Will Music Give Athletes Unfair Edge?

Technology is allowing athletes to tap into the power of music to improve performance. “Technology like running shoes that increase the beat of music in time with a runner’s pace and even implantable micro-mp3 players may one day give athletes the winning edge.” But “the technology could create a whole new conundrum for sports authorities by making them redefine whether the use of performance enhancing music is cheating.”

A Lit Trickster Who’s Flourishing

Most literary fakes find their careers severely damaged when they’re exposed. “But Laura Alberts, another trickster, could emerge from her literary scam with her reputation enhanced. Since her fabricated author, JT Leroy, was exposed last year in New York magazine, she’s done script writing for the HBO series “Deadwood” while lying low from most interviewers.”

Beirut Film Fest To Go On

Everyone assumed that the Beirut Film Festival would be canceled because the of war with Israel. But “artistic director and film-maker Eliane Raheb informed guests that it would go ahead as a sign of ‘cultural resistance’. Under the circumstances, this year’s programme had to be cut down from over 100 films to just 40.”

A Book Critic Bids His Staff Job Goodbye

Longtime Dallas Morning News book columnist Jerome Weeks spent his last day on the job Friday. He offers some final thoughts in his farewell column, which the paper chose not to print. “Nowhere in films or TV do characters read — other than the ‘bookish girl’ or the action hero, but only when he must desperately decipher the Sacred Inca Brain Codex for clues to foil the arch-fiend’s dastardly plot — a plot the ‘bookish girl’ could have figured out long ago. Still, for reviewers, one of the accidental delights of the job comes precisely from reading many of those books we’d normally use for attic insulation. It’s a central pleasure of art: discovery.”

Canadian Opera “Ring”: Not Much “Cringe” Factor

At the end of 15 hours of “Ring” performances at the Canadian Opera Company last week, Robert Everett-Green surprised himself – hed’ do a repeat this week. “It helped that the COC’s production turned out to be good — better, in some ways, than the ones in those more famous opera houses I mentioned. There was a lot to admire and very little to cringe at, and the cringe factor is a large issue when you’re dealing with a work that offers so many insanely difficult problems in performance and staging.”