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A New Improved Analog Future The recent technology revolution has been powered by digital processors. But that’s not the future. “Weird as it sounds, the road to smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient consumer electronics may be paved with analog technology. These circuits are built from the same components as their digital counterparts but suck 90 percent less battery power. The difference? In an analog device, each transistor acts like a dial, with a wide range of readings that depend on the sinuous fluctuation of voltage, current, amplitude, and frequency. Digital circuits, on the other hand, use the same transistors as simple on-off toggle switches. Analog transistors capture far more information, so you need fewer of them.” Look for the new improved analog at a store near you. Wired 02/22/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:05 am
Today’s Teens – Totally Manipulated? Are today’s teenagers totally at the mercy of the corporate messages that everywhere lie in wait for them? “By sheer virtue of their population numbers, buying power and savvy, teens are not merely in vogue. Entire carpeted auditoriums of middle-age movie, TV, retail and Internet executives devote themselves to tracking the spending habits of these juniors, decoding their preferences, catering to their every mass hiccup.” A new book suggests that today’s teens are a “sad, hollow, cheated generation, thoroughly saturated by artful product placement, co-opted by viral marketing, oppressed by the trickle-down effect of the (now rather pockmarked) "contemporary luxury economy." New York Observer 02/19/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:03 am
Fire Stations Meant To Look Like Something Else "London's fire stations were once splendid buildings. Designed and built to the very highest standards of the Arts and Crafts Movement inspired by John Ruskin and William Morris, they were the work of the London County Council's fire brigade department. The proposed 'community fire station and safety centre' at Canary Wharf is something else. It promises to look like a cross between an office block and a block of flats." Why? That's how public funding in the "new" England works. The Guardian (UK) 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:22 am
New Melbourne Museum A Top Draw Melbourne's new Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square has become one of the world's most popular galleries, says the National Gallery of Victoria director Gerard Vaughan. In its first three months of operation, the museum has attracted 750,000 visitors. "It has to be one of the most visited art museums in the world just now. We can't compete with the world's top group of super galleries, which also includes New York's Metropolitan and the Uffizi in Florence, but we are right up there compared to anywhere else." He said the Pompidou Centre and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris receive up to 4000 visitors a day - the Ian Potter Centre was getting about 8000. The Age (Melbourne) 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:17 am
Going Wild Over Van Gogh In Japan It was to be an ordinary auction in Tokyo, until a work for sale was revealed as a forgotten Van Gogh. “The ensuing media frenzy in Japan ensured that the auction in Ginza was mobbed. Over 500 buyers registered and those who couldn’t squeeze into the main auction room had to be seated on another floor, connected to the action by a television screen. When the Van Gogh portrait now known as “Peasant Woman” appeared, bidding was frenzied.” The Art Newspaper 02/21/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:06 am
National Gallery Gains A Boticelli London’s National Gallery has a new Boticelli. Well, not new exactly. The museum has reattributed a picture that had previously been attributed to one of the master’s followers. “The picture, 'St Francis with Musical Angels', is extremely unusual for a mid-15th century Florentine painting in its patterned, stamped gold background. The painting was purchased (as a Filippino Lippi) by the the National Gallery's greatest director, Sir Charles Eastlake in 1858 from the Costabili collection.” The Art Newspaper 02/21/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:00 am
Jones Dominates Grammys Twenty-three-year-old jazz vocalist Norah Jones surprised many Sunday night by dominating the Grammys' major awards, "capturing the marquee categories of year's best album, record and new artist. The surprise win for Jones has cemented the reputation for the Grammys as an unpredictable entertainment gala." Los Angeles Times 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 4:00 am
- A Fun Show This Grammy production was actually fun to watch as entertainment. "The producers bucked conventional award show wisdom and dumped the host as an unnecessary element. They emphasized performance and kept the pace as frantic and energetic as the music being honored." New York Post 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:53 am
CD's: A "Business Without A Business Model" The music recording industry is in trouble. "The uncertainty facing the major recording labels has led a wave of others to seek new paths, either voluntarily or involuntarily. 'It's a business without a business model today because unfortunately it's predicated on people actually buying CDs. I don't know about you but my 12-year-old, he's burning them pretty fast. That's the reality and it was coming and everybody closed their eyes to it'."
Los Angeles Times 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:49 am
Music From Out Of This World The Kronos String Quartet has lately been preoccupied with sounds from out of this world - outer space. Sounds collected from the cosmos have been incorporated into the music. "What's amazing about the noises is how organic they are - sometimes you feel they could be the sounds of insects or whales. The visuals, too, make the universe seem conscious - the Sun close up seems like a living body, with a pulsing heart." The Telegraph (UK) 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:38 am
Re-Understanding Prokofiev Fifty years after Prokofiev’s death, his operas are taking on different meanings from when they were first created. “Perhaps the art of Soviet Russia will come to resemble the art of revolutionary France. For a while, for decades after the Terror, there were paintings of David's that caused such horror that they could scarcely be shown - for David was notorious as a supporter of terror. But then that part of their meaning drained away. For 50 years Prokofiev wrote operas. In the 50 years since his death, these works have begun to make their way. It's the slowness of the process that's impressive -the slowness and, to be sure, the sureness too.” The Guardian (UK) 02/23/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:04 am
Popularity – A Matter Of Volume? When a singer like Norah Jones has a big success – more than 4 million albums served – theories about why abound. “Overlooked in all this conjecture is the essential trait of Jones' music, the thing that makes it appeal to all those constituencies: It's quiet. Intimate. Drawn to human scale. Come Away is the first multi-platinum success in years to suggest that a singer doesn't have to shout, physically or metaphorically, to be heard. Now that is radical.” Philadelphia Inquirer 02/23/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 1:59 am
Philanthropy Survey Suggests Troubling Trends The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s third annual survey of “America’s most-generous donors” shows a huge drop in giving – the total for the largest 60 givers declined from $12.7 billion to $4.6 billion. “A troubling sign of the slowdown: a growing tendency among donors to make long-term pledges rather than outright cash gifts. Some donors also are delaying payments on previous pledges, and fund raisers see an increasing reluctance among wealthy people to make new giving commitments of any sort." Chronicle of Philanthropy 02/21/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 1:58 am
Head Of The Class – Covent Garden’s Pappano Covent Garden waited four years waiting Antonio Pappano, its new music director. “The man is a live wire, and after a few months he has electrified the entire building. The Royal Opera needed just an invigorating shock. ‘Years ago, some one gave me Solti’s memoirs, and when I got to the part where he described coming to Covent Garden as music director I had the weirdest feeling: I knew in my bones that I would get this job’.” The Observer 02/23/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 1:59 am
South African Playwright Has AIDS Gibson Kente, 69, one South Africa’s most prominent playwrights, said last week that he has AIDS, “becoming one of only a handful of celebrities to go public about AIDS in the country worst hit by the disease.” Kente helped pioneer theater in South Africa’s black townships during the years of apartheid rule. Why go public? “I have HIV, why not make some use of it?” Backstage 02/21/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 1:57 am
Sink Or Swim At The National Charles Saumarez Smith didn't get much of a honeymoon as the new director of the UK's National Gallery. Faced from the outset with questions about his qualifications, and basic sniping over whether he might be 'too nice' for the job, Smith is now staring down the barrel of a public relations cannon. His mission: to persuade the Heritage Fund to pony up a sizable chunk of the £29 million he needs to raise to keep a famed Raphael on the gallery's walls. The Guardian (UK) 02/22/03
Posted: 02/23/2003 8:44 am
ACTing Out: Lessons From A Seattle Theatre Theatre people across America were shocked last week when Seattle's ACT Theatre announced it was on the verge of closing, nearly sunk by debt. Could the theatre's predicament happen elsewhere, wonders Frank Rizzo? "The problems in Seattle only remind us that simply supporting building projects and not what happens when these buildings open is a short-sighted vision, one that could ultimately reflect a legacy of losers." Hartford Courant 02/23/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:31 am
Aboard The Floating Music Halls "With the decline of clubs and cabaret venues, cruise ships have become the music halls of our generation - and as more than 10 million people cruise every year there is a lot of entertaining to be done. There are some who never get off..." The Guardian (UK) 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:26 am
Holiday Book Sales Languished Barnes & Noble reports that last quarter's book sales were sluggish, with growth coming only in newly-opened stores. And "according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, total bookstore sales fell 3.2% in last year's fourth quarter, to $4.42 billion." Publishers Weekly 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 4:16 am
Tolkien Vs. Tolkien Simon Tolkien, the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, is a successful barrister, and he has a book contract in Britain and America. But five years ago he had a fallingout with his father over the movies to be made from his grandfather's books. Seems the Tolkiens had no control over the movies since JRR had sold them years ago. Simon's dad wanted mothing to do with the movie-makers, but Simon... The Telegraph (UK) 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:45 am
Of Book Critics Who Don't Read... "Reviewing books is not a particularly well-paid form of journalism and it takes time. A book of any more ambition than a thriller can't be read for review at a rate of more than 40, or at most 60, pages an hour. Some books are only 120-pages long and can comfortably be digested in a couple of hours. Others, though, are 400, or 600 pages, or, in some dreadful instances, even more, and they can easily take days to get through. The reviewer's fee, however, usually remains the same. So, shocking as it may seem, the truth is that some reviewers skip some books. And there are a few who skip through all the books..." London Evening Standard 02/24/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 3:35 am
Canada Increases Tax Credit For Foreign Film Productions Hollywood, trying to encourage producers to stay in the US to shoot their movies, have proposed legislation to give producers tax incentives. But last week, to try to keep producers coming to Canada, the Canadian government said it would increase production tax credits from 11% to 16% for foreign producers shooting there. Hollywood is protesting. Backstage 02/21/03
Posted: 02/24/2003 2:09 am
The Danger Of 'The Next Big...' Everyone wants to know when the next Nureyev is coming. Or the next Baryshnikov. Or the next Balanchine. Or the next Graham. But why, asks Jack Anderson, are we so bound and determined to replace these legends? They were irreplacable, and the fact that they are gone shouldn't mean that today's dance stars should be expected to live up to what they accomplished. By constantly focusing on what the dance world has lost, we risk not recognizing the true innovators of today. The New York Times 02/23/03
Posted: 02/23/2003 9:34 am | 
