Send a text, catch a bus with Port Authority pilot program

Pop City: "RouteShout allows riders to access bus arrival times from their mobile phones. The pilot program, launched by Pittsburgh’s deeplocal, is being beta-tested at 22 stops near areas that primarily serve college students."

Mergers: Ticketmaster And Live Nation Agree To Merge

Consumerist: "That booming evil laughter you heard echoing across the sky earlier today came from the board room where Live Nation and Ticketmaster agreed to an all-stock merger between their two blighted companies."

According To Author's Guild, You Cannot Read Books Out Loud

Techdirt: "As you may know, when player pianos were first introduced, there was a massive fear among musicians that it would be the death of the live music industry. With a player piano, why would anyone ever need to go see a live performance again? In fact, the roots of our rather draconian modern copyright law come, in part, from this dispute."

Construction as Canvas: community art project planned for arena site

Pop City: "The Pittsburgh Sports and Exhibition Authority is currently requesting proposals from community organizations serving young people in the Hill District and Uptown, for a temporary art project on the construction wall surrounding the new arena called Construction as Canvas."

Lincoln bicentennial a missed opportunity for Disney's theme parks

Theme Park Insider: "Thursday marks the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, considered by many America's greatest president. Walt Disney was among those fans of Lincoln; the first audio-animatronic figure Disney had built was of his fellow Illinoisan."

A Common Misconception

Theatre Ideas: "Over at The Nonprofiteer, erstwhile kellynfp has 'Second (and third) thoughts about public funding of the arts.' Apparently, she spent an evening in my old home town of Bloomington IL watching a touring production by the dance company Ailey II when she had an epiphany"

Blogging the College of Fine Arts Days in NYC Jan. 28-31

New York Drama Alumni Clan: "If you cannot make it to the College of Fine Arts (CFA) Days in New York City this week why not follow along through a blog? You can follow along as special guest writers will be blogging about the activity and excitement of CFA Days in NYC on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette¹s web-site, visit http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/cmunyc/default.aspx."

2008 Holiday Party a Resounding Success

New York Drama Alumni Clan: "The 2008 Holiday Party was the biggest in recent NYDAC history, as more than 120 people came to the Alvin Ailey Studios to celebrate. It was a fitting end to a fantastic NYDAC year, and the board would like to thank everyone that attended."

Learn How to Build Anything

Props: "What are open course classes? Basically, they are all the materials of a college class made freely available to anyone online: the syllabus, handouts, lecture notes, assignments, etc. If you were so inclined, you can use this to take the class on your own."

Live Nation and Ticketmaster Merge: What does it mean for Broadway?

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "Live Nation has been on a tear over the past few years, shaking things up first with music deals (like Madonna's), second with announcing that they were going to sever ties with Ticketmaster and create their own ticketing service, and third, this week they reversed that previous announcement and said they were merging with that ticketing warhorse, creating arguably the most powerful company in live entertainment marketing and production."

Cast's excellent comedic timing shines in 'Don Pasquale'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "A fresh approach to staging 'Don Pasquale' provided the unalloyed delights of Pittsburgh Opera Center's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's opera, seen Saturday night at the Creative and Performing Arts High School, Downtown."

Dance company offers diversity in 'Three'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The Gaga dance training system devised by choreographer Ohad Naharin for the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company was a defining element of Thursday evening's performance of 'Three' at the Benedum Center."

Pittsburgh Officials Discuss Replacement of 40,000 Street Lights

WDUQNews: "Pittsburgh city officials today sought input from a panel of lighting experts on the benefits of switching the city’s 40,000 streetlights to energy-saving light-emitting diodes, or LED lights."

Lincoln’s Box Dazzles as Theater Opens After $50 Million Rehab

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "Ringed with pillars, draped in U.S. flags, the presidential box dominates Ford’s Theatre which reopens this week in Washington, D.C. after an 18-month, $50 million renovation timed to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial."

SAG Ready to Resume Talks with AMPTP

Backstage: "Representatives of SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers are expected Tuesday to announce the resumption of their film and TV contract talks, most likely on Feb. 17."

Goodbye Zeffirelli: Met Plans New ‘Tosca,’ ‘Carmen’

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "Attila the Hun as conceived by Verdi is heading toward the Metropolitan Opera in a show designed by footwear deity Miuccia Prada and Herzog & de Meuron, the architectural firm responsible for converting the Tate’s Turbine Hall in London."

Go see CORALINE!!!

Shannon Tindle: "Well, I can't believe it's finally coming out. I moved to Portland on Jan.9, 2006 to work on Coraline. I loved Portland, I loved the crew and I am so proud that I got to work on this film."

REVERSE – Now a “real” AutoCAD Command

The CAD Geek Blog: "While I appreciate those who customize AutoCAD beyond belief, I am of the camp where the less customization you can do the better. My core reason is support. If I make it I have to support it. As a Subscription customer, if Autodesk makes it, they have to support it for me. Nonetheless, the new REVERSE command in AutoCAD 2010 is a very welcome addition IMO."

Robert Anderson, Playwright of ‘Tea and Sympathy,’ Dies at 91

NYTimes.com: "Mr. Anderson was a contemporary of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and though his reputation never ascended to the artistic heights that theirs did — his plays often walked a tightrope between realism and sentimentality — he was among the theater’s most visible, serious playwrights of the 1950s and ’60s."

At the Majestic Theater on Broadway, a Memorial Tribute to Gerald Schoenfeld

NYTimes.com: "The line to enter the Majestic Theater is always long — “The Phantom of the Opera” plays there, after all — but Monday the line stretched much farther than usual, as more than 1,500 people arrived for a memorial tribute to Gerald Schoenfeld, the influential theater owner and producer who died at 84 in November."