One thing I've learned in this business is to never "rip and read" wire service copy and trust it to be perfect. Okay, we don't really "rip" anything anymore, but to say never "print and read cold" doesn't sound as catchy.
Here's what I was greeted with Friday morning from the AP. Carefully read the first paragraph and pay attention to grammar and a simply over-the-top error.
PHOENIX (AP) - The state's budget troubles has hit home for state workers as the Department of Administration told 138 percent of its workers they'd lose their jobs in layoffs effective today.
That follows a smaller layoff earlier this week at the Revenue Department, the state's tax-collection agency.
Under budget cuts approved last weekend by the Legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer to close the $9.9 billion budget's $1.6 billion shortfall, the department was among many agencies facing both a general lump-sum cut in its budget and an additional cut based on personnel expenses.
The layoffs eliminated 18 percent of the department's work force.
Administration department spokesman Alan Ecker says the department explored alternatives including mandatory unpaid time off for all employees, but had no other way to cut its spending
by the required 15 percent with less than five months to go in the fiscal year.
As the years go on, I've noticed a big lack of proofreading and fact checking before wire services send their stories to broadcasters. I also see lots of errors in newspapers these days too.
Could it be budget cuts, or simply a failing educational system that makes this a reality?
Distracted by this week’s membership drive, I’m not blogging faithfully, but here’s an easy one: a link to my latest screed in the Tucson Weekly:
Neil Simon's _Lost in Yonkers_ would be a superb play if there were less Neil Simon in it. What could be a serious, moving character study with flashes of wit is compromised by Simon's obsession with wisecracks and one-liners. Simon's theatrical blows again and again are weakened by periodic snickering, and too much of what could have been a forceful play ends up with the impact of a pillow fight.
And yet Live Theatre Workshop has mounted a production of it that is assuredly worth seeing; actresses Holli Henderson and Roberta Streicher infuse it with tremendous heart and soul.
I'm sure you've heard by now, but things are looking grim at the University of Arizona. The axe has begun falling.
Here's the official word from the UA President and Provost:
M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Campus Community
FROM: President Robert N. Shelton and Provost Meredith Hay
SUBJECT: Update on University Budget Cuts
DATE: February 2, 2009
We write to update you on the University's plans, now that Governor Brewer has signed the legislation implementing a $141.5 million mid-year cut to Arizona's university system.
The cut to The University of Arizona for the remainder of the fiscal year will be approximately $57 million, and comes on top of a $20 million cut that was taken at the beginning of the year. There will be additional cuts coming in July, with the start of the next fiscal year, so our planning requires us to look at this in a two-year time frame.
Let us first note that when we began this fiscal year in July 2008, we were already anticipating a mid-year cut (though certainly not of this magnitude). In the fall, we implemented what we believe were prudent, measured, and fiscally necessary steps to reduce costs at the University. These efforts included a funds sweep and a very strict hiring freeze, which we continue to enforce. Combined with a 5% reduction in operating budgets across the University, the steps that were initiated 6 months ago have positioned us to approach the current significant cut in a coherent fashion. These actions will result in fewer class offerings, larger class sizes in the future and increased time to degree for our students.
As we work through this monumental loss of state funding, we are attempting to do so in a way that is consistent with our long-term strategic objectives and allows us to ultimately protect the core academic components of the University. We are determined that The University of Arizona will have world-class faculty, stellar programs and outstanding support services for students. But clearly the cuts that we are experiencing will force painful changes that we would prefer not happen.
The cuts this year translate to the loss of approximately 600 positions across the UA. The effort to reduce positions began in the fall and continues to operate through attrition, unfilled vacancies and layoffs. While many of these positions have already been eliminated, there will need to be additional reductions in the coming months.
We will also be forced to eliminate or greatly reduce many of our outreach and community-based activities. This will result in:
The suspension of three-quarters of University funding for UApresents.
The current Flandrau Science Center facility, Planetarium and UA Mineral Museum will be closed to school groups and the public later this spring.
The Arizona State Museum will be open to the public fewer days per week, and many outreach and educational activities, including public events, will be cancelled later this spring.
The UA Museum of Art will be open fewer days per week, and will eliminate its engagement in university-level education as well as educational outreach.
A significant portion of the UA's outreach and extension operations across the state will be suspended.
The new partnership creating the Colleges of Letters and Science allows us to reduce the number of academic colleges from 16 to 13, and we have previously announced the closing of University College, the functions of which are being absorbed in the new Colleges of Letters and Science.
The Transformation Plan includes suggestions for consolidation or mergers of potentially more than 50 academic and administrative units, and we expect the implementation of a number of these to result in administrative savings.
By imposing an additional 5% cut that all deans and vice presidents have been directed to implement, we will balance the books at the close of the fiscal year. But as we said at the beginning, this budget crisis must be addressed as a two-year challenge, and there is simply no way to bring about the needed reductions without a furlough in the 2009/10 year. As a result, and based on our current projections, all faculty and staff on state and locally allocated funds will be required to take 5 furlough days (days off without pay) between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010. Details of the furlough will be forthcoming.
We deeply appreciate the commitment, determination and resilience demonstrated by faculty and staff on a daily basis. This is a difficult time, but the faculty and staff of The University of Arizona have shown that by being creative and innovative, by working harder and smarter, we can continue to set a standard for universities around the world to emulate.
For your good work and resolve in this challenging time, we offer our most sincere thanks.
CHOPIN Etudes, Op. 10: No. 12, “Revolutionary”; No. 1 BACH Toccata and Fugue in d, BWV 565; Chorale Prelude on “Nun komm, der heiden Heiland,” BWV 659 ELLINGTON Solitude DEMESSIEUX Etudes, Op. 5: Octaves LISZT Mephisto Waltz No. 1 CARPENTER Love Song No. 1; Homage to Klaus Kinski DUPRÉ Prelude and Fugue in B HOROWITZ Variations on a Theme from Bizet’s Carmen
& DVD: CHOPIN Etudes, Op. 10: No. 12, “Revolutionary” BACH Toccata and Fugue in d, BWV 565
Another contributor has turned in a detailed report on organist Cameron Carpenter and a review of the standard two-channel version of this disc in the features section of this issue. So I’ll skip the background info and just get on with it, except to complain that the booklet, despite spreading over several pages, conveys very little solid information. Like, what exactly is Carpenter playing here? In case you haven’t yet read the feature, this is the instrument originally planned as only a temporary replacement for the Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ at New York City’s Trinity Church, which was damaged in the 9/11 attack on the nearby World Trade Center. But the temporary replacement proved so popular that it earned a permanent spot in the church. It’s a “virtual organ” that employs a conventional console but uses digital samples of real pipe organ timbres, and plays them through a computerized system that feeds nearly 100 speakers hidden behind dummy pipes. In addition to the regular (abundant) array of church-organ stops, this one features another 125 theater-organ stops. Depending on what the player wants, sometimes it sounds like a massive if not especially warm cathedral organ, and sometimes it sounds like a dorky Wurlitzer.
Carpenter has cultivated that thin David Bowie glam-rock look, and on the accompanying DVD you can see him applying his high-heeled white shoes to the pedals most spectacularly. But there’s nothing rock-star about Carpenter’s performance demeanor; he makes a few grand gestures with his arms, but not nearly as many as are indulged by some leading classical pianists. He’s a serious, talented musician with a lot of interesting interpretive ideas, some of which don’t work, but all of which add up to an engaging experience.
Just consider his performance of Bach’s notorious BWV 565 Prelude and Fugue. It’s as if Leopold Stokowski (who started out as an organist) had transcribed his orchestra transcription of the work back to the organ. Carpenter and his virtual organ produce a tremendous dynamic range, sometimes from phrase to phrase, and superbly guaged crescendos that would make Stoky proud. Carpenter verges on distortion, but that’s because this is show-off music. Bach (or whoever actually wrote it) intended it to display the player’s imagination, and Carpenter makes the most of it.
Carpenter really goes his own way interpretively in his version of Chopin’s Op. 10 No. 1 étude, giving it a quiet, moonlit character completely unlike the original. It offers maximum contrast to the roiling “Revolutionary” étude, which here is a workout mainly for the organist’s feet and right hand (on the video, you can see him using his left hand mainly to anchor himself to the bench). Carpenter has a vivid imagination as a performer and as a composer (his Homage to Klaus Kinski is appropriately schizophrenic), but he can sound less inspired by straightforward pieces like a Bach chorale. The Liszt item is more impish than Mephistofelean, but it’s still great fun. I don’t think that Carpenter’s treatment of Duke Ellington’s Solitude works, though. The initial treatment wouldn’t be out of place among the slow movements of Vierne and Widor, but within two minutes it becomes a lounge version of Sheep May Safely Graze. Part of it is effective, but some of Carpenter’s chosen effects are just cheesey.
Telarc’s SACD layer provides a very convincing rendering of a big pipe organ with an impressive dynamic and frequency range. The accompanying DVD is a straightforward presentation of Carpenter playing the disc’s two most popular Chopin and Bach items, no music-video cutaways involved.
Carpenter takes lots of chances, and more often than not the results are exciting and musically rewarding. Gird your loins. James Reel
Once again, it's Thursday and I'm not linking to my stuff in the Tucson Weekly. But this time it's because I've got no "stuff" there. I was sick last weekend, and deputized my friend Gene Armstrong to cover two plays for me. Gene was one of the first two people (the other was Ed Severson) to come over and say "hello" and "welcome" when I was introduced as a new contributor to the Arizona Daily Star back in late 1988. Since then, Gene and I have both moved on to better things, including the Weekly. There, he most often writes for the Music section, but you can see his work as a theater critic here.
