IATSE Sound Local 695 Trusteeship Could End In January

Deadline: IATSE Sound Local 695, which was placed into trusteeship in February by IATSE International president Matt Loeb, could be coming out of trusteeship as early as January. Ballots have been sent to the local’s 1,040 members asking them to ratify a new constitution and bylaws. If approved, elections will be held for new officers and the trusteeship lifted.

The Old Soundman: Songs For Testing A System

Pro Sound Web: There’s so much hating going on nowadays! We even see it among over-the-hill yuppie sound guys who have heard songs by a certain band played too many times to check sound systems nationwide.

But I’m not going to pile on the crowd of haters! Not even when I receive notes like this one from Tim. No! The OSM is on the love trip!

Beyond the Lights’ Gina Prince-Blythewood Interview

Flavorwire: Gina Prince-Bythewood fandom requires a bit of patience. The filmmaker burst onto the scene in 2000 with two exemplary films: the HBO drama Disappearing Acts and the indie sports romance Love and Basketball. Both were critically acclaimed, and the latter remains a fan favorite, but it took eight years for Prince-Bythewood to make her follow-up (2008’s The Secret Life of Bees) and another six after that to make her latest film, Beyond the Lights, a sweet and earnest love story set in the world of R&B and hip hop. “Where ya been?” I asked Prince-Bythewood in a recent phone interview, and she responded first with a laugh, and then with a story of frustration. “I never thought the film would take this long to get set up,” she says. “This was an incredible fight, to get this film made.”

Skilsaw Introduces New Pro Line

Remodeling: Skil has rebranded its pro line as Skilsaw and has two new saws to introduce the new name. The manufacturer is hoping that construction pros who have passed on Skil in the past because it is perceived as being a consumer brand will want to take another look.

MTA Arts & Designs Inaugurates Digital Arts Program with Large-Scale Video Installation

c2meworld.com: MTA Arts & Design has premiered New York Minute by new media artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo at the newly opened Fulton Center, marking the inauguration of Arts & Design’s new digital arts program.

New York Minute is a large-scale 52-channel video installation on display through spring 2015 at the Fulton Center station complex and in its Dey Street pedestrian tunnel. It is shown on 52 screens ranging from the 55-inch LCD screens that line the Dey Street concourse to LED walls, measuring 31.5 feet by 18.9 feet, on the street level.

How a Job Autopsy Can Save Future Profits

Remodeling: This week's tip from Remodelers Advantage features Victoria Downing sharing some examples of how slippage can destroy your profits. More importantly, you'll see how performing a thorough job autopsy can prevent future slippage.

How the Lowe's 2x4 Case Has Affected Its Labeling

ProSales Online: Aside from paying $1.6 million, one of the biggest changes resulting at Lowe's from what's been called "the 2x4 case" involves changes in how the big-box dealer labels its building materials. How is that going? To find out, PROSALES visited the Lowe's store in San Bruno, Calif., on Nov. 4 and photographed some of the labels in the lumber section. That visit shows Lowe's already has already begun making adjustments.

Designing Idea Machines

www.avnetwork.com: “Thoughts exchanged by one and another are not the same in one room as in another.”

This quote by legendary architect Louis Kahn refers to what really is at stake in designing spaces for collaboration. Whether we realize it or not, as AV designers, we have considerable influence over how ideas are exchanged. We influence room designs for some of the most important people in government, finance, law, education, and many other places. Ideas that fuel the world are formulated in spaces we help to design. As Steven Johnson says in his book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, “The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.” Our industry figuratively creates those tables. Good ideas are generated by conversations, and the spaces in which conversations often happen are meeting rooms.

Making Waves: Adaptive Concert Sound For Imelda May Stateside

Pro Sound Web: Irish rockabilly artist Imelda May has been making waves in the U.S. ever since her memorable guest appearance with guitarist Jeff Beck at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

Since then she’s been touring hard, most recently playing a string of shows backed by her 4-piece band from Providence, RI to San Francisco and numerous points between.

4 tools for spicing up lectures

Education Dive: PowerPoint is a time-tested lecture standby — Microsoft's Luke Lappala says around 90% of educators use it. Still, for many, it has become synonymous with boring lectures. Common complaints include slideshows that are read word-for-word by teachers and professors, which would be bad enough if teachers and professors didn't already have to contend with popular culture caricatures that have all the charisma of Ben Stein. (Those slides are probably just as exciting for you to read over and over again, too.)

Primary Stages Launches Oral History Project, a Video Archive of Pioneers Who Created Off-Broadway Movement

Playbill.com: Primary Stages has launched the Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project, a new endeavor to capture the oral history of the New York Off-Broadway and Off Off-Broadway theatre movement through first-hand accounts of the pioneers who created it.

SDC Foundation Celebrate Outstanding Directors with Fichandler and Callaway Awards

Stage Directions: On Nov. 3, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation honored Joseph Haj, the producting artistic director of PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, N.C., with the Zelda Fichandler Award at ceremony at the Clurman Theatre, part of Theatre Row in New York City. Also at the ceremony, John Rando and Martha Clarke received the Joe A. Callaway Awards for excellence in directing and choreography, respectively, in the 2013-2014 NYC theatre season.

'Intent' of Original Broadway Choreography Passed on to New Dancers

NY1: One organization is dedicated to preserving iconic Broadway choreography. NY1's Frank DiLella filed this report.

Some of Broadway's most notable dance numbers are alive and kicking—and it's all thanks to the American Dance Machine for the 21st Century!

The company, which is currently prepping for a week long performance showcase, is under the leadership of Nikki Feirt Atkins.

Katelyn McKelley Wins Mandelker Award from Florida Studio Theatre

Stage Directions: The Daniel R. Mandelker and Marlene N. Harris Scholarship award from Florida Studio Theatre, won this year by Katelyn McKelley, honors the talent and drive of one FST intern who also exemplifies the mission and core values of FST.

The Fall and (Partial) Rise of the Rural Creative Class

CityLab: Cities and metros power economic growth, and talented and skilled people flow to them.

But what about this country’s nonmetro areas, or its rural regions? How have they fended since the Great Recession? And what has been the role of the rural creative class in their economic recovery?

Department of Agriculture economist Timothy Wojan, who along with David McGranahan wrote one of the pioneering studies of the rural creative class, just released a new study examining how rural areas with larger shares of the creative class performed between 2007 and 2011.

Cosmic Truss Debuts U-Torm System at LDI

Stage Directions: Cosmis Truss’ new U-Torm system is made up of modules and sections that fit seamlessly together with standard pipes and adaptors from the Cosmic Truss range, and allows endless configurations for single fixtures, double hangs or ladders of multiple fixtures.

West End strike action avoided as pay agreement is reached

News : The Stage: West End strike action that had been threatened by backstage workers has been averted, after an agreement over pay was reached between union BECTU and the Society of London Theatre.

The deal brings to an end weeks of fraught negotiations between the two parties, which culminated in both sides meeting at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration service (ACAS) yesterday (November 6).

RC4 Wireless Makes Interesting Magic for Curious Incident

Stage Directions: The National Theatre’s hit show The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has moved into a new theatre in London and has a new production in New York City. And in both cases, gear from RC4 Wireless helps the show achieve its technical magic.

Society of London Theatre and BECTU Reach Labor Agreement

Stage Directions: The Society of London Theatres and BECTU have successful reached a labor agreement and averted a work stoppage for London theatres. The new agreement is for three years, and includes an initial increase of £1 extra per hour to minimum rates, eventually increasing the minimum rates by 20% over the course of the agreement.

CMU professor's book proposes we may have seen last of 'Rock Star'

TribLIVE: David Shumway came of age in the era when rock stars were everywhere: on posters and television, in magazines and newspapers and, of course, on stages around the world.

One of the premises of his new book, “Rock Star: The Making of Musical Icons From Elvis to Springsteen” (Johns Hopkins University Press, $29.95) is that the “star-maker machinery behind the popular song” of Joni Mitchell's “Free Man in Paris” has been irrevocably changed, and, in many ways, lost.