“At a time when libraries are more popular than ever, residents in cities and towns across Massachusetts risk losing many of their borrowing rights as communities consider cutting library budgets below minimum levels set by the state. That would jeopardize their certification…, triggering a double penalty: They would no longer be eligible for the state grants that round out local library budgets, and their residents would be deprived of the ability to borrow from most other public libraries.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Free Online Documentaries Find Audience, But Profits Lag
“A new online distribution system for documentaries launched in July has found widespread consumer adoption, but is still not close to providing substantive income to documentary or low-budget filmmakers. SnagFilms, launched by former National Geographic Films chief C. Richard Allen and former AOL executive Ted Leonsis, is geared to using the social networking tools of the web to feed a new distribution model for low-budget films.”
Rose Family Condemns Brandeis’ Plans For Museum
“In a public protest meant to put pressure on Brandeis University officials, fifty members of the Rose family today demanded the continued operation of the museum that bears their name and denounced plans to sell the art to pay its bills. The Rose family, whose $1 million gift enabled the construction of the building that opened in 1961, dismissed recent statements by Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz that the Rose would remain open for academic purposes, although not as a public museum.”
What’s The Next Shape Of Arts Journalism?
As the newspaper industry contracts violently, arts coverage is shrinking dramatically as well. “After complaining for years of unfair or insensitive reviews, [arts administrators] have come to the realization that the only thing worse than getting criticized is being ignored. Arts journalism in the United States will surely survive — but in what form?”
Amid Recession, European Book Sales Are Growing
“Whether they are picking up ‘La Crise, et Après?’ by the French economist Jacques Attali, one of the countless translations of the American author Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ series, or ‘Jamie’s Ministry of Food,’ by the British television chef Jamie Oliver, [people] are buying books. As the recession leaves other media industries in tatters, the oldest mass medium of all is holding up surprisingly well.”
Oh, It’s Just Suggested Admission? Here’s A Single.
“In a tough economy, New York museum-goers are less open to ‘suggestion.’ Rather than pay the full $20, recommended admission price to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visitors lately are forking over as little as a buck to walk through the door.”
Play Ball — In Your New, Retro-Classic Stadium
The Yankees and the Mets are about to unveil their new ballparks, each designed by HOK Sport. The latest Yankee Stadium “has tried hard, very hard, to make us think of its predecessor, with sumptuous architectural effects that have the self-important air of a new courthouse built to look as if it had been there since William Howard Taft was President.” The Mets’ new home, “Citi Field, which people are already calling TARP Field, or Bailout Park … is pleasanter in every way than the harsh stadium it replaces.”
In Greenwich Village, Blandness Triumphs Over Whimsy
“When St. Vincent’s hospital finally swings a wrecking ball at the O’Toole Building–the endearingly awkward, formerly white, three-layered stack with tear-off perforations and protruding upper floors on Seventh Avenue and West 12th Street–it will be for the greater good of Greenwich Village. The medical tower that rises in its place will serve the community and fortify the hospital’s tottering finances. But this improvement comes at the cost of eccentricity.”
Doodling Helps Kick-Start Your Brain When It’s Bored
“[Bill] Gates is a doodler, and he’s not alone. Lyndon Johnson doodled. Ralph Waldo Emerson doodled. Ronald Reagan drew pictures of cowboys, horses and hearts crossed with arrows. Most of us doodle at one point or another. But why? To understand where the compulsion to doodle comes from, the first thing you need to do is look more closely at what happens to the brain when it becomes bored.”
Test For Early Computer: Can It Write Cheesy Love Poems?
“Back in 1952 a team of scientists was desperate to test the capabilities of Mark One ‘Baby’, the computer built at Manchester University. One of them, Christopher Strachey, devised a quirky software programme by entering hundreds of romantic verbs and nouns into the new machine. He then sat back as Mark One ‘Baby’ trawled the literary database to create a stream of light-hearted verse.”