Mary Lou Williams once said, “I’m the only living musician that was there when each era started.” Richard Brody writes that “she was more than just there – she was one of the key developers of the musical ideas of these eras, and she did more than just remain up-to-date; from era to era, she surpassed herself.”
Tag: 09.21.15
The Desires Driving Human Behavior: Bertrand Russell’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
“Nothing in the world is more exciting than a moment of sudden discovery or invention, and many more people are capable of experiencing such moments than is sometimes thought.”
Oyster, The ‘Netflix For Books’, Shuts Down (And Its Staff Heads To Google Play Books)
“In a blog post on Monday, Oyster’s founders said they were ‘taking steps to sunset’ the company’s service, which launched in 2012. ‘We believe more than ever that the phone will be the primary reading device globally over the next decade,’ they wrote. ‘Looking forward, we feel this is best seized by taking on new opportunities to fully realize our vision for e-books.’ Those opportunities may happen at Google.”
An Annotated History Of Annotations
From Humpty Dumpty’s explication de texte of “Jabberwocky” to the endless loops of comment on everything from rap lyrics to campaign speeches at Genius.com, Evan Kindly leads us down the (annotated) rabbit hole.
The Architect Who Is Changing Manhattan’s Skyline
In Manhattan alone, Bjarke Ingels is simultaneously designing four major additions to the Hudson River skyline and a $335 million hybrid park and flood defense system known as the Dryline along the East River, offering a collective opportunity to leave an enormous personal imprint.
Versailles Ordered To Cover Over Vandalism On Anish Kapoor’s Sculpture
“A French court ordered the Palace of Versailles to cover anti-Semitic graffiti from the artist Anish Kapoor’s installation there this weekend, after a local politician, Fabien Bouglé, filed a complaint that Mr. Kapoor and the palace were inciting racial hatred by leaving the vandalism intact.” Kapoor is not happy: “I feel like a girl who was raped and who is told to go get dressed in a corner.”
BBC Fends Off Attacks On Digital Arts Project ‘The Space’ And Its ‘Syrian Muppet Videos’
Facing attacks in the tabloid press under headlines such as “BBC blows £8 million on weird art website” and “BBC bosses waste MILLIONS on bizarre art projects – including puppet videos”, “the Corporation defended its use of licence fee money to fund The Space website as it faces multi-million pound cuts to its finances.”
Career Transition For Dancers Merges With The Actors Fund
“The services of Career Transition For Dancers will be integrated into the ongoing programs of The Actors Fund, it was announced Sept. 21. … The Actors Fund’s full range of services are also available to the dance community and will serve to complement those of Career Transition For Dancers.”
TV Has Been Incredibly Resilient As A Medium. But Might That Be Changing?
The audience for live TV appears to be contracting to a smaller base of passive, older viewers. Most worrisome from a financial perspective is that television is reaching fewer fifteen-to-thirty-five-year-olds, who spend more time engaging with social media on smartphones than staring at freestanding screens.
Music Streaming Posts Its First $1Billion Year
Digital downloads of songs continued to fall out of favour in the first half of the year, while free and paid music-streaming revenue kept growing, even without much of a bump from the launch of Apple Music.