“A stream of information flows from 500 million registered twitterers (counting duplicates, dead people, parodies, imaginary friends, and bots) who thumb their hurried epistles into phones and tablets and PCs, and the tweets pour into Twitter’s servers at a rate of thousands per second–tens of thousands at peak times.”
Month: January 2013
Norway Reinvents The Architectural Star
“Perhaps only a post-industrial social democracy as progressive as Norway–surely among the most enlightened of all contemporary nations, with as good a claim as any other to being a thoroughly evolved and humane society–could have produced an architectural office such as this.”
Robert Redford Talks About Sundance (And What It’s Turned Into)
“It’s become like a monster’s ball. I’m not displeased about it. But it gets more and more difficult. It’s wonderful on one hand, and it’s monstrous on the other hand.”
The Celebrity Judge (It’s Not About The Judging)
“Having talent and judging talent are not the same thing, which was the dynamic upon which the whole enterprise rested. With a few exceptions (Christina Aguilera is a range snob, for instance), the pop stars on the panels these days often don’t seem to be much more musically discriminating than the audience at home. “
The Football Star And His Made-Up Relationship (It’s The Internet’s Fault)
“The Internet is the cause of much of today’s commitment-free, surface-only living; it’s also the explanation for why someone could tumble head-over-heels for a pixelated cipher.”
Riccardo Muti Drops Out Of Chicago Symphony’s Asia Tour
“Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti has been diagnosed with an internal hernia that will force him to bow out of the orchestra’s entire 10-day tour of the Far East, Jan. 25-Feb. 3.”
Bolshoi Ballet Artistic Director Attacked With Acid
“Moscow doctors are fighting to save the Bolshoi Ballet director Sergei Filin’s sight after he was attacked with acid outside his home late last night by a masked assailant. The assault is being linked to vicious internal theatre politics.”
Russia Held In Contempt Of Court In Case That Led To US Art Loan Ban
“A federal judge in Washington declared the Russian government in contempt of court for ignoring his 2010 order that it must return a disputed massive archive of historic religious books and manuscripts known as the Schneerson Collection to the New York-based [Hasidic organization] Chabad. The judge imposed fines of $50,000 a day.”
Arts Council England Exec Takes New Job While Collecting Sabbatical Pay
“An Executive Director of Arts Council England (ACE) … has been allowed to join her new organisation as its Chief Executive whilst on a six-month sabbatical being paid for by ACE.” Andrea Stark will receive her six-figure salary through June, when she becomes eligible for a six-figure redundancy payment.
National Theatre To Have Record-Breaking Eight Plays In London At Once
“For the first time ever, the National Theatre will have four productions running simultaneously in the West End from March … With another four shows playing in repertoire at its South Bank premises, the National Theatre will have a total of eight shows open across the capital. However, that figure could yet hit double-figures.”