It’s a quiet war, but it’s fierce. Macmillan is planning to block libraries from buying more than one digital copy of new books for eight weeks after the book comes out, starting in November. The claim: That library ebooks cannibalize book sales. But “studies consistently show library patrons to be more frequent book buyers overall—which is another reason Macmillan’s letter stung.” – Slate
Month: September 2019
Ric Ocasek Of The Cars, Who Fused New Wave And Pop, Has Died At 75
Ocasek wrote and was lead singer on nearly every song The Cars recorded, including hits like “Best Friend’s Girl” and “Shake It Up,” and after the group broke up, he had a second career as a producer, “helping sculpt blockbuster hits like Weezer’s blue and green albums and cult favorites like Bad Brains’ Rock for Light.” – Rolling Stone
If You’re Trying To Break An Addiction, Are Books Prescribed?
Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is repetitive, redundant, with reformulated ideas in every chapter – but sometime it works. (At least once you’re already also in rehab.) – LitHub
The New Light Art Of California Lives In Wine Country
Of course it does. “With its time-sequence ticketing and Sensorio-branded hoodies for sale, Field of Light joins a coterie of art entertainments at wineries and related establishments seeking to infuse culture into viticulture — what has been called the Vine Art Movement.” – The New York Times
Baltimore Symphony Pushes Season Opener Back By A Week Amid Labor Dispute, But Musicians Play A Free Concert Anyway
The season opener was pushed from September 14 to September 21, though the musicians of the BSO, not under the name of the BSO, played a free concert on opening night at a different venue. The problem with the new opening date? “No further bargaining session have been scheduled, according to Brian Prechtl, co-chairman of the Baltimore Symphony Musicians Player Committee.” – The Baltimore Sun
Is There A Tech Backlash?
No, and it’s wild that we think there is one. “Technology has improved the world, and our lives, in plenty of ways. But it often seems we are willing to overlook significant potential downsides in exchange for rather trivial payoffs.” – The New York Times
What Is The Deal With Jeremy Renner, And By Extension, Hollywood?
Celebrity in the 21st century: The actor Jeremy Renner was nominated for Oscars two years in a row, with The Hurt Locker and The Town. Then Marvel came calling. Then he got his own app. Then things went off the rails in all kinds of ways. “The sheer existence — and vertiginous decline — of the Jeremy Renner Official app is weird and inexplicably hilarious. But like the rest of Renner’s current image, it’s also a symptom of our current, confusing moment in pop culture and the economy built around it, where it’s unclear if the truly massive Hollywood star is increasingly a relic of the past.” – BuzzFeed
Science Is Deeply Imaginative And Creative
Why is this such a secret? “Without the essential first step, without a creative reimagining of nature, a conceiving of hypotheses for what might be going on behind the perceived surface of phenomena, there can be no science at all.” – Aeon
Gender Bias In Museums Goes All The Way Down To The Fossil Collections
Oh, you thought it was just painting collections, or the sculpture garden? Nope: “Gender bias in favor of males extends to fossil and museum collections of mammals.” – Hyperallergic
Twenty Years Ago, Reality Shows ‘Broke TV’ And Paved The Way For Today
Used to be, the U.S. TV landscape had a few reality shows, nothing spectacular, nothing great. But 1999 changed things: “The drama, the spectacle and arguably the artifice of reality television became the main draws. Participants couldn’t simply be regular people anymore; they had to be personalities, or types, perfectly attuned and calibrated to orchestrating the juiciest of drama. Soon reality stars became the new celebrities, celebrities the new reality stars.” One might say it led to a certain election outcome as well. – HuffPost