“A former head of Scotland Yard’s art and antiquities squad has warned that “virtually nothing” is being done to secure Britain’s cultural and religious sites against criminal attacks which he claims could be sparked by the London 2012 Olympics.”
Tag: 05.31.10
Classical Music Stars In The Hollywood Walk Of Fame
“The real surprise is that, in that brief span, a number of classical music’s legends are also commemorated in the stars. Even a violist. I knew a few were there, but not this many. So I started snapping photos when I was up there the other day…”
TV Battles For Summer Eyeballs
“Here’s everything you need to know about summer television: 1. It is still dominated by cable. 2. The broadcast networks are no longer turning the lights off in May and have dedicated themselves to programming the summer. 3. All the good shows are on cable.”
Louisville Arts – Now Powered By Bingo
“Long the province of churches and school auxiliaries, bingo has broken through to the realm of high culture. With many traditional revenue sources declining or flattening out, an innocent game of chance looks better all the time.”
Your Brain On Ring Tones
The instant you hear a cellphone ring, your brain reacts in a unique way – if the ringtone matches that of your own phone. Scientists says this suggests that our brains store “templates” for our own ringtones, allowing it to distinguish quickly between familiar and unfamiliar tones.
Evaluating Dudamel’s First Season At The LA Philharmonic
“Judged by the standards of a mere mortal music director, Dudamel had a remarkable first season. He delivered many exciting performances and a couple of great ones. He took chances and cheerfully flew, more than once, by the seat of his pants. He has a lot yet to learn. He may be experiencing growing pains (and ones that will continue for a while). Nothing remotely conclusive can be said about him at this point.”
How To Make Money In Music? Diversify!
“Selling products beyond recorded music is nothing new for these retailers. Stores have routinely sold band T-shirts and stickers, for instance. But the decline of CD sales — and, more recently, of DVD sales — has forced the big-box retailers to find other ways to fill their space and tap into customers’ interest in music.”
How Social Media Is Changing TV
“Producers of shows can use social media data as a large-scale focus group to see what most engages viewers. In addition, advertisers’ integration of brands into shows often reappears in social media conversations even as people increasingly skip TV commercials.”
Ray Charles Rakes In The Cash
“Ray Charles is a music publisher’s dream. Not only did he write songs that stand the test of time, but his interpretations of other songwriters’ tunes could turn them into royalty-generating goldmines.”
Did TV Drive Us To Engage More With Other Humans?
“Staggering. Someone born in 1960 has watched something like 50,000 hours of television already. Fifty thousand hours–more than five and a half solid years. Somehow, watching television became a part-time job for every citizen in the developed world. But once we stop thinking of all that time as individual minutes to be whiled away and start thinking of it as a social asset that can be harnessed, it all looks very different.”