Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Friday Thoughts

Fri, Feb 2, 2009
If you haven’t done so already, this is your last opportunity to complete the 2009 Reader Segmentation Survey and be entered for a chance to win a free three month subscription to The Naxos Music Library – a $75.00 value. The data from completed surveys has been fascinating so far and I’m looking forward to

Parting Shot

Thu, Feb 2, 2009
Although Senator Tom Coburn was the architect of the amendment that sliced attempted to slice the arts out of the economic stimulus package, it is fair to remember that 72 additional senators fell in line to support a bad idea inspired by flawed reasoning. Apparently, Coburn didn’t feel the same sort of moral conviction to

Amendment No. 175 Voting Results

Wed, Feb 2, 2009
Thanks to Adaptistration reader Geo, we now have the official Senate roll call votes for the “Limitation on Funds Amendment No. 175,” otherwise known as “Coburn Amendment No. 309.” You can find text results at the senate.gov website but since a picture really is worth a thousand words, I took a moment to arrange the

Burn, Baby, Burn.

Tue, Feb 2, 2009
After watching Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) – a politician so evil even his own lawyer wants nothing to do with him – lead the charge to eviscerate the .0000588 percent of the economic stimulus package directed toward the arts, I can’t help but think of a passage from John Schaefer’s 1/15/2009 blog post: At times

Post Inauguration Cultural Confidence Levels

Mon, Feb 2, 2009
As we slide past the second full week of the new administration and observe boisterous debate about economic recovery plans every day, the overall impact of these events have had mixed effects on cultural confidence levels. On one hand, respondents feel better about current economic conditions (although the prevailing sentiment is “negative”) but the outlook