Online parodies of “Brokeback Mountain” are proliferating. “If they’re well made, the parodies can presumably serve as a calling card for those who sign their work; some of them are viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Generally, though, the “Brokeback” spoofs are nothing but labors of love, or gay panic, or both.”
Tag: 03.02.06
Report: In A Multi-Channel Universe, We Pick Only A Few
The average American home now gets 96 TV channels. A new study reports that “though they may have plenty on, the average person watches only 15 of them.”
A Vancouver Olympics (By Design?)
Vancouver hosts the next winter Olympics. So what will its Olympic architecture be? “Turin served the world divine chocolate and a legacy of architecture by geniuses: a university complex by Norman Foster, the redeveloped Lingotto factory complex by Renzo Piano, the Palasport stadium by Arata Isozaki. For its part, Vancouver will host some fine moments in city building, such as the Olympic Village, but the city is inviting the world to “come play with us” in buildings beaten up by the rising cost demands of an overheated construction industry. Expect a lot of metal cladding and concrete block.”
Yahoo! Dials Back TV Plans
Yahoo! says it is scaling back plans to produce TV shows for the internet. Instead, the company will concentrate on user-created content. “I now get excited about user-generated content the way I used to get excited about thinking about what television shows would work.”
Social Networking Beats Big Media Sites
“In the past 12 months, ‘social networking’ has gone from being the next big thing to the thing itself. Last month, MySpace, the site that famously propelled the Arctic Monkeys to pop stardom, overtook the BBC website in terms of visitor numbers. Along with competing sites Bebo and Facebook, MySpace has formed one of the fastest growing sectors on the internet.”
Blurry Boundaries – Where Is Classical Music?
“Where does classical music begin and end? I don’t mean in terms of chronology – whether it starts with Josquin or Monteverdi, or finishes with Schönberg or Stockhausen. I ask the question in relation to generic boundaries, and I want an answer because so much effort has been expended recently on “breaking down the barriers” which supposedly surround classical music that it has become impossible to maintain any focused sense of what those barriers were originally intended to mark.”
Shakespeare’s Picture (Probably)
“After three and a half years’ research, and the detailed examination of six paintings, the National Portrait Gallery has concluded that the so-called Chandos portrait shows the true face of Shakespeare – probably.”
Poll: People Like Happy Endings
“Forty-one per cent are overwhelmingly in favour of books with a happy ending, as against 2.2% who like it sad. Women were 13% more likely than men to say they want it all to end happily. Almost one fifth of men expressed a preference for books with ambiguous endings.”