between Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf: Gone. Only now Sondheim has released a statement saying his original quotes were taken out of context.

Manganiello brothers' 'La Bare' exposes male strippers

TribLIVE: A pair of Pittsburgh natives is giving audiences a peak into the flashy world of male entertainment.
This weekend, Joe Manganiello, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate turned Hollywood star, and his brother Nick will screen their documentary “La Bare,” an insider's look at the history, lives and culture of the most popular male strip club in the world, La Bare Dallas. The film is a project of the pair's production company 3:59 Inc.

Eddie Murphy’s Fourth ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ Gets $13.5 Million Rebate From Michigan

Variety: The Michigan Film Office is rolling out the red carpet for Eddie Murphy and Paramount, approving a $13.5 million rebate for the studio’s upcoming “Beverly Hills Cop” reboot.
The film, directed by Brett Ratner and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, has been set for release on March 25, 2016. The project is expected to film in Detroit and surrounding communities.

Chicago Theater Review: Sting’s Broadway-Bound Musical ‘The Last Ship’

Variety: In the first of the two narrative strands, there are the shipbuilders, led by Jackie White (the extraordinary Jimmy Nail, personifying blue-collar dignity), the former foreman at the recently sold and shut-down shipyard, who, urged on by the dying local priest (Fred Applegate) and Jackie’s wife (Sally Ann Triplett), agrees to lead the builders on a takeover of the yard with the intention of building one last ship. Sting invests this storyline with stirring group songs, none more moving than “Shipyard,” in which they express the pride they’ve taken in building giant useful objects and the emptiness that comes with the shipyard’s closure.

Is Live Entertainment an Industry?

Selling Out: I might be the only person who refers to “live entertainment” as an industry. Most people I deal with professionally say that they’re in the concert industry, professional sports, theater, arts or something specific like that. So I’m the oddball when I say that live entertainment, meaning all of these diverse things, is an industry that has important shared considerations across all of these.

Autodesk to acquire Shotgun Software

Variety: Seeking to ramp up cloud-computing services for entertainment production, Shotgun Software has agreed to be acquired by software giant Autodesk.
Shotgun makes popular production-management software that helps production, post and visual effects coordinate their efforts. By using cloud computing, Shotgun empowers far-flung facilities and locations to work closely together. Companies using Shotgun include DreamWorks Animation, Framestore, Illumination Mac Guff, Blizzard, Microsoft, Walt Disney Animation, Double Negative and Ubisoft.

NonProfit Spaces Web Site Helps Sublease Properties

www.techburgher.com: NonProfit Spaces offers Pittsburgh-area nonprofits and community-facing organizations a place to list their extra real estate online for sublease, so they can establish reliable, alternative revenue streams. It also offers burgeoning organizations the opportunity to scale up by renting out new, affordable spaces. And it’s free.

Little Lake's Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Little Lake Theatre Co. luxuriates in the fun of Christopher Durang's 2013 Tony-winner Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike. The quirky if sometimes drawn-out comedy mixes Chekhovian atmosphere and references with Durangian irreverence and anger. Consider angst a given for both playwrights.

Review: Mean-spiritedness feels out of step in Pittsburgh CLO's 'Footloose'

TribLIVE: When it comes to musicals, few have the abundance of up-beat, euphoric numbers that “Footloose” possesses.
In addition to its opening and closing renditions of its catchy title song ­— that exhorts you to “kick of your Sunday shoes,” there's Ren's “I Can't Stand Still,” Rusty's spirited “Let's Hear It For the Boy” and Cowboy Bob's “Still Rockin',” all of which are guaranteed to give you a serious case of the gotta-dance syndrome.

How To Be a Young Producer on Broadway

Variety: At 26 years old, the young Broadway producer Megan Savage has two Tony Awards to her name. And a day job.
Savage — a member of the producing team for this year’s Tony favorite “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” as well as last year’s winning play, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” — has enjoyed an unusual run of early-career success in the theater industry. But the balance she must strike between her dayside clockpunching and her legit moonlighting underscores the difficulty up-and-coming producers face when they try to break into a business that’s tight-knit, discouraging and very, very risky.

The incredible scrap metal welded beasts of sculptor John Lopez

Boing Boing: Sculptor John Lopez creates magnificent animals, buffalo and horse and others, from scrap metal. He was born and raised on a South Dakota ranch. It shows.

Battle Ballet: Artistic Integrity vs. Commercial Viability

The Clyde Fitch Report: Performance art truly came into focus in 6th century Greece, thanks mainly to the worshippers of the god Dionysus. What originally started as ceremony quickly turned into a festival and, more importantly, a contest. The audience reaction would decide these contests, so performers had to think not only of what was artistically valid, but what would get the desired reaction.

Community Building with the Chicago Home Theater Festival

HowlRound: The Chicago Home Theater Festival, now in its second year, creates participatory performance events in private homes with the goal of crossing borders, creating opportunities for artists to get paid work outside of institutions, and engendering dialogue around issues of community, identity, and the segregated nature of Chicago’s neighborhoods. Co-producer Irina Zadov explains, “We’ve been organizing [the festival] with a real focus on moving audiences to address some of the issues of segregation and the ways in which the arts like so many other things tend to perpetuate these inequalities.”

New York Dethrones Los Angeles in TV Drama Pilots

Variety: Thanks to runaway production, Los Angeles has lost its leadership in one-hour drama pilot production, according to a report by the FilmL.A. permitting office.
The organization’s 2014 Television Pilot Production Report found that the 2013-14 development cycle saw New York retain 24 drama projects — a convincing lead over the 19 drama projects retained in Los Angeles.

The Painstaking Work That Went Into Empire Strikes Back's AT-AT Scenes

io9.com: The legendary Joe Johnston just revealed this classic behind-the-scenes video of the making of one — one of the shots from Empire Strikes Back featuring the AT-ATs as they lumber across Hoth. It's amazing how slow and low-tech this process was, but also how fantastically the special effects still hold up.

Spain Announces 15% Tax Break for International Shoots

Variety: Spain’s government has announced its intention to extend a 15% rebate on Spanish expenditure to international shoots lensing in the country.
That’s the good news. But, outlining new tax provisions, Spain’s ruling Popular Party has made very clear its intention to clamp down on tax-break systems that allowed Hollywood tentpoles – Warner Bros.’ “Wrath of the Titans,” Universal’s “Fast and Furious 6” – to set up camp in in the country and tap into local tax-break investment reportedly saving the studio $20 million in the case of “Furious 6.”

9000 Industry Professionals Break Attendance Record at IAAPA’s 2014 Asian Attractions Expo

InPark Magazine: Preliminary estimates indicate a record-breaking 9,000 industry professionals participated in Asian Attractions Expo (AAE) 2014, the premier international conference and exhibition for the attractions industry in the Asia-Pacific region. The explosive growth of the industry in Asia—specifically in Mainland China—was evident throughout the three-day Expo as a record number of industry leaders participated in the event and a record number of companies showcased the newest products and services on the largest trade show floor in the event’s history. Asian Attractions Expo, which is produced by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), took place at the China National Convention Center 18-20 June.

New Milwaukee Hand Clamps

ToolGuyd: Matt wrote in with a tip about new Milwaukee hand clamps being carried by Home Depot. We took a look, and sure enough these are Milwaukee’s first foray into the clamping market, locking pliers and fast-release locking pliers notwithstanding.

David Sedaris, Mike Daisey: American Storytelling’s Problem

Flavorwire: When your career is telling true stories — not writing fiction — and somebody accuses you of lying, that’s got to be tough. When somebody combs over your work and finds evidence that this is, in fact, the case, that you and your publisher are misrepresenting your partially fabricated work as truth, big problems arise. It may highlight how the sad state that art of storytelling has become in America, that we need to fabricate stories — but sometimes, amid our denunciation of liars and frauds, we forget that fabrication has always been part of that art.

Making of a King

Prop Agenda: Our last show of the season at Triad Stage is All’s Well That Ends Well, a Shakespeare piece I had worked on before (you may recognize the cannon I built for the previous production at Shakespeare in the Park). There were no cannons this time around, but we did need a crown for the King of France. Since Shakespeare isn’t our typical shtick, we did not have any crowns in stock. I had to make one.

Learning 'Lear': Put It In the Blog!

NYTimes.com: Things do go fast online. My first entry in this online diary appeared late Tuesday night, about an hour after I’d submitted it. As I rode the subway to work the next morning, about a dozen total strangers told me they’d already read my post. Welcome to my working life, you millions of people.

controlgeek.net/Timberspring Infocomm Las Vegas 2014 Show Control Case Studies and Geekout Wrapup

Control Geek: As I wrote here, Jim Janninck and I once again hosted our now-annual Case Studies session/Geekout in Las Vegas during Infocomm 2014. We had three great presentations, about 25 attendees, and some great food and drinks provided by Tommy Bridges and ATI!

How Disney built and programmed an animatronic president

Ars Technica: Animatronics have powered some of sci-fi and fantasy cinema's most imposing creatures and characters: The alien queen in Aliens, the Terminator in The Terminator, and Jaws of Jaws (the key to getting top billing in Hollywood: be a robot). Even beloved little E.T.—of E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial—was a pile of aluminum, steel, and foam rubber capable of 150 robotic actions, including wrinkling its nose. But although animatronics is a treasured component of some of culture's farthest-reaching movies, it originated in much more mundane circumstances. According to the Disney archives, it began with a bird.

Not just jungle: opera in Brazil’s Amazon Cup city

New Pittsburgh Courier: Inside the Teatro Amazonas, the familiar chords of a signature aria from Bizet’s “Carmen” resound among elaborate woodwork and Murano chandeliers. Outside, less than a half-kilometer away, the Rio Negro’s inky waters flow toward the Amazon River, and flocks of raucous parrots settle into treetops for the night.
The Teatro Amazonas is the symbol of Manaus, a city carved out of the rainforest, still so remote it can only be reached by plane or boat even though it has grown to over 2 million inhabitants.

Fanfare: Mattress Factory fundraiser goes into the wild

TribLIVE: At the very least, the Mattress Factory has cornered the market on ensuring there's at least one evening during the year where the concept of anything goes is expected, if not required.
“I'm hoping a lot of things go tonight,” said board prez Dr. Michael White (with Rick LeBeau).

The Concrete Satisfaction of Deep Work

Study Hacks - Cal Newport: I recently reread Matthew Crawford’s 2009 book, Shop Class as Soulcraft. Though Crawford’s primary goal is to make a philosophical case for the skilled trades (think: Mike Rowe with footnotes), a lot of what he writes resonates with my thinking about deep work.

CNC Plasma Cutter Build Presented In Excruciating Detail

hackaday.com: If you have been wondering what it takes to build a CNC Plasma Cutter then get ready to look no further. [Desert Fabworks] has documented the trials and tribulations of their CNC Plasma Cutter build. Saying it is extremely detailed would be an understatement. They cover everything from choosing components to machine setup.

The Kilroys Were Here: Moving Female Playwrights into Production

HowlRound: On June 11, 2014, The Kilroys, an independent Los Angeles-based advocacy group of female playwrights and producers, released THE LIST, the results of the first annual industry survey of excellent new plays by female-identified playwrights nominated by 127 industry representatives. THE LIST is intended as a tool for producers committed to ending the systemic underrepresentation of female voices in the American theater. A few days ago, I had a chance to sit down with four of the Kilroys—Joy Meads, Carla Ching, Annah Feinberg, and Kelly Miller—to talk about how THE LIST was generated and responses since it was released.

Bodiography founder Maria Caruso reaches beyond ballet classics

TribLIVE: The path to a career in many professions can seem clear cut. In the performing arts, there are conservatories, as well as colleges and universities. Yet, the actual life experienced on the way to one's career is far more complicated and circuitous.

10 Tips for Making Your First Real Job Count

LinkedIn: If you're a young person about to enter the job market, you've already got plenty going for you. You've spent much of your life cultivating disciplines and developing up-to-the-minute practical skills that should form a terrific foundation for lifelong professional development – if you make the right first moves.

'Lost' Cole Porter musical to be staged | TribLIVE

TribLIVE: For the first time later this month, a few lucky people will get to hear what no one in America has — a collection of lost Cole Porter songs.
The one-night-only June 27 premiere of “The Ambassador Revue” at the Town Hall near Times Square will mark the first time the 1929 show has ever been staged outside Paris.

Sounds of nature get a 'remix' for Phipps project

TribLIVE: Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his violin concerto for colleague Franz Clement.
Duke Ellington wrote alto saxophone parts for Johnny Hodges.
Abby Aresty is writing a work to be played by a building.
Aresty calls herself a “sound composer” and is constructing a piece of music built on the sounds of nature and everyday life in Western Pennsylvania. It is being installed at the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at the Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens in Oakland as “a way of bringing nature into the building and to the staff,” says executive director Richard V. Piacentini. It will officially debut at the end of July.

Never Felt so Good: Michael Jackson's New Music Video with Justin Timberlake Features Dancers with a Union Contract

www.aflcio.org: We already know Justin Timberlake is awesome for negotiating a fair union contract with the dancers on his 20/20 Experience World Tour—the first touring contract of its kind for SAG-AFTRA tour dancers—but now Dancers' Alliance informs us Michael Jackson's new music video with Timberlake, "Love Never Felt so Good," features dancers covered by a union contract.

Sewickley theater's first full-scaled production premieres tonight

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Those iconic words from the mouth of a giant, bloodthirsty plant will ring out for six performances in Sewickley, starting tonight with the opening of “Little Shop of Horrors,” Sewickley Area Theatre Company’s first full-scale production.
Shows are at 8 p.m. today through Saturday and June 26-28 in the Quaker Valley Middle School auditorium, 618 Harbaugh St.

Is It Ever Okay To Cry At Work? (And What To Do When You Do)

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: Thank god for Bea. In the middle of the night, she carried on typing as I sat weeping buckets by her side. The partner had torn up every one of my charts hours before. He expected a brand new document at 9 a.m. and here I was, exhausted, raw, and for the moment, entirely useless.

S. Epatha Merkerson, Lillias White to team up in Porter play

New Pittsburgh Courier: Primary Stages said Wednesday that “While Yet I Live” will star Merkerson, White, Elain Graham, Susan Heyward, Kevyn Morrow, Sharon Washington and Larry Powell. Sheryl Kaller will direct the play, which is about a young man’s coming of age in Pittsburgh.

Air Stylus Pairs Your iPad and Stylus with Your Computer

lifehacker.com: The iPad is a great little drawing tool on its own, and a pressure sensitive stylus can make that experience even better. If you want to extend that even more, Air Stylus is an app that lets you use your iPad and stylus as a drawing tablet for apps on your Mac.

A Note to Venues

Dimmer Beach: Chairs. Oh, the chairs. Do not have the chairs all out on the floor prior to load in. I have never, ever, ever, really I mean ever, been on a show where it helped. The floor is needed to stage gear. All of the floor. I have never asked why chairs get put out before load-in. I don’t know who made the call, or why. Please, don’t do it. Ever.

So I Guess I am a Dramaturg?: Reflecting on Toronto’s LMDA Mini-Conference

HowlRound: When I moved to Toronto last August to seriously begin my career as a playwright and dramaturg, many of my friends, family, and other Texan acquaintances asked, “Why Toronto?” They thought New York or London would make more sense, but I smiled and said, “No, it’s the third largest theater city in the world” and explained the burgeoning arts scene I had heard about and researched. I heard these thoughts echoed by incoming LMDA President Beth Bickers when she introduced Toronto’s mini Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America (LMDA) conference at Tarragon Theatre on June 9: “I’m here to listen and steal what’s going on here to take back to Boston.” I may not have moved to New York City or London and may not be able to attend the larger LMDA conference later this month, but I’m not missing out here in Toronto. Some have called the Canadian theater “adolescent,” but the mini-conference and my everyday interaction with the arts scene proves it be vibrant, multilayered and, most importantly, receptive to criticism and new voices.

Michael Jackson's Awards Show 'Performance' Creator Files Countersuit

Music News | Rolling Stone: The company that produced the Michael Jackson "performance" at the Billboard Music Awards this year has filed a $10 million countersuit against Hologram USA, which had preemptively sued it prior to the broadcast. Although Hologram USA holds the patent on the technology behind the Tupac Shakur hologram that appeared at Coachella 2012, the people who created Jackson's "Slave to the Rhythm" awards show appearance, Pulse Evolution, claim what they made did not infringe on Hologram USA's property, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

‘Jersey Boys’: Should Clint Eastwood Have Replaced the Broadway Cast?

Variety: When Hollywood brings a Broadway show to the bigscreen, the first casualty is usually the stage actors. This dates back to 1964′s “My Fair Lady,” which passed Julie Andrews over for Audrey Hepburn (with Marni Nixon dubbing the singing). Idina Menzel recently revealed that she and Kristin Chenoweth were told they were too old for the upcoming “Wicked” movie. And sometimes, recasting is inevitable: By the time “Chicago” made it in front of cameras after a protracted development process, it was more than 25 years since the original Broadway production. Director Tom Hooper’s “Les Miserables” suffered a similar fate.

Binge-watching is forcing TV showrunners to evolve – grudgingly

Variety: By Advanced Television’s estimate, 70% of U.S. viewers self-identify as “binge-ers,” and Netflix’s decision to put out full seasons of “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black” day and date practically begs a marathon.
But is binging changing the way TV is written? Scribes on today’s most avidly devoured series reflexively deny it, but when pressed, they admit they’re having to evolve with the times.

Price of a Tony Won't Go Up for Prize Winners

NYTimes.com: Despite criticism and concerns raised by some theater artists, medallion-topped Tony Awards went on sale once again this week, for $2,500 to producers and investors who put significant sums of money into Tony-winning Broadway shows.

Michael Jackson 'Hologram' Show Sparks New Legal Crossfire

Hollywood Reporter: It's now been a month since a Michael Jackson recreation at the Billboard Music Awards earned heavy buzz. In the days leading up to the spectacle, Hologram USA, owned by firebrand entrepreneur Alki David, attempted to stop it by claiming it infringed patented hologram technology that he had exclusively licensed. The Billboard Awards performance was allowed to happen, but the dispute is hardly over.

Surprise! Disney Has Disneyfied Into The Woods

The Mary Sue: So you know how the award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods is getting made into a feature length movie by Disney? And you know how people die and have sex with each other and then also die in that musical? Yeah, apparently you have less of that to look forward to in the film version. We’ll be talking specific plot details below, so head’s up for spoilers if you haven’t seen the show before.

The Future Of Sound Art Is A Huggable Ball

The Creators Project: Public artworks don’t often include life-sized balloons— but that hasn’t stopped UK artists Alison Ballard and Mike Blow from creating them. POD is an interactive sound installation that allows viewers to experience the physical life of sound waves through the skins of two, six-foot-tall inflatable spheres. The surfaces of POD pulsate in rhythm with a sound file that plays from deep within the sphMassive Sound Pillows Were Meant To Be Huggedere. Audience members are invited to drape their faces and bodies over these surface, free to enjoy POD's gentle massage.

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Announces New Investments In Maker Education, Infrastructure and Outreach

Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: Words will jump off the page of a special letter President Barack Obama is receiving today from more than 150 higher education leaders, including Carnegie Mellon University President Subra Suresh.
The letter, created on a 3-D printer at America Makes in Youngstown, Ohio, responds to President Obama's call to empower America's students and entrepreneurs to invent the future. It also commemorates today's first White House Maker Faire and nationwide "Day of Making."

This Is Why Your Projects Always Take Longer Than You Expect

www.wisebread.com: A contractor friend of mine once told me that no matter how well you plan, any home renovation project will always take longer than you think. In fact, he has come up with a formula for figuring out a more realistic time frame: Double the number and go to the next unit of time for your estimate. For instance, if you believe your kitchen renovation will take two weeks, according to my friend, it will actually take four months.

40 Before and After Shots That Demonstrate the Power of Visual Effects

TwistedSifter: When people say, “we’ll fix it in post”, they’re referring to visual effects. While many people may use special effects (SFX) and visual effects (VFX) interchangeably, there is a difference. It’s easiest to think of SFX as effects that happen ‘in-camera’ while the VFX magic happens in post-production, after the shoot.

Circus Performers: Our Lives Have Changed

Pollstar: "My dream was to be a star performer," Julissa Segrera, a 20-year-old American, said from her wheelchair. "Now my dream is to get up and walk."
A total of eight acrobats from the U.S., Brazil, Bulgaria and Ukraine were injured May 4 when investigators say a carabiner clip snapped, sending them plummeting about 20 feet to the floor at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show in Providence, Rhode Island.

The President Talks Manufacturing and Innovation at TechShop Pittsburgh

The White House: TechShop, which has multiple locations across the country, describes itself as "part fabrication and prototyping studio, part hackerspace and part learning center." The company provides its members access to professional tools, equipment, and software, and gives them a space to make and design almost anything — all "for the price of a gym membership," as the President said yesterday.

Indiegogo Issues a “Maker Challenge” with Autodesk and Amazon

MAKE: As mentioned in the White House Maker Faire Fact Sheet this morning, Indiegogo is celebrating the White House Maker Faire by launching a competition. The Maker Challenge gives people who have campaigns on Indiegogo a chance to win prizes from Amazon and Autodesk. Several participants from Indiegogo are in attendance at the White House Maker Faire, and Indiegogo wants to offer a way to elevate even more projects.

Danny Glover to lead rally for Hollywood tax breaks

Washington Times: Actor Danny Glover is leading a rally in San Francisco on Saturday to support bigger tax breaks for California’s film and television industry.
Supporters of Assembly Bill 1839 are trying to pressure lawmakers to sweeten the current program, “which is capped at $100 million a year and 20 percent of production costs — smaller than rival incentive programs in Georgia, Louisiana and New York,” Variety magazine reported.

Understanding Analog & Digital In Terms Of Audio

Pro Sound Web: Analog? Digital? Both? In professional audio, many choices exist, but there’s not enough time to make the wrong ones. We regularly hear claims floating about, often skewed by particular opinions and interests that tend to color underlying simple truths.

Act One Technical Drawings And Set Models

Theatre content from Live Design: Beowulf Boritt won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of A Play for his outstanding work on Act One, at Lincoln Center Theater, with an intricate three-story set rotating on a turntable. Take a look at some of the technical drawings and model shots.

Is Your AED Ready to Shock?

Occupational Health & Safety: There seems to be more news coverage these days about automated external defibrillator (AED) failures and device recalls by manufacturers. In March of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its intent to require new AEDs and accessories to go through a more rigorous approval process.1 The action is in response to recalls by manufacturers, documented failures, and adverse event reports.

Reddit, subreddits and AMAs: a guide for arts, culture and heritage

Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional: Regularly ranked above the likes of CNN, the BBC and the Huffington Post, Reddit is the most influential website many people have never heard of. Billing itself as "the front page of the internet", the social sharing site is a platform where you can share interesting links and discussions about any topic under the sun. Users, known as redditors, submit links, start conversations and post comments, all of which are upvoted or downvoted by others. More upvotes mean better prominence on the site and more "karma" for the person who made the submission.

There is Hope for High School Woodworking Programs

Popular Woodworking Magazine: These days when you read about high school wood shops, it’s almost always in the context of a program shutting down, the equipment auctioned off and resources diverted to sending every kid that graduates high school to college. That makes sense if you think we don’t need to make anything domestically and that blue collar jobs are dead-end jobs. In spite of this, there is a high school wood working program at North Salem High School in Salem, Oregon that has students lining up to get in. And when they graduate, employers are lining up to give them jobs.

Conan Doyle Estate Loses Appeal Over 'Sherlock Holmes' Rights

Hollywood Reporter: Nodding to such entertainment fare as Star Wars, Shakespeare and Amos 'n' Andy, and pointing to the value of the public domain, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a judgment holding that much of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is free for public use.

The technology of Michael Jackson reborn

fxguide: Stephen Rosenbaum was tasked with digitally creating one of the world’s most famous performers, Michael Jackson, to promote a new song, Slave To The Rhythm, at the live event of the Billboard Awards. It was a digital performance with excellent facial animation built on a range of technologies from LightStage facial capture to motion capture.

What’s in My Bag? John Edgar Park

Cool Tools: Curious to know what’s in my daily work/travel bag? Please, have a look (click the images for an even closer look). I carry this bag and gear for my daily work routine, as well as when I take trips. Note: I do carry some worrisome, pointy things that I place in checked baggage or leave behind when flying. More on that below.

Top 10 Photos from the #NationOfMakers – So Far!

MAKE: The National Day of Making is almost upon us! Bummed that you’re not at the White House Maker Faire? Participate by sharing the fabulous things you’re working on. Tweeting your videos, pics and links to @make with the hashtag #NationOfMakers!

New IMERSA Special Interest Group, Association of Fulldome Innovators, to Develop Standards for Immersive Dome Convergence

InPark Magazine: At the 2014 IMERSA Summit in March, key stakeholders in specialty cinema discussed the convergence taking place between giant-screen film domes and digital dome theaters (aka fulldome theaters, or digital planetariums). The dialog moved representatives of leading fulldome system providers Sky-Skan, SCISS and Evans & Sutherland to form a new special interest group: AFDI, the Association of Fulldome Innovators.

'Legally Blonde' makes case for high-energy fun

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: As musical theater goes, “Legally Blonde the Musical” has it all -- songs with hooks and tightly written lyrics, energized choreography and a story of personal transformation and empowerment to move things along.

Numbeo Tells You How Much It Costs to Live or Travel in a City

lifehacker.com: The next time you travel and want to budget out your trip, Numbeo will tell you the incidental costs of your travel in any city, including transportation and eating out.
Numbeo uses crowdsourced information to determine the average cost of gas, a taxi ride, a bottle of beer and other incidental expenses. Failure to consider these additional costs can blow your travel budget quickly, so it's good to know in advance.

Nine Thoughts On Theater Awards

HowlRound: When I was growing up, I thought that there were only a handful of awards: Olympic medals, the Nobel prize, the Oscar, the Pulitzer, the Newberies and the Caldecotts. You could win the Super Bowl, an NBA championship or, as long as you weren’t the Red Sox, the World Series. And you could win a Tony Award on Broadway.
Times have changed. The meaning of “award” has changed. Awards have devalued themselves through proliferation. But the big ones still matter.

​Surprise: Britney Spears Has Been Lip Syncing Her Las Vegas Show

​jezebel.com: In what comes as a shock to absolutely nobody, Britney Spears' manager confirmed that she indeed is not singing live at her Las Vegas Piece of Me show despite the pop industry's steadfast commitment to live and unaltered performances*. The greatest mystery of 1999 has finally come to a close.

How 90 Days Can Make or Break Your Career

The Muse: As the saying goes, change is the only constant in life—and in your career, too. (Well, we added the last part.)
But the truth is that you may experience all sorts of workplace change when you get a promotion, land a new gig at a different company, and even when your own organization downsizes or merges with another one.
“I view all of those as transitions,” says Michael D. Watkins, co-founder of leadership development company Genesis Advisers and author of The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter.

What Recruiters Pay Attention To For Your LinkedIn And Online Profile

www.lifehack.org: For recruiters, both professional and casual social media sites alike are very common sources for potential job candidates. When recruiters seek out the most ideal candidates for an interview or job offer, they use sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to gather information that – in addition to resumes – will contribute significantly to their hiring decision.

What It's Like To Shoot A Feature Film For Oculus Rift

⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community: Gregory Plotkin, the director of the upcoming Paranormal Activity 5, is working on a newfangled project at a massive special effects studio in the San Fernando Valley. The actress covered in gore and the monk-hooded masked extras are standard issue for a horror movie--but the massive camera rig in the middle of the room looks like a Dr. Who dalek, and there are all sorts of strange audio sensors up in the air.

Squonk's arts festival gig powered by solar rays

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Squonk Opera's performances during the Three Rivers Arts Festival are being powered by solar-powered generators that flank the stage in Point State Park.
Zero Fossil Energy Outfitters, based in Munhall, provides the service. The presentation includes a box about the size of a refrigerator with outlets for plugs for the amps and other equipment being used in the show, titled "Pneumatica."

Deductr tracks expenses, activity with a strong tax focus

PCWorld: The web is brimming with finance tools for the self-employed, but few are as laser-focused on minimizing tax-time angst as Deductr. It’s available as either a paid service (Deductr Pro) or an ad-supported free version that provides the same basic functionality for those willing to forgo transaction downloads and other automated help. Via Lifehacker

Building Your WorkBench

MAKE: Building a nice work surface is a very important task. Many people have come up with many approaches. DiResta showed us earlier this week how a simple design with solid welded frame could both look nice and possibly last forever. What if you aren’t set up to weld though?

“Miss Saigon” at 25

The Clyde Fitch Report: Twenty-five years after its British premiere, Miss Saigon has returned – to the Prince Edward Theatre in London — with its populist appeal, if not its theatrical voltage, still firmly intact. (Advance sales are reportedly around £10 million, the equivalent of roughly $17 million.) Despite its a nearly decade-long run in New York (not to mention its 10-year stay in the West End, where it opened in 1989), it’s worth remembering that the Broadway iteration of Miss Saigon almost didn’t happen.

The Inspiration Pad

DudeIWantThat.com: If you're in search of your next great idea and don't happen to be sitting under an incandescent lightbulb suspended in mid-air, maybe the Inspiration Pad can help. Breaking all the rules of the college-ruled, this notebook looks like it contains Tim Burton's, or maybe Albert Einstein's, interpretations of lined paper.

"Symphony of a Room" Is A Sensory-Distorting Theater Experiment

The Creators Project: In the last several years, Christer Lundahl and Martina Seitl, trans-disciplinary collaborators in large-scale installations, have launched many iterations of their Symphony of a Room show—an experimental theater piece where participants are subject to blindfolding (and other forms of disorientation) before being brought around art galleries, museums, and other vast spaces as a series of performance pieces happen in front of them.

Google Funds a Design School That Works Like a Tech Incubator

WIRED: Ponder this for a second: How different would HBO’s Silicon Valley be if the main character Richard had been a designer instead of a programmer?
The choice to feature a bumbling, awkward coder is illustrative of the greater Silicon Valley ecosystem, but it ignores a growing trend: Designers are playing an increasingly important role in leading startups and businesses.

ICM Aims to Head Off Intern Class Action By Bringing Arbitration Claim

Hollywood Reporter: So far, the flood of litigation over unpaid internship programs hasn't hit the inner sanctum of Hollywood talent agencies, but that doesn't mean there aren't efforts underway to recruit potential plaintiffs. Now ICM Partners is looking to stay ahead of the curve by bringing one of its ex-interns to arbitration.

Row House Cinema ready for action in Lawrenceville

TribLIVE: Less than two years ago, Brian Mendelssohn stood in the middle of a nearly empty storefront with little but a few tables and chairs and a big idea in his head.
Today, Mendelssohn is preparing to show the public his dream come to fruition. Row House Cinema, an 83-seat theater dedicated to playing well-loved older movies, is up and running at 4115 Butler St. in Lawrenceville. A June 21 showing of “Pulp Fiction” marks the grand opening.

US Chamber Of Commerce Guest Post On Fair Use Fails Copyright Law 101

Techdirt: In another instance of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global IP Center (GIPC) posting factually incorrect information, on June 11, the GIPC cross-posted a blog post from Plagiarism Today purporting to clarify the meanings of “5 Copyright Terms We Need to Stop Using Incorrectly.”

5 Questions on "Making" and the White House Maker Faire

The White House: As OK Go helped us announce last week, President Obama is hosting the first-ever White House Maker Faire this coming Wednesday. In advance of that, I sat down with Dale Dougherty, CEO of Maker Media, to answer a few questions on what makes making, Making. Also, here are a few ways you can join in on a Day of Making in conjunction with the White House Maker Faire on June 18, including following and tweeting #NationOfMakers.

A Pop-Up Toolbox On Wheels Puts All Your Tools In Easy Reach

gizmodo.com: When you're working in the garage and find yourself elbows deep in grease, you don't want to have to paw through everything in your toolbox to find the exact one you need, getting everything dirty in the process. That's why Hazet's rolling tool trolley expands vertically, turning into a mobile shelf where all of your tools are easy to find and reach.

What it Means to Sound Designers to Take Away the Tony

HowlRound: Last night there was an outpouring of disgust, sadness, confusion, anger, and frustration over a decision to again treat our field as though we are not as important as the rest of the team. This rush of emotion comes because this is not new to us at all. The amount of work in order to be validated by the Tony Awards as a category, which was instated in 2008, seems to have meant nothing at all if it suddenly goes away. It’s not about an award. It’s not about the spotlight—most of us work very hard to go unnoticed during a performance (unless we need to be noticed). It’s about validation for the work that we do and how hard it is to do this work.

Bakery Living apartments 60 percent occupied

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Walnut Capital’s new Bakery Living apartments in East Liberty boast a myriad of amenities, including a dog-washing station and complimentary coffee and cookies every day.
After a year-and-a-half of construction, the 175-unit apartment building opened this month and is already 60 percent occupied, according to managing partner Gregg Perelman. Rents for micro, studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units range from $1,200 to $3,200 a month (http://bakeryliving.com/).
The apartments are targeted toward young professionals. “They’re doctors, they’re lawyers, they’re young professionals new to Pittsburgh,” Mr. Perelman said.

5 Ways Young Leaders Can Get Others To Take Them Seriously

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: For a generation that's making a name for itself via hashtags, clicks, and iPhone sales, we're shaping the information landscape--and entering change-making leadership positions with new skills and experiences that challenge our "selfie" centered stereotypes.
In 2011, millennials launched almost 160,000 startups each month, and 29% of all entrepreneurs were 20 to 34 years old, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report. They're hiring, being promoted to positions of influence, and dealing with impostor syndrome as they manage employees who could be their parents.

Writers’ Rooms Vs. Solo Scribes: Where Does TV Creativity Flourish Best?

Variety: The writers’ room has become a staple of American television production. But look to our British friends across the pond, and they’ve got other ideas. Imagine: one writer, penning all the episodes of a show. No writers’ room. No shared concept. Just single vision, single author, executed from start to finish by the creator.

Stage review: Unseam’d Shakespeare’s production of “Orlando” intoxicates

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The intoxication of language!
Normally, language is just one of the seductions of theater, along with plot, conflict, ideas, setting, performers, audience and the zest of the present moment. Indeed, language is supposed to be secondary to most of these. But not when the event is a dramatization of that eccentric 1928 Virginia Woolf novel, “Orlando.”

Tony Committee Decision to Drop Sound Design Awards Prompts Noisy Outcry

NYTimes.com: Sound designers working on Broadway and at theaters nationwide erupted in outrage after a committee that oversees the Tony Awards decided Wednesday to eliminate future awards for best sound design of a play and of a musical.

Why I’m going to start producing movies.

The Producer's Perspective: The reason posted in the press for the cancellation of the Toronto run of Titanic, which then dominoed into the cancellation of the NY run?
No available Broadway house.

2014 Tony In Memoriam

The Pros And Cons Of Stereo Stage Mixes -

Pro Sound Web: For a long time I wondered about mixing monitor wedges in stereo. I was sure it would sound good, so a while back I took the plunge and set up a pair of loudspeakers to see what it was all about. For about a week I tried different things to see what I could find out. During afternoons on show days, I listened to various instruments and vocal mics.

SketchUp for Woodworkers – Here's Why

Popular Woodworking Magazine: For those who have never heard of SketchUp, it is a 3-dimensional modeling and documentation tool used widely in the architectural engineering, construction, product design and marketing industries. Interestingly, the original developers of SketchUp likely did not have woodworking on their target market list. But SketchUp could not be better suited for woodworking if it had been the only target on their list and the developers were all woodworkers. SketchUp is ideally suited for woodworkers because the 3-D model produces the documentation set we know as shop drawings and cut lists. Let’s look at 3-D modeling first, shop drawings and cut lists second.

The Great Society at 50: Lyndon B. Johnson’s cultural vision mirrored his domestic one

The Washington Post: On May 22, 1964, in a University of Michigan graduation speech filled with references to excellence, inspiration and enrichment, Lyndon B. Johnson interspersed the word “beauty” or “beautiful” five times. It was not the first mention of the term “Great Society” — the phrase had been used as the title of a commission report on the humanities five years earlier. But more powerfully than anything Johnson had said before, it connected the quality of American intellectual, aesthetic and artistic life with the basic aspirations of a prosperous, democratic nation.

‘Godzilla’ Director Gareth Edwards Felt ‘a Lot of Pressure’

c2meworld.com: With only one other feature film to his name, Gareth Edwards was understandably nervous about helming an enormous blockbuster involving a beloved 60-year-old character. “You feel a lot of pressure doing a big film like this. I felt a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of pressure the fans are going to put on you; there’s pressure the studio’s going to put on you,” Edwards told the audience after a sneak peek earlier this year. “But it was nothing compared to the pressure I put on myself. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to direct a film like this. So I was saying to myself, ‘Don’t f*** it up, Gareth.’”

Ditmas Park Listings: Irondale Presents: Inspire: The M. Edgar Rosenblum Awards, June 5

dplistings.blogspot.com: Carlson Elrod (The Heir Apparent, Peter and the Star Catcher), has signed on as Master of Ceremonies for this year's INSPIRE/THE M. EDGAR ROSENBLUM AWARDS, a benefit for the Irondale Ensemble's theater and education programs for youth. He will host a diverse and exciting group of performers including the great banjo player, Hubby Jenkins (Carolina Chocolate Drops), members of PigPen Theatre Company, Catscratch Dance Theatre, Letter of Marque Theatre Company and of course the Irondale Ensemble. According to Jim Niesen, Irondale's Artistic Director ,"We're so honored that such amazing performers are coming out to support us. Music, especially traditional music has always been a major stylistic element in our work. So has dance. Bringing everyone together is a perfect mix".

Photo Gallery: Jeopardy! Features William Ivey Long Category Tonight

 Live Design: Tonight, May 16, the trivia show "Jeopardy!" will dedicate an entire category to six-time Tony-award winning costume designer William Ivey Long, according to Playbill.com. While the show has used Broadway trivia on previous episodes, never before has the show featured a category to a single Broadway designer.

Most Work Conflicts Aren’t Due to Personality

Ben Dattner - Harvard Business Review: Conflict happens everywhere, including in the workplace. When it does, it’s tempting to blame it on personalities. But more often than not, the real underlying cause of workplace strife is the situation itself, rather than the people involved. So, why do we automatically blame our coworkers? Chalk it up to psychology and organizational politics, which cause us to oversimplify and to draw incorrect or incomplete conclusions.

Choose the Right Types of Plywood

Popular Woodworking Magazine: There are few things a woodworker will ever face that are as confusing as plywood. It seems simple: I want to build some cabinets out of oak, so I’ll get a few sheets of 3/4″-thick oak plywood and get started. But when I go to buy it, the storm clouds come rolling in. Where do I buy it? What do I ask for? Do I want rotary cut or plain sliced? What grade? What core? How much thinner than 3/4″ will it be this time? Will the edges split if I try to put screws in it? Will the veneer be so thin that I sand through it with the first pass of the sander? Should I try the imported stuff? Can I remember the name of the imported stuff that I bought last time? Is it just me, or does plywood get a little worse every time I buy it?

How to Install Board-and-Batten Siding

Fine Homebuilding: Writing to Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime forum, WenWS is looking for some advice on the best way to finish the board-and-batten siding for his new house. His plans call for 9 1/2-in. boards and 3-in. battens, which he says he'll finish with a high-quality stain. "Our original intention was to stain all boards, all sides before putting it up," WenWS writes. "The house is 32 x 64 so this would be a big job, but we understood this to be best to seal the wood completely before installing."

The Electrifying Designs of Anouk Wipprecht

MAKE: Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht creates futuristic fashion that celebrates the beautiful nexus of fashion and technology. The main image on her website boldly asks, “What does fashion lack?” and answers it with “Microcontrollers.” From the dress that emits smoke when someone enters the wearer’s personal space to the cocktail-making dress that challenges viewers to a game of Truth or Dare, Wipprecht plays with boundaries in order to blur them.

Fein Cordless Drill Review: The ASCM 18 QXC

Pro Tool Reviews: The first thing I do when I see a new tool is pick it up and hold it in my hands. I like to see how it feels and think about the people who designed it, taking note of the decisions that went into each detail. I like to see how much it weighs, how it’s balanced, what it’s made of and if it speaks to me. Now, I bet half of you think I’ve been breathing too many paint fumes and the other half knows exactly what I mean. The people that created the tool you hold in your hands are builders just like you. They step back at the end of the day, look at what they’ve done and smile as they admire their new baby. So, when I pick up my new Fein cordless drill, I don’t think I’m too far off to imagine myself next to them and appreciate their creation as much as they do.

New theater coalition wants end to racial, ethnic stereotypes

Minnesota Public Radio News: Five Twin Cities theaters of color are forming a coalition to ensure that their communities are respected on stage. By joining forces, Penumbra Theatre, Mu Performing Arts, New Native Theater, Teatro del Pueblo and Pangea, aim to broaden cultural perspectives in the local theater scene. The move comes as theaters nationwide are struggling to adjust to changing demographics.

PLASA Focus Proves a Success in Baltimore

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The latest addition to the PLASA Focus regional event series is hailed a success, providing over 600 attendees with access to the latest entertainment technology and an impressive line-up of seminars delivered by industry experts. PLASA Focus: Baltimore was held May 8 - 9 at the Reitz Arena, Loyola University.

Hollywood Union Put In Trusteeship Amid “Shakedown” Allegations

www.deadline.com: Allegations of a union “shakedown” and “extortion” in the hallway of a Las Vegas hotel have been leveled against leaders of an IATSE local in New Orleans. The explosive charges, which only now have come to light, were made by IATSE Sound Local 695 business agent Jim Osburn at a hearing shortly before his North Hollywood-based union was placed into trusteeship in February. Osburn’s local was put on trial after leaders of Studio Mechanics Local 478 in Louisiana accused him of obstructing their efforts to collect so-called “assessments” on the wages of out-of-state workers who film in Louisiana. Typically, the local takes a 3% cut of their wages, which is permitted under the IATSE’s constitution and by-laws.

More Schools Secure Safe Stage Rigging with USITT

PLSN: USITT approved free stage rigging inspections and safety training for a dozen more schools this spring through its Rigging Safety Initiative. With this round of funding, USITT brings stage safety to schools in New York State, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri. USITT’s Rigging Safety Initiative began with a $10,000 grant from JR Clancy in 2011.

Threat of closure held over heads of San Diego Opera musicians, workers

World Socialist Web Site: Despite significant fundraising efforts, the San Diego Opera is threatened with closure by May 19 if it is unable to raise at least $2.7 million more to meet a $6.5 million goal and move forward with plans for a 2015 season. The closure of the San Diego Opera, which employs many music professionals, skilled craftspeople and others, would have a devastating effect on the hundreds of workers immediately involved and their families, as well as on the cultural conditions in the area.

Theatre Communications Group selects Cleveland for 2015 national conference

cleveland.com: They didn't hire stilt walkers or set off fireworks, and the world's largest outdoor chandelier was still an artist's rendering, but that didn't stop Cleveland's theater community from wooing and winning the nation's largest theater conference in 2015. An estimated 1,000 actors, directors, choreographers, scenic designers and other theater professionals from around the country – and a good number from outside the United States – will converge in Cleveland next summer, when the 25th annual Theatre Communications Group national conference comes to town June 18 to 20.

Tap Paradise Cove and the importance of art in game narrative

GamesBeat | Games | by Amy Claussen, Pocket Gems: Pocket Gems’ mobile game, Tap Paradise Cove (TPC), just had its second birthday last March. TPC, which is an island-themed simulation exploration game, has shown significant staying power over the last two years. Since launching in 2012 on iOS and Android, it’s remained a top-grossing game, with over 1.2 billion total play sessions. We’ve written before about some of the ways we’ve kept the game fun and engaging for our players.