Ah HAH: “It was to identify song features that could be predictive of mega-hits. Researchers found that top-ranked songs tended to have more difference from past hits than lower-ranked songs, defying the trope that popular songs are just copies of other popular songs.”
Month: July 2018
What Does The Almost Rapturous Critical Embrace Of Mamma Mia 2 Say About How We’ve All Changed Since The First, Deeply Vilified, Movie In 2008?
Things have really, deeply changed: “Warming towards Abba reflects a critical embrace of pop culture over the last decade. ‘Poptimism’ has meant that art that was once dismissed for being lightweight, feminine and glittery is now subject to critical close-readings that combine academia with fannish enthusiasm.”
The Daughter Of Indicted Republican Political Operative Paul Manafort Releases A Film, But Not Under Her Own Name
It’s her mother’s maiden name, you guys, it doesn’t mean anything: “Manafort, the movie’s writer and director, used a pseudonym in connection with the project: Jess Bond.”
Is A Podcast A Hot New Way To Help Solve The Thefts At The Gardner Museum?
Whoa: “The podcast includes a raft of interviews, including one with the night watchman who let in the thieves and the first public interview with a second museum guard who was on duty that night.”
Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Food Writer And Lover Of All Things Los Angeles, Has Died At 57
Jonathan Gold changed the dining scene in Los Angeles, and changed food criticism all over the world. He died soon after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. “‘I can’t imagine the city without him. It just feels wrong. I feel like we won’t have our guide, we won’t have the soul,’ said filmmaker Laura Gabbert, who directed City of Gold, a 2015 documentary that followed the legendary critic as he ate his way through and reflected on Los Angeles. ‘It’s such a loss. I can’t wrap my head around it.'”
Remembering The Now-Gone Music Stores On NYC’s 48th Street
Forty-eighth Street was once famous for stores that sold musical instruments. Those stores catered to musicians of every stripe, but the vibe was very rock and roll. The names that stand out for me are Manny’s and Sam Ash, but there were several others, packed together, one next to the other, each a world unto itself. In my own private atlas of the city, that street was also notable for the degree its character changed in the course of one block, from Seventh Avenue to Sixth Avenue. The music stores, like the support of a seesaw, were the point at which that character made its pivot.
Plagiarism? Are There Really Any New Ideas?
Writing consists of basically two things: idea and execution. You come up with an idea, and you figure out how to execute it in terms of style, setting, and genre. Writers are understandably protective of our ideas, but for better or worse the law only really protects execution. Unless someone is directly stealing your exact words, it is nearly impossible to prove that they took the idea. And it probably wouldn’t be a good thing if it did.
Does The Future Of Stagecraft Lie In Virtual Or Augmented Reality?
Howard Sherman: “While I don’t look forward to watching plays while holding up my mobile phone (ringer off, of course) for two hours, technology is beginning to offer ways for companies to create more immersive worlds without the construction of physical scenery. As work increasingly bursts out beyond prosceniums, augmented reality may offer possibilities to performances anywhere people can congregate, but without the need for lugging scenery into parks and playgrounds.”
Opera Australia Bets The Future On A (TK) Digital Revolution
Lyndon Terracini is staking much of the future and reputation of the national opera company on a digital revolution designed to immerse audiences and create an experience more akin to watching a movie than traditional opera. The glittering reptiles on the Joan Sutherland Theatre stage are part of the wholly digital production design for OA’s upcoming Aida. It’s the first step along a road Terracini says will revolutionise the way opera is staged and experienced.
Everywoman in Ohio
Tracy Letts is one of this country’s foremost writers, a playwright who is unafraid to explore the private lives of Americans of all kinds, from the sleazy trailer trash of “Killer Joe” to the freshly divorced misanthrope at the heart of “Linda Vista.”