“Where others saw a ‘flowering of the New England mind,’ however, Poe saw something else: ‘the heresy of the didactic.’ From 1845 on, he called our writers ‘Frogpondians,’ perhaps because he regarded them as so many croakers who used literature not to delight and move readers, but to argue and preach.”
Tag: 03.06.11
Community Is Well and Good, But People Need Solitude
“[An] emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone, if done right, can be good for us … and that even the most socially motivated among us should regularly be taking time to ourselves if we want to have fully developed personalities, and be capable of focus and creative thinking.”
7-11 – Now There’s America’s Real Architecture
“With the economy in endless hurt, the architecture of the fledgling millennium isn’t being defined by investment-heavy skyscrapers or indulgent McMansions.
Instead, it mirrors the chain stores and the fast-casual restaurants that have taken off while others tanked. The look of the recessed economy is expressed in colors: the pastels of Pinkberry, Chipotle burgundy, PetSmart blue, Subway sandwich yellow.”
Can a Cinema Simulcast of a Stage Show Be As Good As the Real Thing?
In advance of the National Theatre’s simulcast of Frankenstein, two theatre professionals debate the proposition.
San Diego Proposes Cutting Music Ed From All Elementary Schools (But One)
“The district’s visual and performing arts curriculum faces a $2.8 million cut from its $3 million budget this year … If trustees sign off on the budget proposal, it will mean the end of all elementary music education except for the program at” one specialized music school.
C.S. Lewis Just Gets Bigger and Bigger
“The seven books in his Chronicles of Narnia are being made into movies; The Narnian, a highly readable biography by Alan Jacobs, appeared in 2005; a stage adaptation of his book The Screwtape Letters is touring nationwide; a college is being founded in his honor; and his name is being used to sell Bibles.”
What If You Could Jot in the Margins of an E-Book? And Read Other People’s Jottings, Too?
“Last month, Amazon announced what could be a landmark in electronic marginalia: public note sharing for the Kindle – Coleridgean fantasy software that will make your friends’ notes appear (if you want them to) directly on your own books.”
Lucinda Childs’s Once-Outrageous Dance
“When Lucinda Childs premiered Dance in 1979, audience members would walk out shocked and even offended by the choreographer’s minimalist, repetitive approach to movement.” But now, the 70-year-old choreographer’s “seminal work, revived in 2009 for a festival at Bard College, has been touring the United States and Europe.”
US States Rethink Film Industry Tax Breaks
“An Associated Press survey found that from 2006 to 2008, states shelled out $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other advantages to the entertainment industry. The recession has officials in several states wondering if the incentives are worth the lost revenue.”
Stay Tuned For TouTube Symphony, The Sequel
“Why did YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, choose classical music for this exercise in brand building? YouTube has recently completed another user-generated project, its film Life in a Day, but Lee Hunter’s answer hints at the particular difficulties of putting classical music online.”