BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Defying hard times in Europe, the Brussels opera house is filling seats by offering bold and innovative shows despite a tight budget, shrinking subsidies and a smaller workforce.“In a period of crisis, audacity pays off,” Peter de Caluwe, the 48-year-old head of La Monnaie opera house (“The Mint” in English), told AFP.“Austerity is not a word that scares us,” de Caluwe said. “It forces us to be daring and show imagination.”Opera lovers are flocking to La Monnaie to hear classics

NEW YORK (AP) ― The idea for the New Multitudes’ new album was conceived even before the group was created.Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, Anders Parker and Will Johnson took unfinished songs, poems and other musings of Woody Guthrie and re-imagined them for “New Multitudes,’’ the veteran musicians’ first project together. Because each of the men is in different groups, it took at least two years to get the album finished.“The sessions (came) slowly but surely, as the thing has come from various corners

LOS ANGELES ― It’s official: Sexual objectification of women in music videos isn’t limited to those featuring male stars. A new study by two University of Missouri researchers has found that female artists frequently turn themselves into sex objects in their own videos.“It has been known that music videos featuring male artists often sexually objectify women, but our study shows that many female artists are objectifying themselves in their music videos,” said Cynthia Frisby, an associate profess

A fresh wave of Beatlemania could sweep the world after Paul McCartney‘s son said four of the legendary British rock group’s children were considering setting up a band together.James McCartney told the BBC website that he and John Lennon‘s son Sean, George Harrison’s son Dhani, and Ringo Starr‘s son Zak Starkey had mooted the idea of forming “The Beatles -- The Next Generation”.“I’d be up for it,” said the 34-year-old, who is launching a solo career as a singer and guitarist. “Sean seemed to be

A fresh wave of Beatlemania could sweep the world after Paul McCartney's son said four of the legendary British rock group's children were considering setting up a band together.James McCartney told the BBC website that he and John Lennon's son Sean, George Harrison's son Dhani, and Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey had mooted the idea of forming "The Beatles -- The Next Generation"."I'd be up for it,

South Korean pop groups Big Bang and 2NE1 are the most favored K-pop stars among French fans, a government poll released on Tuesday showed.In the online survey of 3,755 French respondents conducted by the Paris branch of the Korea Tourism Organization, 49.9 percent picked the five-member hip-hop band Big Bang as their favorite K-pop boy band and 64.8 percent chose the four-member hip-hop group2NE1

NEW YORK (AP) ― NBC’s “Today” show is bringing Sarah Palin on board as a co-host ― for one morning, this Tuesday.The announcement was posted Sunday on NBC’s website. It says the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate will “reveal a different side” than viewers have seen before.The booking is clearly an attempt to blunt the impact of “Today” alumna Katie Couric’s weeklong return to morning TV as a guest host on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Couric joined ABC last year and was