Tag: 07.08.04

A Bad Year In English Music

In England, 1934 was the worst of years. Three of the country’s best composers died within a six-month period. “The greatest, Edward Elgar, had been the first to die, full of years and loaded with honours, at his home in Worcester on February 23. Two months later, on May 25, Gustav Holst passed away in a London nursing home aged only 59. And on June 10, Frederick Delius passed away.”

Defusing The Diffusion Of Grammar (Our Most Common Mistake)

What’s the most common grammar mistake in English? “Misuse of “diffuse” or “defuse” (as in “A coach can diffuse the situation by praising the players”). Research for the new Concise Oxford English Dictionary, published today, found that this word crime was committed in some 50% of examples on the database. It is now rated as the commonest in the language.”

Music Industry Says Study Shows Downloading Hurts Music Sales

Some say music downloading helps music sales. But a new study by the big music producers says that’s not the case. Some “28 per cent of the people surveyed who reported buying less music in the last 12 months said the decline was mainly due to downloading, file sharing and CD burning. Fifty-two per cent of music consumers who don’t download said they paid for music in the past month. Thirty-five per cent of downloaders said they’d bought tunes in the past month. When those who’d purchased were asked how they heard about the CD, only 2 per cent cited downloading.”

Philadelphia Schools Unearth Art Windfall

Philadelphia public schools go on a hunt for artwork in schools and come up with art worth millions. “The artworks — 1,200 in all, including paintings, sketches, sculptures, murals, tapestries and ancient artifacts — had been donated to the school system or bought for small sums long ago. Over the decades, many of them were taken down when the walls were painted and were put into storage, where they apparently were forgotten altogether. The collection is probably worth tens of millions of dollars, school officials and art experts said.”

Writing Off Mr. Peck

Reading critic Dale Peck on criticism, one gets to know what motivates him. “Loving and liking are as much a part of criticism as are hating and hacking; and that the impulse underlying good criticism ought to be affection for literature rather than animus toward writers. After his novels, after his memoir, and especially after Hatchet Jobs, we know pretty well whom Peck has hated, and why. Now it’s time to say goodbye. The serious critic, after all, is measured—and judged—as much by what and how he praises as by what and how he blames; and he should be as stimulated by the pleasure he gets from his reading as he is by the pain.”

LA Times Replenishes Critics’ Ranks

After the New York Times raided the LA Times’ culture section for critics, the LAT moves quickly to find replacements. “The newspaper named recently hired TV critic Carina Chocano as its new movie reviewer, and show-biz columnist Paul Brownfield to be Chocano’s replacement as TV critic. Meanwhile, Los Angeles magazine’s star writer Amy Wallace confirmed to L.A. Weekly that she is being considered for the key entertainment industry beat position vacated by the NYT-defecting Michael Cieply.”

Law: Public Libraries Must Enforce Anti-Porn Act On Computers

In the US “public libraries must begin taking steps to prevent child pornography and other harmful content from reaching the eyes of youngsters using their PCs under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which went into effect July 1. If they don’t, the libraries will lose critical technology funding from the federal government.”