Matthew Westphal – Page 1695 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Mario Vargas Llosa Slams NYT Book Review For ‘Slanderous And Perfidious’ ‘Gossip’

At the end of his review of Notes on the Death of Culture, Joshua Cohen wrote that the Nobel laureate had announced his new romantic relationship on Twitter and sold an exclusive about it to a Spanish gossip magazine. Vargas Llosa has never had a Twitter account. Cohen says he got the info from The Daily Mail. Oops.

Billboard’s Annual Survey Of Music Execs Draws Outrage For Its Unorthodox (If That’s The Word) Questions

The survey usually asks things like “What was the most important/ influential/impactful event to happen in the music business [this year], and why?” This year, it’s “Who is the most devious executive in the music industry?” and “Which artist’s private behavior belies his/her sterling public persona?” Most controversially, the questionnaire casually asks readers if they believe singer Kesha’s accusations that her ex-manager sexually abused her.

Now She’s Really Arrived: Misty Copeland Gets A ’60 Minutes’ Segment

“If there is such a thing as the wrong side of the tracks, that’s where Misty Copeland grew up. She, her divorced mother and five siblings moved around like nomads. Down on their luck, they ended up here at this motel on a busy street in Gardena, California — the whole family piled into two rooms. She hadn’t been back in almost two decades until she returned with us.” (script plus video extras)

A Serpentine Tale: How Snake Oil Came To Be A Byword For Anything Bogus, And Why Real Snake Oil Actually Can Be Good For You

“Despite the quackery and charlatanism associated with snake oil, it’s not always as blatantly ineffective as its reputation suggests – as long as the oil is extracted from the right kind of snake.”

Are The Social Sciences Ultimately Futile? The Problem With P-Values

“In research, the p-value represents the odds that your finding is a fluke, a coincidence, nothing more than a chance occurrence. In p-values, as in golf, lower is better. … And yet it says almost nothing about the size or strength of a result.” If the results of research can always be a fluke, why bother? The problem lies in what we expect from science.

When The President Makes Playlists

“At a time when so many of our everyday choices get gussied up in the language of ‘curation,’ playlists and d.j.s (particularly celebrity d.j.s) have taken on an elevated role. The playlist has become a kind of biographical shorthand, a way of communicating something essential about ourselves through the performance of taste. Of course, taste and relatability mean something different when they involve someone with drones at his disposal.”

Should We Really Care If Yet Another F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Is ‘Discovered’?

“So here is a caveat lector: if you see an announcement of a ‘new’ work by Scott Fitzgerald, or any other classic author with a ready-made audience, check their archive catalogue first (most of them are digitised). It is probably just unpublished, and many will argue that it should stay that way.”

Houston’s Classical Radio Station To Sell FM Frequency, Go All-Digital

“Houston Public Media, which operates the University of Houston’s broadcasting properties, says it will sell the frequency and transmitter for KUHA (91.7 FM) while retaining the station’s classical music format via online streaming and an HD Radio subchannel of KUHF (88.7 FM).”

HarperCollins Closes Peer-Review Site For Budding Authors

“Described as an ‘open slush pile’ by Cory Doctorow when it launched in 2008, Authonomy allowed users to submit their manuscripts for discussion, critique and ranking by fellow site members. The top five each month were read by HarperCollins editors, with 47 going on to be picked up for publication, including works by Miranda Dickinson, Steven Dunne and Kat French.”

Author: Matthew Westphal