“Hachette, which has not made new e-books available to libraries since 2010, is reconsidering the idea. In a pilot program starting this spring (which is…now?), the publisher is working with two e-book distributors to bring a ‘selection of HBG’s recent bestselling e-books to 7 million library patrons.'”
Month: May 2012
Soon, We May Be Able To Detach Our E-Books From Their Annoying Limitations
“These ‘unglued’ e-books can then be easily accessed and read and shared by anyone, with anyone, on any device. (You know, like how it works with printed books.)”
Forget Your Synthesizer? No Worries: Just Draw A New One
“Thanks to Carnegie Mellon student Billy Keyes who created SketchSynth, anyone can sketch his or her own control panels using a webcam, a piece of paper and a marker.”
Painter Brice Marden And The Near-Magical Powers Of Art
“Rock-star looks aside, Marden eschews cool. In an age where so much painting is purely about itself, he remains entranced by the landscape, light and colour of the world around him.”
You Can Crowd-Source, And Crowd-Fund, The Next Movie You See
“Tugg [is] a new service that combines crowd-funding, like Kickstarter, with the build-your-own-entertainment model of video-on-demand – but in a movie theater. With relationships with movie theaters all across the country and a library of more than 400 feature-length films, including new independent films, classic Hollywood and foreign movies, dramas, documentaries, and genre pictures, Tugg allows film lovers or people with a common interest in a particular subject matter to create a screening at a local theater at a time and date of their choosing.”
Painting Of Canada’s Prime Minister Au Naturel Doesn’t Go Over Well Online
A nude Stephen Harper reclining like the Rokeby Venus or Olympia? OK, it’s art – but Twitter doesn’t deal with it well.
More On The E-Word For Composers
That is, entrepreneurship. Why? “Most composition programs are built along the business model of South Park‘s underpants gnomes [collect underpants + ? = profit].”
Booker Winner (And Booker Snub-ee) Alan Hollinghurst Doesn’t Worry About Prizes Because Hello, He’s Busy Writing
“‘The Booker made me a lot of money. I didn’t realise that all over the world, people will read a book just because it won the Booker prize.’ A delicious pause. ‘Not something I would do myself… But then one goes into some quite other, private region to produce a book.’ He gives me a knowing look. ‘I think the Booker can drive people quite mad. That’s why it’s good to be detached from it.'”
Protest On The Red Carpet At Cannes’ Single-Gendered Year
“Five women from La Barbe donned fake, different colored beards and stood in the torrential rain at the premiere of Michael Haneke’s Amour. They carried signs that said, ‘Marveilleux,’ ‘Merci!!!’ ‘Splendide,’ ‘Incredible!’ and ‘Le Barbe.'”
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, A Man Who Could Even Intimidate Benjamin Britten
“Britten to Fischer-Dieskau, 1961: ‘Please forgive me writing to such a busy man as yourself — you can be sure that if I did not feel very strongly I should not be troubling you! … I am writing what I think will be one of my most important works. It is a full-scale Requiem Mass for chorus and orchestra … Peter Pears has agreed to sing the tenor part, and with great temerity I am asking you whether you would sing the baritone.'”