Study: Music Lessons Boost IQ A new study shows that children who study music score higher on IQ tests. The University of Toronto study also tested students who studied drama and found an increased IQ but not as big an improvement as in those who studied music. Science Daily 08/20/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 9:59 am
How Tabloids Took Over Pop Culture TV news, reality shows, pop magazines - they're full of stuff that was formerly the domain of the supermarket tabloid. "Our world has been tabloidized. Where once tabloids occupied a fantastic fringe of pop culture, they now are at the center of pop culture." Dallas Morning News 08/29/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 8:37 am
X Rated: Ugly Buildings? Knock 'Em Down An English architect preoposes a new classification for buildings. It's an "X" rating thta would be awarded for buildings considered public eyesores. "I want the government to introduce grants for destruction. How often has a bad piece of architecture marred a beautiful view? In every town there are three or four buildings that are universally disliked." The New York Times 08/30/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 10:17 pm
The Wrong Way Opera Company For a year, a young opera entrepreneur has been trying to set up a small company in Winston-Salem, hoping it would become the nation's "premier African-American opera-training company." But a series of missed commitments, broken promises and misunderstandings suggest the fledgling enterprise might never get off the ground... Winston-Salem Journal 08/29/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 10:39 am
The Shostakovich Question For 25 years Solomon Volkov's purported memoir of Shostakovich has been debated by critics. Some are tired of the debate, and look for the book to convey greater truths. But this isn't right, writes Alex Ross: "It isn’t enough for the memoirs of a major artist to have an ambience of authenticity. A book that subjected Picasso or Joyce to such manipulations would never have made it to publication. For some reason, though, music is treated as a childish realm in which fables serve as well as facts." The New Yorker 08/30/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 9:50 am
In Search Of Classical Radio (There's Plenty Of it) Looking for classical music on the radio? Traditional broadcast radio isn't likely to do it. But the web has become a goldmine for music fans looking for variety... Philadelphia Inquirer 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 9:53 pm
Pondering The CD's Mortality Andrew Druckenbrod is dismayed to learn that his precious CDs may be self-destructing. "Indeed, what does it say that a music box metal disc made 150 years ago or a paper piano roll from the turn of the previous century may outlive a digital product of today? It makes me want to pack a 19th-century survival kit: Dangnabit, where are my lard candles, salt pork and wool undergarments?" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 9:34 pm
Controversy Mars World Air Guitar Championships The World Air Guitar Championships end in controversy in Finland this weekend, and two winners are declared after votes are miscounted. "This shouldn't happen in the world championship level. I am devastated. We can't do anything else but to apologize for the mistake and congratulate both winners. At least you can't say that this year's contest didn't offer tons of excitement and drama." Toronto Star 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 8:51 pm
Former BBC Chairman Blasts Blair Greg Dyke speaks out about Tony Blair's campaign to influence the BBC's coverage of the Iraq war. "In an explosive autobiography which returns the corrosive issue of Iraq to the heart of political debate, Dyke reveals that Tony Blair wrote an unprecedented letter to him and Gavyn Davies, the former BBC chairman, trying to force the corporation to change the tone of its coverage." The Observer (UK) 08/29/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 8:46 am
Hans Vonk, 63 Conductor Han Vonk has died of a rare neurological disease. "Vonk became the St. Louis Symphony's music director in 1996 and continued in that position until his declining medical condition forced his retirement in April 2002." Newsday (AP) 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 10:58 pm
Demonstrators Protest Republican Broadway Theatre-goers In New York, protesters clashed with police outside Broadway shows. "As convention delegates emerged from theaters last night, they were greeted by hundreds of protesters booing and chanting 'RNC go home!' In front of the New Amsterdam Theater, where delegates attended "The Lion King," and at the Ford Center, where they watched '42nd Street,' police cleared paths for the visitors to rush to waiting buses." New York Daily News 08/30/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 11:14 am
Exercised By Reading "As book sales fall flat and a national study suggests fewer people than ever read literature, the benefits of pleasure reading are far from obvious to overscheduled Americans with MTV attention spans. Teachers and public-service announcements pound the reading-is-good-for-you message into children from an early age. But by the time many people reach adulthood, they've lost sight of what marketing gurus might call the "takeaway value" of books." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 9:14 pm
Big Entertainment: Block That Tech! Feeling they've been burned by technology, the entertainment industry is moving aggressively to block new technologies that could potentially impact their business. "The U.S. movie industry generated $41.2 billion in revenue last year, but estimated it lost $3.5 billion in potential revenue due to piracy of DVDs and videos. The industry has not been able to estimate revenue lost from Internet piracy. The recording industry has blamed online file-sharing as a major reason for a decline in sales from $14.3 billion in 2000 to $11.8 billion in 2003." San Francisco Chronicle 08/30/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 11:30 am
Battle For The (Political) Soul Of PBS "Public television -- home of Big Bird, "Frontline," and Jim Lehrer -- has traditionally been a lightning rod for conservative complaints about liberal bias. But these days it is the left that is unhappy with the programming mix and fretting about a right-wing conspiracy." Boston Globe 08/30/04
Posted: 08/30/2004 8:27 am
NPR Expansion Worries Member Stations National Public Radio is flying high these days as ratings soar and NPR expands. "But NPR's ambition has stirred anxiety within the public radio system over how to preserve the character and financial viability of local stations in the ever larger shadow of the national production service they created more than 30 years ago as a modest support operation." The New York Times 08/30/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 10:09 pm
Treaty Would Give Broadcasters Control Of Signals "An international treaty to give broadcasters the right to control who may record, transmit, or distribute their signals is reaching a crucial stage of negotiation by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva." Wired 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 6:29 pm
Mozart In Lead Weights Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart tries some theatrical takes on the composer - in this case, Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. "The dance language of de Keersmaeker’s piece, which is severely limited, ranges from shards of classical ballet that appear warped in their execution—inadvertently, I believe, for lack of expertise in that department—to motions suggesting jungle animals, as if to imply that human passions, even when sung about with infinite delicacy and sophistication as they are in Mozart, have to do with the primal and the wild." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 08/29/04
Posted: 08/29/2004 11:07 pm
