A Drink A Day... ... helps keep you mentally sharp. At least, that's what a new study suggests. Researchers found that They found that the women between the ages of 70 and 81 "who had the equivalent of one drink a day had a 23% lower risk of becoming mentally impaired during the two-year period, compared with non-drinkers. It made no significant difference whether they drank beer or wine." Nature 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 5:57 pm
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Guggenheim Power Struggle: Krens v Lewis Peter Lewis' departure from the Guggenheim makes him the loser in a struggle with director Thomas Krens. "For years the two had diverged on what the museum's focus should be. Mr. Krens was interested in creating Guggenheim satellites around the world to build on the raging success of its showy outpost in Bilbao. Mr. Lewis felt that Mr. Krens should keep the museum's attention on New York, getting the finances of the mother ship in order and perhaps seeking once again to open a branch elsewhere in the city. Each came to the conflict with distinct advantages..." The New York Times 01/21/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 7:17 pm
Artists, Teachers Protest Paid Admission At The Louvre Some 200 artists and teachers protested outside the Louvre last weekend complaining about a decision to strip them of free admission to the museum. Since September, artists, teachers and students no longer have free entry to the Louvre. "For an artist, the Louvre is oxygen. People whose job it is to transmit art must have access to it." Rocky Mountain News (Bloomberg) 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 5:46 pm
The Christo And Jeanne-Claude Show (Coming To A Central Park Near You) It's taken 26 years for Christo and Jeanne-Claude to get their Central Park Gates project approved and built. Now it's being sintalled in the park. "The Christos make no secret that their traveling show—from the political jockeying to the public debates to events like the signing of an original drawing, such as the one they’ve given to New York—is all part of what they consider their grand work of art. Whether this process is a critique of art and bureaucracy or simply great public theater, it’s an undeniably canny way to conduct business." New York Magazine 01/17/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 5:27 pm
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Gardiner: Do-It-Yourself Recordings Why did John Eliot Gardiner set up his recording label? "The catalyst came five years ago, when Deutsche Grammophon pulled out of a project to record all the 198 sacred cantatas that he, together with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, were performing on his millennial Bach Pilgrimage. The CDs were supposed to be, in every sense, a record of this historic tour, which began in the Bach heartland of Weimar and then criss-crossed Europe presenting the church cantatas on the feast days for which they were composed. In the event, DG issued only a handful of CDs from a potential 50 or more." The Telegraph (UK) 01/21/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 7:03 pm
Internet Radio Is Taking Over "Thanks to broadband technology, the internet has created thousands of new radio stations that, generated simply by the home PCs of amateur DJs, cater to every music taste, no matter how obscure. These days, anyone can be a radio star. You don't have to be a technical whiz to join this radio revolution – all you need is a PC and a subscription to a radio website, such as Shoutcast or Live365." The Telegraph (UK) 01/21/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 7:01 pm
Dreaming Of Bamberg English conductor John Nott has a dream job. In his five years as head of the Bamberg Symphony, he's remade the orchestra. "The Bamberg musicians play with a dark, rich sound, but also a sense of fantasy and adventure. But it's no surprise the players should seem so content: they are the only big cultural show in town, revelling in the astonishing statistic that 10% of the entire population - more than 7,000 Bambergers - are subscribers to the symphony orchestra." The Guardian (UK) 01/21/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 6:52 pm
Salzburg On A Mozart Binge The Salzburg Festival will produce all 22 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's operas and musical theatre works next year in a marathon 250th birthday present to the Austrian musical genius... Montreal Gazette (AP) 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 4:45 pm
True Genius (According to Whom?) Attempting to make a list of American musical geniuses is an exercise doomed to fail, writes Joe Nickell. First there's the problem of how you define genius. And it gets even more difficult from there. "Why attempt to narrow the field of geniuses when so many have clearly existed, in many different cultures and traditions and disciplines, throughout history?" The Missoulian 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 4:21 pm
Does Classical Music Cure Petty Crime? Anything Else? (Hint: Think Finland) So some rail stations in England are playing classical music to scare away hoodlums. Bust doesn't music have a more profound effect? "Which country achieved the best Year 10 results in science and mathematics last year? Finland is the answer. Yes, Finland, with a population the size of Scotland’s and an impenetrable language. What are the Finns doing right? Every child in Finland is given an instrument to play from the first day at school. They learn to read notes on stave before letters on page. They spend hours at drawing and drama. The result is a society of with few tensions and profound culture. Finnish Radio broadcasts in Latin once a week. Finnish railways do not need to play Sibelius, except for pleasure." La Scena Musicale 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 4:11 pm
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Dreyfus: Attempting The Producers Wasn't A Mistake Richard Dreyfus finally speaks out about why Mel Brooks replaced him before the London production of The Producers opened last year. "Brooks has told Playbill magazine that he always had Dreyfuss in mind for Bialystock, calling the actor a "brilliant artist" and a "nervous wreck". But Dreyfuss soon discovered that doing a musical was like ascending to the pearly gates and being banished to the hellfires at the same time." The Guardian (UK) 01/21/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 6:40 pm
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Victorian Sci Fi That Accurately Predicted The Future A little-known Victorian book book of science fiction published in 1892 appears to have predicted many of the technological advances that in fact happened. "Entitled Golf in the Year 2000 or What Are We Coming To, it follows the tale of avid 19th-century golfer Alexander J Gibson, who falls into a deep sleep on 24 March 1892 and wakes up Rip Van Winkle-style on 25 March 2000 to find a world transformed. Television, superfast trains, digital watches and female emancipation are all predicted in the tale, which envisages a world of leisure where golf is paramount." The Scotsman 01/20/05
Posted: 01/21/2005 6:13 am
Paris Review Editor Out The Paris Review is not renewing the contract of editor Brigid Hughes, who succeeded George Plimpton as the magazine's top editor last January, four months after his death. "The resignation is a stunning development for the quarterly, which current and former employees say is struggling to adapt to a formal management structure and to being overseen by a board of directors that, for the first time, is trying to influence its editorial direction." The New York Times 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 7:21 pm
Booker Chairman Stirs Controversy "The newly announced chairman of the 2005 Man Booker prize has admitted that the judges are unlikely to read all 130 books in contention, while describing his fellow judges as "light on the minorities" and the process as like a "world federation wrestling match"." The Guardian (UK) 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 6:05 pm
- Academic To Head Booker Jury John Sutherland has been named head of this year's Booker Prize jury. "He is professor of modern English literature at University College London and writes a column for The Guardian. He has also written or edited 50 books ranging from critiques of classic novels to a book about alcoholism, partly based on his own experiences." BBC 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 5:41 pm
Copy-editing The Skin Mag (A Personal Reflection) Then there was the time Daniel Asa Rose took a job as a copy editor - at a porn publication. Even here, (at least some of )the niceties of style need to be followed. Let's see, do you hyphenate... Salon 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 5:34 pm
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Actors Unions Make Deal With Hollywood Hollywood's two major actors unions have made a deal on new contracts. "Under the agreement, which still needs final approval, actors will get a nine per cent minimum pay raise over three years, increased money for the unions' health and pension plans and greater protections for stunt actors and extras. However, actors did not get a larger share of DVD residuals, which unions representing writers and directors had tried unsuccessfully for in their recent contract negotiations." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/21/05
Posted: 01/21/2005 6:41 am
Trading Up: Indie Film Has Become Studio Film "Independent film may be dead, as so many of its partisans continually proclaim, but if it is, it has been reincarnated in the shape of another much-mourned, perpetually misunderstood movie martyr, the studio system." The New York Times 01/21/05
Posted: 01/21/2005 6:29 am
Prediction: Legal Movie File-Sharing Will Be Big Business For now, the movie industry is suing file-sharing services. But "once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology." BBC 01/21/05
Posted: 01/21/2005 6:27 am
Radio Lives - On The Internet "Thanks to broadband technology, the internet has created thousands of new radio stations that, generated simply by the home PCs of amateur DJs, cater to every music taste, no matter how obscure. These days, anyone can be a radio star. You don't have to be a technical whiz to join this radio revolution – all you need is a PC and a subscription to a radio website, such as Shoutcast or Live365." The Telegraph (UK) 01/21/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 7:11 pm
Will Casting Agents Strike Shut Down Hollywood? "America's 500-or-so casting directors and associates—the unsung people-brokers who select actors for a film's director or producer—are threatening to strike if the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) refuses to grant them union recognition and health and pension benefits." The Economist 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 6:28 pm
Doin' The Sundance Rag... Why is it so fashionable to dump on Sundance (yes, it's that time of year again)? "Sundance has triumphed because it changes its public face at a moment's notice—from pointy-headed and grave when indie film needs rejuvenation, to glamorous and cheerleading when indie film needs marketing brio. To wail about Sundance renouncing its founding mission is to assume the festival had a profound mission to begin with." Slate 01/19/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 6:13 pm
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Washington Ballet Dancers Get To Vote On Union The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that dancers of the Washington Ballet should be allowed to vote on whether to unionize. "In its decision, the NLRB rejected the company's argument that the dancers were seasonal workers who could not unionize, noting that "the bulk of the dancers stay with the company multiple years." The agency also found that two dancers/rehearsal assistants and two apprentices had the right to vote in the election. The company had argued that the rehearsal assistants were supervisors, and that the apprentices did not have a "community of interest" with other dancers." PlaybillArts 01/20/05
Posted: 01/20/2005 5:18 pm
