Steve Almond lays down some rules for the art of the book blurb. “One of my least favorite experiences as a writer, is listening to other writers whine about being asked to give a blurb. (As with most of my indictments, I am guilty of this crime myself.) What annoys me about these complaints is not just the unacknowledged narcissism — Poor me! How to bear such popularity? — but the basic ingratitude.”
Tag: 09.08.03
Should A Critic Be Disqualified For Being Negative?
Defenders of Chuck Palahniuk’s “Diary,” which recently got a bad review in Salon, suggest that the critic was predisposed to not liking the book and therefore ought not to have reviewed it. Alex Good begs to differ: “This reaction struck me as bizarre. As Auden pointed out, every critic is at heart a polemicist. If you think a book is representative of something that is wrong with our literary culture you have a duty to take it on. There is nothing personal about it. Alas, in a celebrity culture everything is personal.”
Foster To Head Yerba Buena
Kenneth Foster has been appointed director of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center. “Foster, 52, comes to the Bay Area from Tucson, where for the past nine years he directed UA Presents, the University of Arizona’s performing arts program. There his duties paralleled those he will take up at Yerba Buena: programming leadership, audience development, fund-raising, budget oversight and staff management.”
City Lights At 50
San Francisco’s City Lights is one of the world’s most famous bookstores. “The shop and publishing house were founded by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the publisher Peter Martin in 1953. It became famous as the home of the beats in the 50s and 60s – the place where you bought Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady – and it has never lost its countercultural image, although tour buses no longer pause outside to show visitors the ‘beatniks’, as they did 40 years ago. Situated in the North Beach area, surrounded by cafes, Chinese restaurants and strip clubs, City Lights has managed to survive despite the growth of the big chains and internet bookshops.”
City Of Light
“Chandanagore is the capital of Indian illuminations. The small town employs up to 12,000 people, who work nine months of the year creating extravagant shows for major festivals. Sridhar Das is the town’s most renowned light artist. In the past few years, he has made waterfalls, monkey gods, dragons spewing fire, the triumph of good over evil, portraits of Nobel prizewinners, political statements, environmental messages, even pontifications by politicians. His workshops are a cross between a foundry and a tapestry studio.”
Old Cuba In Danger
Cuba is after the tourist trade. “Tourists have come: two million visitors are expected in Havana this year. However, the special city they have come to see is in danger of vanishing – not simply because of age, humidity, termites and general lack of maintenance. The word in Havana is that when the president, Fidel Castro, dies and the US finally lifts its longstanding economic embargo, Havana will be transformed, and not necessarily for the better.”
Has New York Lost Its Ability To Build Great Buildings?
New York has lost its reputation as a place that great architecture can be built. “Between about 1890 and 1960, New York was an architectural powerhouse, a laboratory for architects who couldn’t dream of achieving anything on that kind of scale anywhere else. From early Gothic skyscrapers like the Woolworth Building (1913) through the Art Deco of the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings (1930 and 1931) up to the Seagram Building (1958) and the smooth corporate Modernism of Fifth Avenue, architects who wanted to build big looked to New York. But… it is extraordinary that in the world’s greatest and richest city, almost nothing (excepting a few good retail interiors) of international significance or interest has been built in New York since the appearance of unfortunate postmodern skyscrapers at the end of 1970s.”
Universal Price Cut – Just Desperation
Universal’s decision to cut prices by 30 percent is a blockbuster. “It’s a historic move – the first time prices have been trimmed across the board by a major label in the 20-year history of the CD – but it comes at a time when the music industry as we know it is fast becoming history.” The price cut is too little too late.
Sibelius Songs Found
The scores for four long lost songs by Jan Sibelius have been found. “Although the existence of the scores was known, it was thought they were lost because there was no record of their whereabouts.”
Nazi-Loot Website Goes Online
A new website designed to track down art looted by the Nazis goes online. “So far 66 museums have given details of their collection to the site, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Chicago’s Institute of Art. The Nazis were thought to have looted more than 1.5 million pieces of art. More than 100,000 items of museum quality are still missing, and some of them are said to have made their way to the US.”