NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Philharmonic has named a new executive director to tackle huge financial shortfalls at the nation‘s oldest orchestra.Orchestra officials announced Wednesday that Matthew VanBesien will succeed Zarin Mehta.The 42-year-old VanBesien is currently the managing director of Australia’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. VanBesien started his music career playing French horn for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.Mehta, brother of conductor Zubin Mehta, will retire at the end

ATLANTA (AP) ― Jimmy Carter may never have been president if he didn’t go square dancing.The Georgia Democrat credits a rural square dance club he joined in 1953 with helping him win a state Senate seat by a scant 66 votes.“If I hadn’t received support from our square-dancing friends, I would have lost and never become a state senator,’’ he wrote in his latest book, “Through the Years with Jimmy Carter.’’ “And if that had occurred, I never would have run for office again.’’Carter has penned 26 d

NEW YORK (AP) -- Producers of a new play inspired by the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal at The New York Times have found the actor who will play the disgraced ex-journalist.The Atlantic Theater Company said Wednesday that Kobi Libii will play a Blair-like Times reporter in the world premiere of Gabe McKinley‘s play ``CQ/CX.’‘Libii, a Yale graduate and alumnus of Second City in Chicago, was in ``Perfect Harmony’‘ at the Acorn Theatre and ``The Tempest’‘ at the Porpentine Theater.The rest of the

ROME (AFP) ― A Japanese businessman has agreed to invest around one million euros ($1.3 million) to restore a 2,000-year-old Roman pyramid in the Italian capital, La Repubblica daily reported this week. Yuzo Yagi, a fashion business owner from Osaka, is due to sign the agreement later this month and work on the pyramid, which was built in 18-12 B.C. as a tomb for a wealthy Roman, Gaius Cestius, is set to start in April, officials said.“His dream is to leave a mark in our country,” Rita Paris, wh

LONDON (AP) ― Two of Britain’s art superstars are squabbling about whether it’s acceptable to use assistants to create works of art.The argument pits painter David Hockney, just awarded Britain’s prestigious Order of Merit, against conceptual artist Damien Hirst.Hockney uses the poster for his upcoming Royal Academy show to state that all the works on exhibit were “made by the artist himself.’’Radio Times magazine reported Tuesday that Hockney said in an interview that the comment was directed a

LONDON (AFP) ― British artist David Hockney has responded to his appointment to the Order of Merit with typical humor, saying he was glad his controversial campaign for smokers’ rights had not worked against him.Hockney, who came to prominence during the British pop art movement in the 1960s, was named as a member of the exclusive order on Sunday by Queen Elizabeth II.Accepting the royal honor is a turnaround for the 74-year-old who famously turned down a knighthood in 1990, has refused to paint

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Squatting at a makeshift shrine with joss sticks burning beside her, Granny Leung starts bashing a manlike paper cut-out with a pair of sandals.“I beat you little people, I’m sending you away!” chants the 76-year-old woman, one of the last practitioners in Hong Kong of the ancient Chinese ritual of “da siu yan,” or “beating the petty little people.”Granny Leung performs her mysterious incantations in the bustling shopping district of Causeway Bay. And business is booming.For as

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) ― Yellowed cover pages of South Africa’s iconic Drum magazine evoke a 1950s black fashion and jazz culture which perished when apartheid forces razed Sophiatown, a racially-mixed Johannesburg suburb.This year Drum turned 60 and even today South Africans link the magazine to Sophiatown, a restless and vibrant suburb which was home to blacks, coloureds, Indians and Chinese.Between 1955 and 1960, residents were forcibly removed and relocated to townships outside Johannesburg beca