“This year, for the first time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will offer its members the option of electronic voting rather than the traditional paper ballot.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Jacksonville Symphony Board Stops Contract Negotiations, Says Season Is Threatened
“With the orchestra’s finances ‘on life support right now’ because of ongoing budget deficits, the Jacksonville Symphony Association board declared an impasse Tuesday in its negotiations with its musicians. As a result, it will implement its last offer to the musicians, an offer that includes a salary reduction of almost 20 percent for orchestra’s 53 core positions. That’s if there is a season.”
Agatha Christie Propaganda Essay Rediscovered
“Christie’s essay, in which she extols the virtues of the British detective story, has been published for the first time in the UK as the preface to the reissued 1933 collaborative crime novel Ask a Policeman.”
Poet Louis Simpson, 89
He was “a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who captured in simple verses the complexity of 20th-century American life, including the beauty and the emptiness he sometimes found in middle-class suburbia.”
Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, Now With Giant Bathtub, Reopens After Eight Years
“The original 1895 building of the Modern and contemporary art museum has been refurbished and an extension added that overlooks the city’s Museumplein. The new building” – which really does resemble an uninstalled bathtub seen from below – “has been designed by Amsterdam-based Benthem Crouwel Architects.”
Five Ways To Hack Voters’ Brains
“Welcome to the modern science of politics, where voters have become lab rats in an ongoing cycle of controlled trials informed by principles from behavioral psychology. Once dominated by superstition and guesswork, campaigns today are now awash in data and insights that allow them to act on that data. As election day approaches, here are five ways that campaigns are using these new tools to sway voters.”
Joyce Theater To Buy Chelsea Home, Sell Joyce SoHo
“The Joyce Theater is buying its longtime home in Chelsea for $20 million and selling its SoHo location for about $27 million, according to theater officials. The transactions … will not affect the Joyce’s plans to be the anchor tenant at the performing arts center planned for ground zero.”
Texting Through A Rosh Hashana Service – At The Rabbi’s Invitation
“‘Let’s see some texting, guys,’ Rabbi Amy L. Morrison told the group. ‘Take those phones out.’ What do you need to let go of, she asked the congregants, in order to be ‘fully present’? Hunched over their phones, they let loose their words and watched them scroll into view: Past mistakes. Shyness. Anger. Fear of failure. Self-pity. Ego. Doubt. Control.”
Shazam Makes Its Move Into Television
“Shazam has long been an essential companion to the radio, tagging songs so that anyone can track down what they are listening to at any time. Now Shazam is pursuing the television market, launching a major update to its app that will enable its 80 million users in the U.S. to tag any TV program on any channel.”
San Francisco Gets America’s First Freestanding Jazz Concert Hall
“After holding its performances in an improvised mix of venues around the city for the past three decades, SFJAZZ finally has a place to park its piano. When it opens on January 21, 2013, the new 35,000-square-foot SFJAZZ Center will be the first standalone jazz performance hall in the U.S.”