Blog

MTV Downloadable?

Is MTV threatened by music download sites like iTunes? The music channel plans to launch a service of downloadable MTV. “There’s no doubt it’s a strong brand, with a strong profile of viewers. But they can’t rely solely on their brand come next year … After iTunes launched in April, MTV should have been like a hawk on a field mouse.”

Critic Vs Corcoran – Gopnik Causes Stir

Some at Washington’s Cordoran Gallery are buzzing about the scathing criticism Washington Post critic Blake Gopnik has heaped their way. “Gopnik has been most personal about the Corcoran. Gopnik tells Post Watch he wants the Corcoran board ‘to know there are repercussions to having shows like that.’ His review blamed Corcoran board chair Otto Reusch. Corcoran director David Levy calls Gopnik’s review ‘unethical’ and says the critic often displays ‘immodest immaturity’ in his reviews.”

Book Sales Roar In September

Book sales were sharply up in September, the book trade’s best month in a long time. “Children’s hardcover category continued to show the strongest gains as sales in September increased 62.1%. For the first nine months of the year, children’s hardcover sales were up 56%. Adult hardcover, which has had an up-and-down year, posted a sales gain of 31.7% in September, although year-to-date sales were off 5.8%.”

Architectural Battle In The Shadow Of St. Paul’s

London’s Paternoster Square, in the shadow of St. Paul’s, has opened after decades-long battles as to what whould be built there. “To those sickened by the damage inflicted on Britain’s cities and towns by modernist planners and architects, Paternoster Square was a battle cry. If the setting of St Paul’s was not sacred, then where in Britain was? To modernist architects and their supporters, it was no less emotive. If the classicists could capture such a major site in the heart of the City of London, who knew where the counter-revolution might end? It was, of course around the figure of the Prince of Wales, then at the height of his campaign to roll back the boundaries of modernism, that the battle raged and swirled. Like Verdun, the end result was stalemate.”

Is The New Book Culture Killing Literature?

“Literature now is in a dangerous zone where there seems to be little separation between the private act of writing and the public performance demanded of writers,” says author Michael Ondaatje. “Books are judged today as successful or not depending on sales and jury short lists. Meanwhile the critical climate, for all the media coverage of writers, is random and manic… And with awards, the one thing we have to admit about juries is that they can often choose the wrong books.”

The Courtship Of David Zinman

Conductor David Zinman resigned the music directorship of the Baltimore Symphony five years ago, unhappy with what he called the orchestra’s increasingly conservative direction. At the time, many observers assumed that Zinman would never again agree to lead an American orchestra, that he was just too disgusted with the place of the arts in his native country. But now, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra revving up its search to replace outgoing director Mariss Jansons, Zinman is apparently willing to consider a return to the States. “I told them that it really depends on who the new executive director is and who the new board president is,” he says. “Then I would be open to talking about it.”

The Serious Business of KidLit

JK Rowling aside, authors who focus their efforts on the youth market are not in what you would call a moneymaking line of work. Most have day jobs, and few ever manage to earn a full-time income from writing children’s books. But children’s authors take themselves and their genre quite seriously, and they put as much time and effort into crafting a 200-word picture book as other authors put into an 80,000-word novel.