“From the vantage of our den on Central Park West, where my mother, Judith Ross, co-wrote the book, or the living room, where my parents held readings of the script to attract investors, or the dining room, where they debated every aspect of the show, I watched them build the perfect beast. A spectacle like no one had ever seen.”
Tag: 01.02.11
Working To Save The Ruins Of Babylon
“For the first time since the American invasion in 2003, after years of neglect and violence, archaeologists and preservationists have once again begun working to protect and even restore parts of Babylon and other ancient ruins of Mesopotamia. And there are new sites being excavated for the first time, mostly in secret to avoid attracting the attention of looters, who remain a scourge here.”
The Incredible Shrinking Soundbite
“New research suggests that the specter of the shrinking sound bite is anything but new. In fact, quotations from politicians have been getting shorter for more than a century.”
The Big Numbers In 2010 Entertainment (What We Watched/Heard)
“Understanding what those numbers tell us about the rapidly changing entertainment environment requires that we make some statistical comparisons that help explain what audiences were watching, listening to and buying last year. The results are both revealing and surprising.”
The New Lincoln Center – It Works
“As someone who grew up going to Lincoln Center in its early years (if I remember, my first Philharmonic concert at what was then Philharmonic Hall was in 1964), I am delighted and surprised that the center has been able to make itself so much more inviting, to blend into the neighborhood.”
The Internet, Metaphorically Speaking
“America’s wires are not just a metaphor. Protected pathways, from roads to optical fiber, have been integral to the nation’s political development. Our technological world evolves every day, incrementally — and then, suddenly, in lurches. Is this one of those times?”
How The Internet Is Changing Literary Criticism
“Sustained exposure to the Internet is changing the way many readers process the written word. Texts are shorter and more flagrantly interconnected, with all kinds of secret passageways running into and out of one another. This has already changed the way we produce, read, share and digest our writing. Inevitably, it will also redefine what it means to practice book criticism.”
The Upside Of Being Criticized
“Negative criticism is particularly exciting, not only because of schadenfreude, but because once limitations are identified, we glimpse how to transcend them.”
Did Criticism Go Wrong?
“There is little point in blaming ‘New Criticism,’ which fetishized the uniqueness and autonomy of literary works, or in lashing, yet again, the dead horse of creative writing departments, which prescribe an antihistorical formalism while turning a noble vocation into yet another moneymaking opportunity.”
China’s Opera Boom
“After years spent building spectacular, state-of-the art opera houses in major metropolises and unheralded backwaters, China is experiencing a boom in Western-style grand opera production, opera education and original opera creation.”