“While universities continue to play an important role in intellectual culture, increasingly they are no longer the only game in town. With the rise of the knowledge economy and the spread of decentralizing technology, the academy is ceding authority and attention to businesses, nonprofits, foundations, media outlets, and Internet communities. Even more significant, in my mind, the academy may be losing something else: its hold over many of its most promising young academics, who appear more and more willing to take their services elsewhere — and who may comprise an embryonic cohort of new “postacademic intellectuals” in the making.”
Tag: 04.04.05
Christie’s Baroque
“The Pied Piper of the ongoing revival of Baroque operas, William Christie is not a man to be disobeyed. If we are now familiar with countless rarities by Handel, as well as long-forgotten gems by Monteverdi, Purcell and the French masters Lully, Charpentier and Rameau, it’s largely because of Mr. Christie’s passion for music written between, roughly, 1600 and 1750, and his ability to sniff out buried musical gold as unerringly as a pig finds truffles.”
Tapestries Solved In Billions Of Numbers
An attempt to clean and digitally photograph important tapestries from New York’s Cloisters becomes a puzzle only solved when sophisticated mathematicians crunch the billions of numbers stored in digital images. “Each pixel had to be calculated in its relationship to every other nearby pixel, a mathematical problem, known as an N-problem, big enough to practically choke [a supercomputer]. This was a math problem similar to the analysis of DNA or speech recognition…”
Record Spending By US Foundations In 2004
Foundation spending in the US increased to record levels in 2004. “An estimated $32.4 billion spilled out of the nation’s roughly 66,000 independent, community and corporate foundations in 2004, compared with $30.3 billion in the prior year, a 4.1 percent increase when adjusted for inflation.”
Celebrity Shakespeare
It used to be that actors did Shakespeare to prove themselves. “Obviously the old standards of judging Shakespeare have to be modified to deal with this new phenomenon. In the old days we might have fussed over how Academy Award winner Denzel Washington lived up to the demands of Brutus. Now it makes more sense to determine how the character of Brutus fits the qualities Washington brings to him.”
Canada To Toughen Copyright
Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla says her government intends to inrtoduce tough new copyright laws later this year. “Frulla expressed her intention to toughen Canada’s ‘antiquated’ intellectual property laws through proposed new copyright legislation to be tabled in June. ‘We’ll also be addressing the peer-to-peer issue. It will give the tools to companies and authors to sue’.”
New Gore Network: TV For The Internet Generation?
Al Gore announces the launch of a new cable TV network. “The former vice president and longtime Internet champion joined investors Monday to announce the creation of Current, a cable TV channel that will target younger viewers with a blend of news, culture and viewer-produced video. Gore will serve as chairman of the board of the new venture, which will be based in San Francisco.”
Shanley Wins Drama Pulitzer
John Patrick Stanley wins this year’s Pulitzer for drama. “Shanley’s play opened on Broadway just last week to critical acclaim after an off-Broadway run. It tells the story of a confrontation between a nun and a Roman Catholic priest at a Bronx parish; she suspects the priest of molesting a male student. Shanley, who has written a number of successful off-Broadway plays, captured the Academy Award for best screenplay for “Moonstruck” in 1988.”
A Run On Pope Books
Publishers and book stores are bracing for a run on books about Pope John Paul II. “Sales of books by and about Pope John Paul II have soared since his death Saturday, with several quickly reaching the top 20 of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.”
New York Mag – A Successful Makeover In Search Of Readers
It’s been a year since Adam Moss took over as editor of New York Magazine. “New York has enjoyed some journalistic success under Mr. Moss, with three National Magazine nominations. But it has been slower to find financial success. Though its advertising is up, the level is not as high as it was as recently as 2001, and circulation is flat, with newsstand sales down. The magazine is losing money, although executives would not say how much.”