“The iPod, like the cellphone, is invaluable in the everyday lives of millions. We name our iPods, coddle them, buy cases for them, insure them and sing their praises – until they break down. Then we curse them, throw them, mock them and spread the bad word – before buying our next one. And the cycle repeats.”
Blog
Mozart Reconsidered (Again)
“Present-day scholars are picking away at the myths and fantasies that have encrusted the world’s most famous composer. They describe him not as a naïve prodigy or a suffering outcast but as a hardworking, ambitious, successful musician — ‘Mozart as a Working Stiff,’ to borrow the title of a 1994 essay by Neal Zaslaw.”
Book Sales Up In May
“After falling for three consecutive months, bookstore sales rose 1.2% in May, to $1.11 billion.”
$20 Admission? How ‘Bout $49.99?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s decision to raise its admission price from $15 to $20 has Christopher Knight thinking: Why such a puny increase when the Met could really stick it to its customers? “It’s 2006! America has been through Reagan, Bush, Clinton and another Bush. Whether it’s health insurance, schools, campaign funding or any of the arts, liberal concepts of public responsibility have been out of fashion for a quarter-century. Didn’t the Met get the memo? Americans want things fully privatized.”
Hong Kong Deploys Kids To Fight Copyright Crime
“Movie and song copiers beware: use an Internet discussion site in Hong Kong to violate copyrights and you may be turned in to law enforcement authorities by an 11-year-old Boy Scout. Starting this summer the Hong Kong government plans to have 200,000 youths search Internet discussion sites for illegal copies of copyrighted songs and movies, and report them to the authorities.”
Carrie Nye, 69
“Carrie Nye, a stage, film and television actress and a fixture at the Williamstown Theater Festival, died Friday at her home in Manhattan.”
Mickey Spillane, 88
Detective novelist Mickey Spillane, creator of Mike Hammer, has died. “Scorned by many critics for his artless plots, his reliance on unlikely coincidence and a simplistic understanding of the law, Mr. Spillane nevertheless achieved instant success with his first novel…. Mr. Spillane referred to his own material as ‘the chewing gum of American literature’ and laughed at the critics. ‘I’m not writing for the critics,’ he said. ‘I’m writing for the public.'”
Australian Arts’ Funding Crisis
Across Australia small and medium-sized theatre and dance companies are struggling to attract sufficient funding to produce new work. This lack of resources will be “felt by generations to come…”
Reality Show’s Winning Play Closes Early
The play that won an English reality show about creating a play is closing early. “The show, has been playing to half-empty houses since its high-profile premiere on June 15, and yesterday the producers revealed that the curtain will come down for the last time on July 29 – a full month earlier than planned.”
You’ve Been Warned (But Why?)
In British theatre now, there are warnings for everything. “As yet, theatre warnings haven’t become sufficiently detailed to confuse the actual with the represented. Apart from quantifiable matters such as nudity, theatres tend to use euphemistic phrases like ‘adult content’ or ‘scenes of an explicit nature’. But behind all warnings – whether about content or sensation – lie presumptions that go beyond health and safety into more contestable areas of consumer protection.”