Film production in LA county is down, and that means distress for the small businesses that supply it. “The downturn has forced the closing or bankruptcy of several visual effects shops, prop houses and other vendors.”
How A Space Battle In An Online Game Cost Its Players Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars
“Though it was just a game, the 7,548 people who fought the Battle of B-R could not have taken it any more seriously—and not simply because they lost virtual ships worth more than $300,000 in real-world money fighting it. And it all started when someone forgot to pay the rent on a space station.”
Really, J.K. Rowling, Did You Have To Tell Us You Had Doubts About Hermione And Ron?
“If Rowling feels that strongly, she should write a sequel putting right what she thinks she got wrong – Harry Potter and the Acrimonious Divorce, perhaps.”
Not So Fast: Judge Temporarily Bars Removal Of Picasso Tapestry From Four Seasons
“I don’t want to be the judge who has a Picasso destroyed. … If some damage were to occur, no amount of money could make up for the loss of any Picasso.”
What Makes A Playwright Qualified To Tell Someone Else’s Story?
“Plays are stories—fairy tales and fictions, historical and magical. They are not documentaries or history lessons. To think they are such would be myopic.”
We (And Publishers) Need To Figure Out How To Measure Our Time Online
“Shares and mentions can communicate the magnitude of an article’s attention, but they can’t always tell you the direction of the share vector: Did people share it because they loved it, or because they loved hating it?”
Vanska: Minnesota Orchestra Chief Needs To Go
In a conversation Saturday with Brian Newhouse, managing director of Classical Minnesota Public Radio, Osmo Vanska said that “For any healing to begin at the orchestra, Michael Henson must go.”
What’s Up With The (Norse) End Of The World?
With Ragnarok predicted for February 22 (yes, of this year), author Joanne Harris wonders: “For centuries, artists, writers and composers from Wagner, Tolkien, and Tennyson to Marvel Comics have taken inspiration from these tales of conflict, companionship and adventure. Why?”
What We Talk About When We Talk About Philip Seymour Hoffman
“I don’t know what demons might be to blame, but as a one-time junkie, I do know that the demons hardly matter. We imagine addiction as a voluntary act, romantic or tragic, depending on our mood. When we try to imagine the scene, we conjure up pictures of the wrong room and the wrong stress; tumultuous men brought low by vulnerability in the face of fear and loneliness.”
Making Art – And Profit – Off Of 6-Second Videos
When Vine and Instagram entered the instant, social-media-driven, short video game, who predicted that film school grads would soon be making a living from the apps?
How To Spot A Famous Painting In Your (Or A Museum’s) Attic
“Every great artist leaves stylistic fingerprints across a picture. This could be exquisitely handled drapery, a unique softness of expression or a masterful depiction of light. A knowing eye will locate and identify these tell-tale traits quickly.”
Authors Can Change Ebooks Whenever They Want. Is This A Good Thing?
“One of the consolations of traditional authorship is that when a book is published, it’s finished. There’s that moment when the first hardbound copies come back from the publisher and one thinks: ‘Well, that’s that: now on to the next thing.'”
Minnesota Orchestra Takes to The Stage After 16-Month Lockout
If it weren’t to be Mr. Vanska on the podium, there could not have been a more popular choice than Mr. Skrowaczewski, who, looking frail and gaunt, drew a half-minute standing ovation of his own.