A new medical study reports that “the same neural clusters that process the seductive pleasures of sex, chocolate and even hard drugs also fire up for music. There is also persuasive evidence that the brain tends to prune these neural circuits for maximum pleasure the way a gardener cuts unproductive branches to make a rose bush bloom. Music, it seems, may make the brain bloom best because it literally electrifies, at lightning speed, a web of nerve paths in both hemispheres of our cerebral cortex that connect the neural clusters processing musical pitch, rhythm, harmony, melody, short term memory, long term memory, and emotions.”
Tag: 11.18.02
No Hard Feelings – Poet Gives Mag $100 Million
Some 30 years ago, the editor of Poetry Magazine rejected a submission by one Mrs Guernsey Van Riper Jr. of Indianapolis. Over the next few decades she kept submitting poems and he kept rejecting them. It turns out she was fabulously wealthy, and, now 87 years old, has just made a gift to the influential Poetry of $100 million over the next 30 years, with “no strings attached.”
Magazines Too White
“A survey of 471 covers from 31 magazines published in 2002 — an array of men’s and women’s magazines, entertainment publications and teenagers’ magazines — conducted two weeks ago by The New York Times found that about one in five depicted minority members. Five years ago, according to the survey, which examined all the covers of those 31 magazines back through 1998, the figure was only 12.7 percent. And fashion magazines have more than doubled their use of nonwhite cover subjects. But in a country with a nonwhite population of almost 30 percent, the incremental progress leaves some people unimpressed.”
Mexican Wall Art Standoff
A few years ago the Mexican government hired an artist to paint a mural depicting Latin-American writers on a wall of the new San Francisco main library. The mural was finished and dedicated, but the Mexican government never paid the artist. A change in government swept out the official who commissioned the work and the new government is unwilling “to accept responsibility for decisions of the past.”
Anger Over Street Art In Argentina
About 60 artists placed dozens of human-like dolls covered in fake blood and vomit on the streets of Buenos Aires. The controversial art project angered many when “ambulances were called and passers-by distressed after seeing what they believed were dead bodies on the corners of some of the city’s major streets and avenues.”
Strategy – Overwhelming the Download Business
Recording companies have been fighting downloading services, trying to discourage (or sue out of existence) those who enable downloads. Now they’re getting into the downloading business themselves. The “companies continue to use their financial muscle to slow the growth of file-trading networks and to acquire digital-rights management technologies that limit what people can do with MP3s and other files.” The plan? take control of the download market and shove the competition out to the curb.
Harlem Song to Keep Singing
Producers of Harlem Song said two weeks ago that the show would close early on Broadway if $300,000 wasn’t raised. Now the producers say they’ve raised the money and the show will run as planned. “Among the groups that stepped up to sustain the show is the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, which had previously denied the Harlem Song application for $1.2 million in financing that its producers had requested.”
The Bard Goes Inside
The London Shakespeare Workout Prison Project does pretty muchy what its name suggests. “Last year the group did 51 workshop sessions in 13 prisons involving 1,071 inmates, 147 prison officers and 602 professional actors. Well-known actors and theatre makers such as Jonathan Miller have all been involved, and keep coming back for more. At one prison, Miller got so excited about the talents of one inmate that he wanted to cast him in a production. He had to be gently reminded that the man was incarcerated and not freely available for rehearsals.”
Booker Won’t Admit Americans:
Organizers of the Booker Prize say that they have decided not to open up the award to American writers. Earlier this year the Booker, which is given annually to an author who writes in English somewhere in the Commonwealth, toyed with the idea of including Americans in the competition. Critics complained the move would damage the tone of the award.
Powell’s Expands
Seattle may be home to Amazon. But any Northwesterner will tell you the best bookstore is Portland-based Powell’s. The independent bookstore is in no danger of going out of business. Indeed, in spite of the general corporatization of the industry, Powell’s has flourished, making major expansions to its store in recent years. Now it’s bought a 60,000 square-foot warehouse about two miles from its downtown location to handle its expanding online business. The new building will store one million used books.