David Lipsky got his book launched with plenty of buzz. His publisher was foursquare behind him. And the opening round of publicity created aa run of sales any publisher would envy. One problem? You can’t buy the book anywhere. Lipsky’s book sold out of its first printing of 40,000, and making more takes three weeks or longer. By then, will people stiull be lining up to buy it? The story shows how cautious publishers have become…
Month: August 2003
The Basis Of Music?
“The chromatic scale — the musical scale that follows the notes of the piano and of which the Western seven-tone do-re-mi scale is a subset — may not be based on number ratios, as many physicists and mathematicians have proposed, but rather on human speech, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience…”
Why Literature Matters
What’s the point of literature? “Literature is a conversation across the ages about our experience and our nature, a conversation in which, while there isn’t unanimity, there is a surprising breadth of agreement. Literature amounts, in these matters, to the accumulated wisdom of the race, the sum of our reflections on our own existence. It begins with observation, with reporting, rendering the facts of our inner and outer reality with acuity sharpened by imagination. At its greatest, it goes on to show how these facts have coherence and, finally, meaning.”
Gregory Hines – He Pushed His Artform
“He had shone in so many ways: a stellar tap dancer, choreographer, actor, teacher, mentor, loved one. If you missed his appearances at tap festivals, you might have enjoyed his gritty portrayal of Jelly Roll Morton in Jelly’s Last Jam on Broadway. Although you might never have seen him tap, you might have caught him in one of his appearances on Will & Grace. His death caught most of us off guard; he let only those closest to him know that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer a little over a year ago.”
Senator Dodd’s Quiet Campaign
Connecticut senator Senator Christopher J. Dodd is “seeking to correct what he and other lawmakers regard as a longstanding injustice: a dearth of images of women and members of minorities in one of the nation’s most visited buildings” – the Capitol.
Making Monet Look Like A Hack…But Who Seems To Care?
Edinburgh’s mamoth Monet show has Richard Dorment wondering if Monet “may not be the most overrated painter of the 19th century. Monet was a virtuoso, like the composer Rossini. Both were prolific with their enormous talents. Ravishing though it is, their work needs to be taken in small doses so that you don’t notice how formulaic and repetitive it can be. This sprawling, grab-bag of a show looks at the period 1878-83” and reveals a formula applied over and over again. “So what if the show is lousy? It’s Monet, stupid. The box-office queues are long, and the gift shop is busy. The cynicism of the whole enterprise boggles the mind.”
Historic UK Building Material At An End – Preservationists Fret
The British government has decided not to allow a lime quarry to operate, thereby effectively ending “production of traditional lime mortar in the UK and a history stretching back to the Romans. Made by burning lime in kilns, it was used on most buildings erected before 1800. Without a homegrown source, some fear that builders and enthusiastic amateurs will use cement as an alternative for repairs, causing damage to historic brick and stonework.”
Artist Wants To Rebuild Berlin Wall
A German artist wants to rebuild the Berlin Wall in plastic. He’s been “working for three years to raise the €25m (£18m) he says it will take to rebuild a 29-mile plastic copy of the Berlin Wall across the city.” He hopes to build it in time for when the city hosts the World Cup in 2006.
Julian Schnabel – Gone Before His Time
Once Julian Schnabel was hot. Now not… “Everything Julian Schnabel does has only one meaning: it’s over. The story of American art that seemed so epic, so inexhaustible, from Jackson Pollock in the 1940s to Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark in the 1970s, is over. How can a culture become so creative so suddenly, and then, as suddenly, dry up? You have to admire Schnabel’s cojones for carrying on at all, so ruthlessly has he been expunged from the memory of the art world.”
The Preservation Problem
Preservation of contemporary art is a huge concern. “High-tech art is at risk of literally fading away, leaving buyers with nothing to show for their money. Time is running out for museums, galleries and private collectors wanting to preserve their digital photography and video art, as recent research has shown that the deterioration is quicker than people realised. Institutions around the world are tackling this problem, and scientists at Basel University have been researching stability in photography since 1965.”