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The Gender Of Writing Is it possible to tell whether a writer is male or female? "Scholars have developed a computer algorithm that can examine an anonymous text and determine, with accuracy rates of better than 80 percent, whether the author is male or female. For centuries, linguists and cultural pundits have argued heatedly about whether men and women communicate differently. But the group is the first to create an actual prediction machine. A rather controversial one, too..." Boston Globe 07/06/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 11:04 pm
New deYoung Museum Rises In SF San Francisco's new deYoung Museum, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and scheduled to open in 2005, is rising. "The structure of the $200 million city-owned museum, made with 2,122 tons of steel and 2,500 tons of rebar, is nearly complete. In the next few weeks, the twisting concrete tower that will afford panoramic views of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean - a nod to the signature tower of the old Spanish-style de Young, demolished 14 months ago - will take shape." San Francisco Chronicle 07/08/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 8:58 am
Illegal Art On Purpose "Illegal Art, which opened last week at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Artists Gallery, showcases a variety of works that push the restrictions of current trademark and copyright laws. The exhibit is intended to illustrate the limits that such laws impose on artists' freedom of expression..."
Wired 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 11:30 pm
Creativity W/O Skills? In his new book, Julian Spalding writes that art students are "under great pressure to be ‘creative’ and to ‘express themselves’, but they have not been taught the skills with which to do so, as it is no longer thought necessary to learn to draw, paint, carve or model. The divorce between art and craft is complete. No wonder there is so much angst and misery at these places..." The Spectator 07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 11:02 pm
Was Stonehenge A Giant Vagina? Why was the Stonehenge constructed? It's long been a mystery. "A University of British Columbia researcher who has investigated the great prehistoric monument for several years has announced he has uncovered its true meaning: it is a giant fertility symbol, constructed in the shape of the female sexual organ. 'There was a concept in Neolithic times of a great goddess or Earth Mother, Stonehenge could represent the opening by which the Earth Mother gave birth to the plants and animals on which ancient people so depended'." The Guardian (UK) 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:38 pm
Jazz Sales Up In Canada Sales of jazz and blues recordings in Canada have gone up, says a new report. But all other genres of music have experiences declining sales. "Sales of recordings by Canadian artists totalled $138-million in 2000, down 10.4 per cent from 1998. Canadian artists continue to represent about 16 per cent of the market, by sales, a situation Statistics Canada said has remained a constant since the mid-1990s." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/08/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 8:26 am
Did Da Ponte Steal Don Giovanni From Stoker? "An article published yesterday on the front page of one of Italy's leading national newspapers draws attention to some remarkable parallels between the story of Bram Stoker's seminal Gothic villain Dracula and that of the archetypal Latin cad Don Giovanni depicted in Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto more than 100 years earlier." The Guardian (UK) 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:15 pm
The Curse Of Middle-Of-The-Road Opera Is opera becoming too much the same wherever you go? "Travel to New York, Paris or London, and the similarity of the performances can make it difficult to tell one night at the opera from another. This is "international" opera - the type that could happen anywhere, any time, anyhow. Today's top singers travel around with their latest roles in their baggage just as much as their illustrious predecessors did. No, the real problem today is that singers on the lower rungs of the ladder have started to travel just as frenetically. Those companies that still want to retain a resident ensemble are finding it impossible to hang on to the singers they need."
Financial Times 07/04/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 9:58 pm
Berlin Saves Its Opera Houses After fierce battles for a year, during which cash-strapped Berlin considered closing one of its three opera houses, the city has decided to continue funding all three. "At a packed press conference last week, federal cultural minister Christina Weiss announced the funding of a long-term rescue package to enable all three embattled institutions to continue independent operations under a corporate-type umbrella structure, the Berlin Opera Foundation, to be set up Jan. 1." Chicago Tribune 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 8:05 pm
French Strike Cancels, Disrupts Arts Festivals French show unions say they'll go ahead with a strike during the Avignon Festival. "The strike by actors, dancers, filmmakers and technicians has already cancelled dozens of artistic events throughout France during the summer festival season. In some cases, artists didn't call off shows but merely disrupted them, blasting fog horns or bursting on-stage to explain their demands. Some festival organizers have waited day by day to see if performers would return to the stage." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/08/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 8:24 am
Arts-Based Schooling Spreading A program that infuses teaching the arts into all aspects of the school program has been a big success in North Carolina, and the program is expanding elsewhere in America. "In the schools' first four years, they have performed at least as well as the rest of North Carolina's public schools on the state's school and student performance tests, known as the ABCs. That's especially notable, evaluators said, because A-plus students are not "taught to test" - and the schools have a larger percentage of minority students, who typically score lower than other groups on the tests." Washington Post (AP) 07/05/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 8:14 am
Eliminating Arts Funding Will Damage California California is considering eliminating its state arts funding. John Killacky writes that the idea is shortsighted. "Should the arts be held exempt when funding for human services, libraries, road repairs, affordable housing and education is being slashed? Of course not, but the intellectual and social capital the arts contribute to the vitality of life in California must not be underestimated. Multiculturalism and innovation are essential elements in making our state's economy among the largest in the world." San Francisco Chronicle 07/08/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 8:03 am
School Daze: Creativity Beyond The Classroom So maybe school isn't for everybody. A surprising number of creative and accomplished people were expelled or dropped out of high school. Some find school rejection "catastrophic in the worst way. They start to think of themselves as worthless. Others see it as a challenge. The curtain hasn't dropped on their creativity and emotional development. They say to themselves, 'So be it. Adults don't think very much of me. I'm going to prove them wrong'." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 07/08/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 6:16 am
Video Games Don't Harm Students' Grades Think video games are detrimental to your child's progress as a student? "One-third of college students play video games on their cell phones and laptops during class, but apparently with no effect on their grades, according to a report on video games and campus life released Sunday." Chicago Tribune 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 8:09 pm
The Royalty Hunter John Hichborn is a one-man royalty tracker. "Royalty tracking, as an industry, has become increasingly important in the electronic age, when well-known songs are sampled for commercials, thrown onto cheap CD compilations, and even used for video games. There can be considerable money at stake. A publisher is supposed to be paid 8 cents per song for each copy sold. The writer then receives his share from what he has agreed to as part of the deal. That can add up. 'The record industry is a swamp of disappearing money'." Chicago Tribune 07/08/03
Posted: 07/08/2003 7:59 am
Arthur Miller Vs. The Mayor Of Jerusalem Playwright Arthur Miller was awarded this year's Jerusalem Prize, but for last week's ceremony he sent a videotape in which he criticized Israel's policies. This angered Jerusalem's newly elected ultra-Orthodox Jewish mayor who said "Miller was a 'universal dramatist' who had reached his peak more than 50 years ago. He condemned the tendency of intellectuals to 'always criticise the actions of the state of Israel and sometimes even impose colonial criteria on the issues'. He further attacked Miller for sitting on a 'literary Olympus tens of thousands of kilometres from here to voice criticism'." The Guardian (UK) 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:28 pm
LI Philharmonic Lets Exec Go - Blame His Inexperience Last year when the Long Island Philharmonic went looking for a new top executive, they came back with Christopher von Zwehl. Of course he had no background in music; apparently the orchestra's board was impressed that von Zwehl had raised money for "a proposed freight ferry from Kennedy Airport to New Jersey" and had been instrumental in "bringing the battleship USS New Jersey to that state." Last week the orchestra let von Zwehl go, admitting he wasn't up for the job. The problem? "Lack of knowledge about music and the classical music business was a hindrance." Newsday 07/06/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:06 pm
What Would He Be Today, Shakespeare? "If Shakespeare were alive today, there's no telling what his place in pop culture might be. Musically, he might be another tattoo-branded Eminem or Tupac Shakur, scribbling out reams of rhymes on barroom cocktail napkins (but with a decidedly broader world view). If he gravitated toward TV, he likely would be found on HBO, cranking out barrier-breaking scripts as prolifically as Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing") or David E. Kelley ("Boston Public"). Or perhaps the Bard would helm a show like "Law and Order," a popular series just as well-known for, shall we say, borrowing plot lines. But given the visceral way with which Shake- speare toyed with universal human emotions, he would probably be most at home as a cutting-edge filmmaker." Denver Post 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 8:12 pm
The Rise Of The Neo-Con Press "New York is currently witnessing a mirror version of the birth of feminist publishing with a surge in neo-conservative (neo-con) imprints. Both Penguin Putnam and Crown have recently announced plans to launch lists specifically devoted to Rightwing material. Bookspan, which runs Book of the Month Club, has declared the formation of an as yet unnamed new club devoted to conservatism. The Right wing, which controls the presidency and both houses of Congress, is experiencing a delicious rush of popularity, and publishing - an opportunist business if ever there were one - is responding to this powerful trend." London Evening Standard 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:45 pm
Radio The Way You Like It A new streaming radio station in London attempts to gather data about what each listener likes and doesn't like and tailor its music playlists. "Here's how it works for Last.fm: Users can either fill out a profile or just begin listening. If a song plays to the end, the system logs this as a thumbs up. But if the user doesn't like a song and hits the Change button in the Last.fm player, it's marked as a thumbs down. Over time, a preference profile is built." Wired 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 11:33 pm
Choking On Blockbusters Are audiences getting weary of blockbuster movies? "Except for "Finding Nemo," "Bruce Almighty" and "X2," virtually every mega-movie released since May has failed to live up to its hype at the box office - if it hasn't tanked altogether. And even some movies with record openings - like "The Hulk," which set the all-time mark for June - suffered steep second-week drops (70 percent for "The Hulk"), suggesting audiences are suffering from ever-shorter attention spans. Overall, ticket sales this summer are off a whopping 7 percent from last year." New York Post 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:54 pm
BBC To Launch New Writing Talent Competition "This autumn the BBC is to help launch a groundbreaking nationwide talent competition. The project, designed as a cross between Pop Idol and the BBC's current literary initiative, The Big Read, will take BBC writers and producers to theatres and public venues in 12 cities and towns across Britain in search of hidden writing talent. Six of the BBC's leading television writers will go out to meet and advise hopeful entrants on their work, before five final winners are selected." BBC 07/07/03
Posted: 07/07/2003 10:19 pm | 
