A Silicon Valley entrepreneur was tired of the contemporary music she was hearing. So she decided to buy some that she did like. She started a commissioning project, but she’s a hands-on patron…
Blog
In Praise Of Book TV
“I’m a little agog at the number of friends and acquaintances who still respond with blank looks when I start babbling about the bounty that is Book TV, even though it celebrated its fifth anniversary last fall. There is intelligent life on television, I assure them, and its name is Book TV.”
GroupThink – Choosing The WTC Memorial Plan
Choosing a plan for the WTC memorial was an arduous task for the project’s jury. “With 5,201 entries to consider, the original strategy was for the submissions to be divided among three groups of jurors. The jury decided, though, that every juror would look at every board, including some 400 that had been disqualified on technicalities.”
Does American Culture Have Legs For The Long Run?
American culture dominates the world like no other in human history. But will it have the staying power of Plato? “Some experts believe US domination of communication channels makes it inevitable that its messages will become far more entrenched than those of previous empires. The main difference now in favor of American culture is the importance of technology – telephone, Internet, films, all that did not exist in ancient Greece or the Mongol empire.”
Dance Of The String Quartet
How do members of a tring quartet keep from arguing? How do they stay togeter year after year? “Lurking behind the first question is an idealistic vision of a quartet as a non-stop idyll of glorious music-making with your friends, a working life as fulfilled and perfect as the Beethoven quartets we play. The implication of the second question is that this long and intense menage à quatre must be some sort of Strindbergian dance of death, endured by a species of subtle masochists. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between – although some groups veer towards one extreme or another, especially if they last for decades.”
WTC – Making The Aesthetic Arguments
Revisions to the WTC memorial are creating an interesting conversation on design function. “When the site is complete, it will form the backdrop for aesthetic conversations between youth and experience; between the logic of the corporate world and that of the avant-garde; and, we found out this week, between minimalist abstraction and literal narrative.”
Surge In Music Downloading
The number of people downloading music off the internet has surged again after several months of decline after the recording industry began suing consumers. “The number of U.S. households downloading music from peer-to-peer networks rose 6 percent in October and 7 percent in November after a six-month decline, according to a study of computer use in 10,000 U.S. households conducted by The NPD Group. In a separate, bimonthly survey, 12 million individuals reported getting music on the free networks in November, up from 11 million in September.”
Are Laws Killing Digital Creativity?
“Who knows what creativity could be unleashed by the growth of digital distribution and the widespread availability of programs to create, sample and manipulate content. But if we treat copyright as an absolute property right, and allow the limitations on re-use forced on us by digital rights management technologies, we will never find out.”
BBC Digital Gaining Viewers
The BBC has been blasted for the ratings some of its new digital channels have attracted (or not attracted). But finally there seem to be some shows that people want to watch. And besides, writes Torin Douglas, complaints or compliments – what really counts is that they’re talking about you.
London Symphony In Debt
The London Symphony has much to be proud of, and it’s held up as a shining success. Oh, one problem, writes Charlotte Higgins: “the LSO is mired in financial troubles. It is facing its first deficit in years, despite, to other organisations’ frequent exasperation and envy, being the best-funded symphony orchestra in the country.’ And all about a building?