Of 24 potential motives published in the paper (a representative sample), the one most enthusiastically endorsed was: “One of the reasons for which I am an orchestra conductor is that it allows me to feel as one with my orchestra.”
Tag: 07.21.09
Opening In Chicago, Billy Elliot Plans To Stay Quite A While
“Chicago is snagging the very first post-Broadway production of one of the most successful musicals of the decade. Attracting a long run by arguably the only current Broadway show with a box-office pull that could rival ‘Wicked’ is a major coup for Broadway in Chicago, which fought hard for the show against presenters in San Francisco, who also wanted their city to be the first outside New York to stage the show.”
Are Publishing’s Fall Releases Too Much Of A Good Thing?
“Many publishers are saying their fall catalogs are their strongest in years, and after last fall, an unqualified disaster that left the industry demoralized and diminished, much is at stake as their hopes are tested. … With optimism, however, comes worry–particularly because shoving every major release into the same three months could very well result in a traffic jam that will benefit no one.”
‘Behavior’ – What Exactly Does That Mean? (It’s Not Just ‘What Animals Do’)
“[B]iologists don’t agree with one another on what a behavior is; biologists don’t agree with themselves on what a behavior is; biologists can be as parochial as the rest of us, meaning that animal behaviorists tend to reflexively claim the behavior label for animals only, while botanists sniff that, if the well-timed unfurling of a smelly, colorful blossom for the sake of throwing your seed around isn’t the ultimate example of a behavior, then there’s no such thing as Valentine’s Day.”
John Schlesinger’s Darling To Be Remade Shot-For-Shot
Despite the unpromising track record of such films (remember Gus van Sant’s Psycho?), the London artist duo called The Centre of Attention is planning to reproduce “John Schlesinger’s classic tale of an amoral model [played by Julie Christie] climbing the ladder of success in swinging 60s London. The cast? Members of the public.”
Lawsuit In The Works Over Amazon’s Deleting Books From Kindles
“A law firm known for bringing class-action suits on behalf of consumers against Internet companies says it’s readying a case against Amazon for deleting George Orwell books on users’ Kindles. ‘This is an incredible situation,’ says Jay Edelson of the law firm KamberEdelson. ‘What Amazon did was plainly illegal’.”
National Theatre’s Screenings of Helen Mirren In Phèdre Have A Long Reach
“Judging by this spellbound Mexican audience [at the sold-out screenings in Mexico City], Hytner’s production not only reached theatre fans who couldn’t travel to the National but may also have won over converts to the theatre.”
A ‘Greatest Mistakes’ Showcase At Britain’s National Gallery
“Entitled ‘Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries,’ [the exhibition, to open next June,] charts some of the museum’s most embarrassing errors and faux pas, involving works once thought of as Old Masters but later removed from the walls of the gallery to be stashed ignominiously in the basement.”
Learning Telekinesis (Could We All Be Like Carrie?)
“Learning to move a computer cursor or robotic arm with nothing but thoughts can be no different from learning how to play tennis or ride a bicycle, according to a new study of how brains and machines interact.”
Amazon To Print On Demand 400K Books In Public Domain
“Amazon.com is pushing deeper into the academic book market. The online retail giant will do on-demand reprints of some 400,000 out-of-copyright books from the University of Michigan library, in a deal announced today. Amazon has been actively targeting academia, trying to convince universities to adopt the Kindle DX as a textbook replacement and outsource reprints of older academic titles to its print-on-demand service, BookSurge.”