Traditional big recording companies are in a tough way these days. They’re getting tougher on consumers who illegally copy their music. But they’re also going after government to make tougher laws. Trouble is, they’re becoming so broke, finding a solution they can afford becomes tougher and tougher…
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First-Time Literary Lottery
“For thousands of would-be novelists the dream of living the New York writer’s life will never die, even if it nearly kills them to pursue it. But that doesn’t mean the nature of that pursuit is in any way constant. And as always, the goal of carving out a life of letters in the city—shared by thousands of Sarah Lawrence graduates, Starbucks baristas, and drop-out tax attorneys alike—is inextricably linked to the chilly realities of the publishing business. But rarely have the realities of the marketplace changed so jarringly as they have over the past five years. While the major publishing conglomerates continue to cut back on “midlist” authors, they’re increasingly willing to lavish astronomical sums on unknowns. So many, in fact, that since the late nineties, half a million dollars is de rigueur for a first novelist who’s perceived to have hot prospects.”
Opera Goes Back To Its Patron Roots
In Europe, where recent arts tradition has the state responsible for funding most of the cost of highculture, a shift is taking place. “Opera, the most expensive of art forms, is increasingly turning the clock back a couple of centuries and looking to individuals for patronage. Corporate sponsorship is becoming elusive and is likely to remain so at least until the next boom economy. At Covent Garden, about half the annual contributions from well-wishers now come from private patrons…”
The Atlantic In LA
The Atlantic Magazine is moving its literary operations out of Boston to LA. “Since taking over as the Atlantic Monthly’s literary editor three years ago, 39-year-old Yale- and Oxford-trained historian Benjamin Schwarz has reshaped the venerable magazine’s book section into the shrewdest, best-written and most surprising cultural report currently on offer between slick covers. Now, Schwarz plans to break with 146 years of tradition and move the Atlantic’s literary editorship from Boston, where the magazine was founded and will continue to publish, to set up shop in Los Angeles.”
View From The Top – America’s Most “Literate” Cities
“A survey of literacy in 64 cities confirmed what Seattle bookworms have long suspected. It named Seattle as one of the country’s two most-literate cities, edged out for No. 1 only by Minneapolis. Jack Miller, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater chancellor and education professor, used statistics in five categories and 13 different measures of literacy to provide a ‘literacy profile’ of all American cities with populations of 250,000 or more.”
Dallas: A View From The Middle
Dallas ranks in the middle of “literate” US cities at No. 36. “The surprise is that Dallas ranks above New York City (No. 47), Los Angeles (No. 54) and Chicago (No. 45). In fact, Dallas is the highest-ranked big city. All of the cities that placed above it have populations well below 1 million, while Dallas has 1,006,877 people. The study’s author says it “does tend to penalize the biggest cities. New York and L.A. have very high numbers of publications, colleges and newspaper readers, but their populations are so big and varied that they offset any literary concentrations those cities might enjoy.”
Putting Frames Around The Provocative..
Chris Burden has spent a career pushing at the boundaries of art. “Throughout a 30-year career marked by international fame and notoriety, each new artwork he has made has provoked new and ever more challenging answers to this simple question. But his own response, like so much of what he does, is unexpected. ‘It’s about trying to frame something. And draw attention to it and say, ‘Here’s the beauty in this. I’m going to put a frame around it, and I think this is beautiful. That’s what artists do. It’s really a pointing activity’.”
Report Blasts Australia’s National Museum
A report on Australia’s National Museum of Art gives the museum low marks. “The NMA is short on compelling narratives, engagingly presented dramatic realisations of important events and themes in the Australian story. And there are too few focal objects, radiant and numinous enough to generate memorable vignettes, or to be drawn out into fundamental moments. The report warned the museum may be failing in its role to inspire and educate its visitors because of a problem of translating narrative into museum practice, particularly in areas dealing with post-European arrivals to Australia.”
Dead Poets’ Society
British poet laureate Andrew Motion, who is responsible for writing eulogies in the circumstances of a royal death, has “helped produce a guide to penning funeral speeches. It is estimated that funeral speeches by friends or relatives, are given at just 10% of all services.”
Because It’s An Easy Read, It’s An Easy Write?
“Barely a week goes by without some sneering reference to chick-lit which has become all but a term of abuse. Why this should be is not clear – simple envy, perhaps, at our huge sales and concomitantly large advances. Or the belief that because these books are easy to read, they’re easy to write. They’re not. But I think there is something much deeper at work: a snobbish distaste for popular writing full stop.”