“Is stinginess harmful to your health? Newly published research suggests the answer may be yes – if your tightwad tendencies arouse feelings of shame.”
Tag: 05.19.10
J.G. Farrell Wins ‘Lost Booker’ For Troubles
“The story of an army major who travels to a decaying Irish hotel in 1919 to meet his rashly acquired fiancee, Troubles was one of six novels published in 1970 to be shortlisted for the Lost Booker, intended to reward books that were ineligible when they were published, thanks to a shift in the fledgling prize’s schedule that year.”
Coming Back To Shaw’s Eliza Doolittle
“Every time it’s revived, Pygmalion emerges from the long shadow cast by its own musical adaptation, My Fair Lady, and is ‘rediscovered’ as a timeless study of social manipulation, sexual cat-and-mouse and linguistic brilliance, despite its late Edwardian flavour and furnishings.”
The Computer Software That Composes Music Like A Human – Or Vice Versa
David Cope “long ago reached the point where most people can’t tell the difference between real Bach and the Bach-like compositions his computer can produce. Audiences have been moved to tears by melodies created by algorithms. And yet, it’s not exactly that Cope has created a computer than can write music like a human. The way he sees it, it’s that humans compose like computers.”
Cartoons, Flame Wars, Street Marches And Court Orders: It’s ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!’
“When is a cartoon not ‘just’ a cartoon? Well, perhaps when an entire nation decides to ban its citizens’ access to Facebook over a page spawned by an illustration. An illustration that, in turn, was created to support an animated cartoon show.”
Ghosts, Ghostbusters Descend On New York Public Library
“The scene, a re-enactment of the movie [‘Ghostbusters,’] was a prank by the group Improv Everywhere. And the library was in on it. The performance was part of the library’s campaign to fight against a proposed $37 million budget cut.”
UK To Increase National Lottery Arts Funding
UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt “said arts and heritage would ultimately benefit by £50m a year each from changes to the share of cash allocated to them. … Mr Hunt also outlined plans to increase philanthropic giving to the arts through a shake-up of gift aid.”
A First For Wimbledon: Tournament Acquires Official Poet
Imagine this happening at Flushing Meadows. “Matt Harvey will write a poem every day during the two-week competition in south-west London next month. The Championships Poet 2010 will publish his verses – about anything from racquet stringers to strawberries and cream – online and in podcasts.”
Philadelphia’s Baroque City Hall Makes A Comeback
“‘Silent, weird, beautiful,’ Walt Whitman observed coming upon the still-uncompleted structure one night, ‘a majestic and lovely show there in the moonlight.'” Restoring the building has demanded “almost 20 years of work,” and the “results have been so extraordinary that Philadelphians forget how dreadful the place looked for so many decades.”
London Calling: Captain America Film To Be Shot In UK
“The upcoming movie from Marvel Studios was originally to be filmed in Los Angeles,” but the studio ultimately opted for London “largely because the story is set in Europe and will feature a number of scenes in London such as Piccadilly Circus, and also because of favorable tax incentives.”