“If this is the end of net neutrality as we know it, it is not the end of the line for fair and equitable Internet access. Indeed, the commission’s decision frees Americans to focus on a real long-term solution: supporting open municipal-level fiber networks.”
Archives for April 2014
British House Where Vincent Van Gogh Lived Is Turning Into An Artist’s Exhibition (About Van Gogh)
“Tourism and blue plaques make houses into biographers. The past is irretrievable. All you can do is anthropomorphise a house – like looking at the empty shell of an animal.”
Bronx Dance Company Hopes To Thrive In New Home
“No other borough refers to itself in that way, talking about movement and culture. We are known in the world as the Boogie Down. When you come to the Bronx, you got to get down, move your body and get funky.”
Gabriel Garcia Márquez Told Producers ‘One Hundred Years Of Solitude’ Was Unfilmable
“Márquez told [Harvey] Weinstein that if he, and director Giuseppe Tornatore, wanted the rights to One Hundred Years of Solitude they were the men for the job. But there was one catch: ‘We must film the entire book, but only release one chapter – two minutes long – each year, for 100 years,’ Weinstein said.”
Just In Case You Wanted To Hide A Barn, These Architects Can Make It Invisible For You
“It’s a trippy optical illusion, particularly when you realize you can walk through the passageways like a door. By turning the building into an apparition, the focus is shifted from the man-made structure back to the natural world.”
Searchers Find Thousands Of Copies Of Atari’s ‘ET’ Video Game In A New Mexico Landfill
“The ‘Atari grave’ was, until that moment, a highly debated tale among gaming enthusiasts and other self-described geeks for 30 years. The story claimed that in its death throes, the video game company sent about a dozen truckloads of cartridges of what many call the worst video game ever to be forever hidden in a concrete-covered landfill in southeastern New Mexico.”
Rehired At Minnesota, Osmo Vänskä Has To Figure Out How To Rebuild The Depleted Ranks
“With resentment toward Mr. Vanska still simmering among board members over his resignation and subsequent actions, there seemed to be a strong feeling, even among those willing to contemplate his rehiring to begin with, that his powers should be limited: that he should be named principal conductor, perhaps, rather than music director, a title that has considerable administrative duties and social demands.”
Britain’s Favorite Piece Of Classical Music Comes Out Of The Darkness Of WWI
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” isn’t just a pretty pastoral piece, despite its overwhelming popularity at emotionally laden moments on British TV. Or so say the musicians, anyway.
Wait, Police Detectives Aren’t Real?
Apparently, this is a problem for some (many) people: “By exaggerating the role and conduct of the police, television crime dramas ‘undermine due process’ and legitimise the ‘maverick’ side of policing.”
As The Music Biz Mutates, The Best Place For Concerts Might Just Be Your Living Room
“A key added element of secrecy comes from the fact that the venue is revealed only a couple of hours before the show. Invitations are sent out to those who sign up to a mailing list.”
How Theatre Franchising Could Work – Or Fail
“Theater practitioners must remind themselves to allow the content of the performance to suit the particular geographic area in which performances take place.”
If You Write A (Heterosexual) Romance Novel, Best Make The Dude A Duke
“In the real world, dukes are thin on the ground: Generally, there are fewer than thirty — but it’s more than rarity that makes dukes so wildly popular: They’re just downright sexy.”
450 Years Of Juliet, And Women On Shakespeare
“When actresses were first allowed to perform publicly in England, they generally did not address the audience directly in a prologue or epilogue. As Sonia Massai notes in this anthology, when they did, their speeches stressed the ‘exceptional quality’ of the occasion.”
Laptops Destroy Our Ability To Remember Our Notes
“The lightening-quick speed of typing encourages listeners to transcribe what they’re hearing without actually paying attention to what’s being said—a note-taking approach that has been proven ineffective.”
Spain Is Going On A Quest To Find The Remains Of ‘Don Quixote’ Author Cervantes
“Forensic scientists say the ground and walls of the oldest part of the convent would be the focus of the search, using ground-penetrating equipment to map objects under the earth.”
Hans Hollein, Architect Who Designed With A Sense Of Humor, Dies At 80
“It was entirely in character that Mr. Hollein made his worldwide reputation in the 1960s designing a shop, barely 12 feet wide, devoted to candles.”
The Prevalence Of The Word ‘California’ In World Literature Tells Us About Our Dreams
“It looks like a voiceprint, or a series of overlapping voiceprints, the residue of a conversation we’ve been having without ever really calculating it, from continent to continent and year to year.”
Did The Artistic Director Of Canada’s National Ballet Poach A Superstar From Stuttgart?
The Canadian McKie, “who turned 31 this month, was just a kid when he saw former National Ballet superstar Rex Harrington dance the title role in Onegin. It turned his attention from tap and jazz to ballet, which until then he’d thought of as ‘what the girls at my school did.'”
Essays Have A Newfound Popularity – Maybe Because Of Reality TV
Roxane Gay: “I think it’s very similar to why we watch reality television. We want to see people open themselves up and we want to see where they’ll take that openness.”
The Author Of ‘Wolf Hall’ On The Difference Between Novels And Theatre (And A Lot More)
“I am used to turning things over in the silence and privacy of my mind for hours and hours. In the theatre it is not like that. When you are in rehearsal and asked a question the answer has to come back immediately. I have made a profession of doubting myself, so it is something very new to be instinctive.”
NBC Jumps On The Amazon Studios ‘Open Submission’ Bandwagon
“If you can’t get yourself a TV-talent-lit agent because, a lot of times, you have no credits, you’ve got no means of getting through the wall of the networks. It’s nice that a network is giving at least another chance for someone to work around that conundrum.”
Were Producers Just Toying With Artists In ‘A Night With Janis Joplin’?
“Assured by producers that their jobs were safe, actors skipped auditions for other musicals. Band members signed apartment leases. Investors wrote more checks for the show.” And then it all imploded.
A Few Artists Get A Lot Of The Money: Why?
“Artists who are good at getting funded are raising money for projects they want to do at least six months from now, not raising money to dig themselves out of the hole they’re in today.”
What Makes For A Good Popcorn Movie – And Why We Need Them In The Summer
“One summer craving at the top of my list is for something, anything fresh. It can take any number of forms, I’m not picky.”
Deep Reading Can Change Your Distracted Life (And Your To Be Read Pile)
“As a reader, I am fickle, promiscuous and easily distracted. Sitting at home, I can’t concentrate for the pull of text messages and emails.”