“In Australia, a national tradition is under threat. On summer weekends, members of elite squads head to the beach. Standing like guards outside Buckingham Palace, participants parade up and down, barefoot on the sand, practicing a pageant that mixes the pomp of military ceremony with Baywatch.”
Month: February 2012
Evita! Judy! Jesus! Thank Heaven For Musicals About Celebrities!
Ben Brantley: “You might even argue that in this age of instant celebrity – in which fame for its own sake is regarded as both a feasible career choice and a democratic right – the lives of the excessively famous are more relevant than those of struggling sample-kit schleppers like Willy Loman.”
Vote For The Year’s Oddest Book Title!
“A guide to Estonian socks, an examination of the role of the fungus in Christian art, and a celebration of the humble office chair are among the books in contention for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year – the prestigious literary award run by The Bookseller since 1978.”
Our Children Are Starved For Culture? Really?
“Recently published research found that 40% of British children aged five to 12 have never visited an art gallery. Claiming to have identified a “culture starved’ generation, the study also found, somewhat less dramatically, that 17% of children have never visited a museum with their parents. On closer reading, the research seems to be part of a public relations ploy to get parents to take their children to cultural venues in Britain’s second largest city.”
Video Arcades Go Underground
“In San Francisco, New York, Austin and elsewhere, these gritty little storefronts hearken back to the days when arcade cabinets mostly lived in bars, pool halls and run-down amusement parks. They are a place for gamers to test their skills against like-minded enthusiasts, a digital Fight Club for those looking for something more than Skee-Ball and Dance Dance Revolution. It’s in these packed alleyways and basements that video arcades are staying alive.”
Leaked Audit In Eminem Case Shows Huge Stakes For Recording Companies
“The report, which is being vigorously disputed by the defendants, represents millions of dollars in claimed revenue from digital downloads. It also shows the other ways that record labels supposedly withhold too much income from artists, from overstating the costs of advertising on TV to not sharing the proceeds of litigation winnings.”
Is The Internet Just Weighing Us Down In Narcissism?
“For all the porn that can be found so easily now by kids and adults, digital technology creates its own pornography of narcissism. Hence the ease with which the old patterns of growth, maturity and aging are undermined, for all age groups. We grow cruder, not wiser and better from the connection-saturation culture of the digital world. Adults go back to the cave, and take the kids with them.”
Why Sakari Oramo Is A Great Choice To Lead BBC Symphony Orchestra
“Oramo managed the impossible task of filling, with notable success, the enormous gap left by Simon Rattle when he took over from him at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Quietly, and with immense charm, confidence and support for a wide range of repertoire – not just from his Finnish homeland but in a variety of British music too – Oramo made his mark, and developed the sound of the CBSO even beyond Rattle’s extraordinary achievements.”
Charlotte Church Settles In Sun Newspaper Phone-Hacking Suit
The judge was considering Church’s “claim that 33 articles about Church and her family in the now-defunct Sunday newspaper were the product of hacking into voicemails and had a negative impact on the family’s business and her mother’s health.”
Is Oscar Losing Its Clout?
“We don’t even see a big bump anymore when a best picture winner hits home video. The Oscars are about ego and recognition. The spending just doesn’t stand up to any rational analysis. The culture has changed. The era when an elite institutional award could have a lot of sway with the public is pretty much at an end.”