“The brain is of course tremendously complex: a bundle of some hundred billion neurons, or nerve cells, each sharing as many as ten thousand connections with other neurons. But at its most fundamental level, the neuron, the brain’s structure is not difficult to grasp.”
Tag: 06.26.08
Toronto Symphony Scores A Winning Season At Box Office
“The Toronto Symphony Orchestra saw a boost in both single ticket sales and subscriptions in the 2007-8 season with house capacity averaging 88 per cent. Box office revenue was $9.2 million, increasing for the sixth year running. More than 238,000 people bought tickets, an increase of 10,000. Subscriptions rose 10 per cent to 27,500 subscribers.”
New York’s Waterfalls Turned On
New York City Waterfalls, Olafur Eliasson’s $15.5 million quartet of temporary cascades dotting the New York Harbor, formally opened on Thursday morning with a ceremony at South Street Seaport. Officials billed “Waterfalls” as the city’s grandest public art commission since Christo and Jeanne-Claude flooded Central Park with saffron-colored fabric panels for The Gates in 2005.
First Step Towards Broadcasters Paying Performers’ Royalties
“A house subcommittee approved legislation Thursday requiring AM-FM radio broadcasters to pay royalties to singers, musicians and their labels, a proposal moving to the House Judiciary Committee and possibly soon to the U.S. House.”
In Praise Of All Things Indie (Except Books)
“The literary world only bestows acceptance, it seems, on those who are published through the traditional avenues. Independent and small presses get short shrift – national newspaper supplements seem loath to review indie books, the big high street sellers won’t stock them, unless the books are about the tough lives of mill girls or histories of public house names, which can be shoved on a shelf marked ‘local interest’.”
A Crying Need For Theatre Critics
“One of the reasons British theatre criticism lags behind British theatre practice is that reviewers and arts editors prefer to stick with what they know and often fall prey to PR pressure to cover particular work. Bloggers don’t need to do that, and yet they are mostly to be found in the mainstream.”
Botswana Opens Its First-Ever Opera House
“The tiny ‘opera house’, a converted garage which served as the inspiration for J. L. B. Maketoni’s Speedy Motors in the detective stories, seats a mere 60 people. It may be no Covent Garden or La Scala, but in the capital, Gaborone, which has no other classical music venue, its arrival has been welcomed with enthusiasm. The best of the country’s small, but growing band of classical music singers was on display.”
Film Artist To Represent Britain In Venice Biennale
“Steve McQueen has been chosen as the artist who will represent Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale. He is the first artist working primarily in film selected to represent Britain for the event. McQueen last month won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes for his debut feature, Hunger, about the death of Bobby Sands – the first prisoner to die in the Maze prison as a result of hunger strikes in 1981.”
Dance Steps To The Front
“Dance seems to be coming out of the shadows. The top-rated, top-viewed video on YouTube is The Evolution of Dance, a breezy potted history of popular dance styles – which is also, incidentally, a breezy potted history of popular music, except with dance on top, the way I like it. Elsewhere, kids all over YouTube are showing off their dance moves in a kind of physical karaoke, sometimes on the street, often in their rooms.”
Brutal Truth
“No PR firm would have dreamt up the word “brutalism”. The term was derived from Le Corbusier’s “Béton brut”- French for “raw concrete”, the movement’s preferred material – rather than anything to do with brutality, with which it has sadly become better associated. Maybe, sometime in the near future, we’ll realize that brutalism wasn’t so bad after all. Perhaps it just needs a new name.”