“Tactile memory is our window on the intimate sensual relationship that a musician has with his or her instrument. Because they’re made from wood and other climate-sensitive materials, most instruments end up with a unique touch, sound and personality. Like lonely singles, musicians dream of a perfect match by which the sum of man and music machine is greater than the parts.”
Month: June 2008
Has Google Become Too Powerful?
“As Google’s influence grows, a number of scholars and programmers have begun to argue that the company is acquiring too much power over our lives – invading our privacy, shaping our preferences, and controlling how we learn about and understand the world around us. To counter its pervasive effects, they are developing strategies to push back against Google, dilute its growing dominance of the information sphere, and make it more publicly accountable.”
Study: Rock Concerts Prematurely Age Artworks
“Scientists at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg have been examining how concerts by the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and others in the adjacent Winter Square have affected their collections over the past three years. The unpublished findings, they say, could affect the future of rock concerts staged at stately homes. The preliminary results of the three-year study, being examined by the Grabar Art Restoration Institute in Moscow, show that every 10 concerts above 82 decibels add an extra year to the age of a work.”
Dance In The City – Using LA As A Stage
How do you dance in a city so overwhelmed with visual images? You use the city as your canvas…
At Famous Houses – A Struggle To Keep The Lights On
“For scores of historic house museums, simply keeping the lights on has become a challenge. The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, Mass., is trying to stave off foreclosure with a feverish fundraising campaign. The Mark Twain House in Hartford can’t even afford to buy energy-saving light bulbs that would slash its electric bill. Experts say this summer may make or break some sites, many of which already have cut their hours and staff and are struggling for donations in today’s troubled economy.”
The Good Side Downloading – Touring Is Up
“Before file sharing tipped over the music business, bands used to tour in support of a record. Now they tour to get the dough to make a record. Cheap recording technology, along with all manner of electronic distribution, means that bands don’t need to sign with a giant recording label to get their music out there.”
El Sistema In Prison
“In a project extending Venezuela’s renowned system of youth orchestras to some of the country’s most hardened prisons, hundreds of prisoners are learning a repertory that includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and folk songs from the Venezuelan plains. The budding musicians include murderers, kidnappers, thieves and, here at the women’s prison, dozens of narcomulas, or drug mules, as small-scale drug smugglers are called.”
What Did In Jeune Lune
The innovative Minneapolis theatre company is closing. “They are an incredibly committed and talented group. They didn’t fail for lack of passion or commitment. But debt is debt. It’s like what’s going on in the mortgage crisis: At a certain point, you get over a tipping point, and you can’t tip yourself back.”
National Performing Arts Conference Closes In Censorship Controversy
“The National Performing Arts Convention ended with departing delegates praising Denver for its friendliness and weather. But the quadrennial confab also ended in a controversy that some are predicting — on and off the record — may doom it.”
Prominent Minneapolis Theatre Closes
Theatre de la Jeune Lune, which won a Tony Award in 2005 as the nation’s outstanding regional playhouse, is closing at the end of July. The performance company’s board voted Saturday for the closure. The company is $1 million in debt.