In 2012, “if all goes to plan, nine of the 10 films Hitchcock directed during the 1920s will be seen as no one has seen them since their first release, restored thanks to the BFI National Archive’s Rescue the Hitchcock 9 project.”
Tag: 08.18.11
Did Picasso Invent The French Riviera?
Jonathan Jones: “[If] French 19th-century artists such as Degas defined the traditional seaside, it was Picasso in the 1920s who gave a visual form to the modern hedonism of sand and sensuality sur la plage. It was in that decade that the French Riviera became the image of sultry decadence, a mythic status it would keep through the 20th century.”
Anti-Nostalgia: Those Things From The Past We’re Glad To Be Rid Of
Jeff Weinstein: “Are there things we’re actually happy to see disappear, stuff we’re thrilled will never breathe again? The social media were born to answer exactly this sort of knotty question.” And goodness, they did. (Typewriter ribbons. Rolled fax paper. Girdles. New Math. All English food before 1989.)
Gallery Owner Accuses SpongeBob SquarePants Designer Of “Massive Forgery Scheme”
“A California gallery owner has accused artist Todd White, a former designer on the “SpongeBob SquarePants†cartoon series, of hiring thugs to hold her hostage and steal $1.5m worth of art. White has shot back with his own claims of a massive forgery operation.”
Why Don’t Artists Design Book Covers?
“New editions of a book tend to require new covers, and since 1945 jacket design has been all but given over to graphic designers. It has rarely attracted artists, despite the overlap in what great writers and great artists try to achieve.”
Could The US Postal Service Go Away?
“America’s postal service is elegant, efficient, even amazing, given the enormous size of the country and the low cost of stamps. But the U.S. Postal Service is a hulking, foundering, money-hemorrhaging bureaucracy. A government watchdog has deemed the whole business unsustainable.”
Pittsburgh Public Radio Station Drops Jazz For News, Ratings Dip
“When WDUQ-FM (90.5), now known as Essential Public Radio, dropped jazz in favor of an all-news format on July 1, many jazz fans threatened to tune out. In the first Arbitron ratings period since the format switch, it looks as though they have.”
YouTube Signs Deal Ending Dispute With Music Publishers
“The deal, which covers songwriting rights, paves the way for YouTube and Google to begin monetizing user-generated videos that contain music written by artists represented by the NMPA.”
Sordid Saga Of Bolshoi’s Restoration Finally Ending
“It has been a long, embarrassing and complex process, with deadlines set and missed since the theater closed for renovation in 2005 and with soaring costs, financed by the federal government, that have reached $760 million.” Officials point out that, before this renovation, the Bolshoi building was literally near collapse.
How Google Is Changing Us
“Google is where we go for answers. People used to go elsewhere or, more likely, stagger along not knowing. Nowadays you can’t have a long dinner-table argument about who won the Oscar for that Neil Simon movie where she plays an actress who doesn’t win an Oscar; at any moment someone will pull out a pocket device and Google it.”