Lab researchers study the eye movements of autistic people watching movies to see what gets their attention. An author considers the possible connections between autism and creativity. A novelist writes about his own Asperger’s syndrome.
Tag: 03.19.10
Michael Gielen Wins €200K Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize
“German-born Gielen was director of Frankfurt Opera and general music director of the City of Frankfurt for 10 years from 1977, where he worked to transform music theatre traditions. … His commitment to contemporary and avant-garde styles was cemented during his tenure as chief conductor of South West German Radio from 1986-1999. “
Milwaukee Book Co-Op Quickly Goes Belly-Up
After the beloved Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore chain closed, co-op “organizers raised money from local residents and also secured a low-interest, $35,000 loan from the village” to open in a former Schwartz location. They said that “the economy, a change in the public’s book-buying habits and strong competition from online booksellers” prevented success.
Authors Guild Cautions Members On E-Book Royalty Rates
On its website, it “warned members about letters that are being sent to authors and agents by two major publishers in an effort to amend contracts regarding e-book rights. According to the post, the letters are going to authors who don’t have a stated e-book royalty rate in their contracts, or who have never granted e-book rights to their publisher.”
Is All Of Television Just One Giant Mash-Up?
“The website TVTropes.org catalogs some 20,000 plot devices and dialog conventions that show up throughout pop culture. Freelance writer Zachary Pincus-Roth explains that the wiki-structure of the site has allowed contributors to identify some bizarre and hilarious tropes.”
Bloomsbury Archive Includes Letter About Woolf Suicide
“I’m not sure whether the Times will by now have announced that Virginia is missing. I’m afraid there is not the slightest doubt that she drowned herself about noon last Friday,” Clive Bell wrote in a detailed 1941 letter that’s part of an archive newly opened to the public.
Iran Blocks Its Top Poet From International Travel
“Last week, as she was about to board a flight to Paris, police seized the passport of Simin Behbahani, who is 82 and nearly blind. Behbahani was interrogated all night long and then sent home — without her passport. … Neither the police nor the Revolutionary Court has asserted any legal basis for taking her passport.”
Ian McEwan’s Atonement, The Opera, Set For 2013
Michael “Berkeley will write the music, with the poet Craig Raine writing the libretto after McEwan himself decided not to. … McEwan, currently working on a screenplay based on his novella On Chesil Beach, collaborated with Berkeley on an oratorio in 1982 and on a small-scale opera, For You, in 2008.”
Ballet Director Gets Canadian Citizenship Onstage
“When Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal performed Thursday evening, artistic director Gradimir Pankov made his first appearance as a bona fide Canuck – in a brief citizenship ceremony onstage at Place Des Arts.”
A Filmmaker’s Quest To Unearth Ten Commandments Set
On California’s Central Coast in 1923, “1,600 craftsmen built a temple 800 feet wide and 120 feet tall flanked by four 40-ton statues of the Pharaoh Ramses II. Twenty-one giant plaster sphinxes lined a path to the temple’s gates. A tent city sprung up” — and was buried in the sand, along with the rest, when shooting of Cecil B. DeMille’s silent movie ended.