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Friday, December 10




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A Whole New Experience In TV "TV over Internet protocol - IPTV - will transform couch-cruising into an on-demand experience. Instead of broadcasting every channel continuously, service providers plan to transmit them only to subscribers who request them. In effect, every channel will be streamed on demand. This will free up huge amounts of bandwidth for hi-def TV and high-speed broadband. Add IP and you get interactive services like caller ID on your TV. And the system will be able to track viewing habits as effectively as Amazon tracks its customers, so ads will be targeted with scary precision. Put it all together and you've got television that's as intensely personalized as 20th-century broadcasting was generic." Wired 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:07 am

Hipper Than Thou "The origin of hip (and its partner, hep; the words are related) is, unsatisfyingly, unknown. The term first appeared at the turn of the 20th century, and quickly became widespread. Its meaning at this early point was "aware; in the know," and it was not widely used by African-Americans. It wasn't until the late 1930s and early 1940s, during the jive era, that the modern senses—"sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date"—arose." Slate 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:53 pm

Why Some People Are Left-Handed "The orthodox view of human handedness is that it is connected to the bilateral specialisation of the brain that has concentrated language-processing functions on the left side of that organ. Because, long ago in the evolutionary past, an ancestor of humans (and all other vertebrate animals) underwent a contortion that twisted its head around 180° relative to its body, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. In humans, the left brain (and thus the right body) is usually dominant." But why are some people still left-handed? The reason may have to do with fighting ability... The Economist 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:52 pm

Click here for more Ideas stories...

Visual Arts

Most Expensive Furniture Ever An antique cabinet sells at auction for £19illion, making it the most expensive piece of furniture to be sold at an auction. "The sale broke the cabinet's own record price of £8.5m when it was bought at Christie's in 1990. The Florentine furniture was made between 1720 and 1732 for Henry Somerset, third Duke of Beaufort." BBC 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:00 am

Taiwan President Pledges Support To Guggenheim Branch (With Conditions) The president of Taiwan says he'll endorse building a branch of the Guggenheim Museum on the island if his party wins in parliamentary elections this week. Critics assailed the president's promise, calling it campaign rhetoric. "Taichung city council earlier this week rejected Hu's proposal for a Guggenheim branch, citing insufficient funding. The mayor intended to seek the central government's help to save the project." China Post 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 6:42 am

Did Tate Refuse Saatchi Gift? (The Plot Thickens) Did Tate Modern turn down an offer by Charles Saatchi to donate his collection? Saatchi says yes, Tate no. Now Saatchi says he's not in the mood. “I lost my chance for a tastefully engraved plaque and a 21-gun salute. And now the mood has passed, and I’m happy not to have to visit Tate Modern, or its storage depot, to look at my art.” The Art Newspaper 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:22 pm

Friday, December 10 - - ArtsJournal Yesterdays: Daily Arts News
AJ Logo Get ArtsJournal in your inbox
for FREE every morning!
HOME > Yesterdays


Friday, December 10




eas

A Whole New Experience In TV "TV over Internet protocol - IPTV - will transform couch-cruising into an on-demand experience. Instead of broadcasting every channel continuously, service providers plan to transmit them only to subscribers who request them. In effect, every channel will be streamed on demand. This will free up huge amounts of bandwidth for hi-def TV and high-speed broadband. Add IP and you get interactive services like caller ID on your TV. And the system will be able to track viewing habits as effectively as Amazon tracks its customers, so ads will be targeted with scary precision. Put it all together and you've got television that's as intensely personalized as 20th-century broadcasting was generic." Wired 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:07 am

Hipper Than Thou "The origin of hip (and its partner, hep; the words are related) is, unsatisfyingly, unknown. The term first appeared at the turn of the 20th century, and quickly became widespread. Its meaning at this early point was "aware; in the know," and it was not widely used by African-Americans. It wasn't until the late 1930s and early 1940s, during the jive era, that the modern senses—"sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date"—arose." Slate 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:53 pm

Why Some People Are Left-Handed "The orthodox view of human handedness is that it is connected to the bilateral specialisation of the brain that has concentrated language-processing functions on the left side of that organ. Because, long ago in the evolutionary past, an ancestor of humans (and all other vertebrate animals) underwent a contortion that twisted its head around 180° relative to its body, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. In humans, the left brain (and thus the right body) is usually dominant." But why are some people still left-handed? The reason may have to do with fighting ability... The Economist 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:52 pm

Click here for more Ideas stories...

Visual Arts

Most Expensive Furniture Ever An antique cabinet sells at auction for £19illion, making it the most expensive piece of furniture to be sold at an auction. "The sale broke the cabinet's own record price of £8.5m when it was bought at Christie's in 1990. The Florentine furniture was made between 1720 and 1732 for Henry Somerset, third Duke of Beaufort." BBC 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:00 am

Taiwan President Pledges Support To Guggenheim Branch (With Conditions) The president of Taiwan says he'll endorse building a branch of the Guggenheim Museum on the island if his party wins in parliamentary elections this week. Critics assailed the president's promise, calling it campaign rhetoric. "Taichung city council earlier this week rejected Hu's proposal for a Guggenheim branch, citing insufficient funding. The mayor intended to seek the central government's help to save the project." China Post 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 6:42 am

Did Tate Refuse Saatchi Gift? (The Plot Thickens) Did Tate Modern turn down an offer by Charles Saatchi to donate his collection? Saatchi says yes, Tate no. Now Saatchi says he's not in the mood. “I lost my chance for a tastefully engraved plaque and a 21-gun salute. And now the mood has passed, and I’m happy not to have to visit Tate Modern, or its storage depot, to look at my art.” The Art Newspaper 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:22 pm

Click here for more Visual Arts stories...

Music

A Failed Chamber Music Org - 3 Cents On The Dollar Two years after it suddenly shut down operations, the Washington Chamber Society has settled claims of creditors. "And so a listener who put down more than $500 for two subscriptions to the announced 2002-03 season ended up receiving a refund check for $19.07 -- more than two years later." Washington Post 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:11 am

The Pavarotti Legacy? "How good was Pavarotti? Will he be remembered a century from now, as we remember such indisputably great tenors of the past as Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, or Lauritz Melchior? Possibly, but not necessarily. To be sure, he was in his prime a remarkable singer, without doubt the foremost lyric tenor of his day, and well beyond his fiftieth year his luminous, pointed tone and crisp diction retained much of their quality. On the other hand, Pavarotti was never a distinctive interpreter, and his acting was at best barely competent. Instead, he cultivated an expansive, outgoing manner that charmed his listeners at the expense of the dramatic credibility of the operas in which he appeared." Commentary 12/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 10:18 pm

The Musicians' Life: Poverty "We don't often hear about the poverty of musicians. There is a pop culture myth, particularly prevalent among the young, that music makes you rich, fame equals fortune, and that anyone who dwells in the magic realm of television, or has their visage in the pages of a magazine, must be reaping abundant financial reward. But only one in 10 records makes a profit, and even fewer of those make enough money to support the livelihoods of those involved." The Telegraph (UK) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 9:58 pm

Protests Rise Against Homophobic Jamaican Dancehall Stars Jamaican dancehall music stars are flamboyantly homophobic in their music. "People have known about and protested against dancehall artists' homophobic lyrics since the early 1990s, when Buju Banton had a Jamaican hit with Boom Bye-Bye, a song advocating shooting and burning homosexuals. In the past six months, however, the protest against homophobic dancehall has gained momentum. No one seems entirely sure why the campaign of letter-writing and event picketing, headed by UK pressure group OutRage!, has suddenly started yielding results, but you can only gawp at its new-found effectiveness." The Guardian (UK) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 9:39 pm

Click here for more Music stories...

Arts Issues

Proposal: Cut SF Arts Funding The chairman of San Francisco's budget committee last week "recommended taking roughly $800,000 from the combined budgets of the opera, symphony and ballet in order to keep more social services afloat during mid-year reductions. The sum equates to half The City's current backing, which performing arts supporters point out has already been reduced by 25 percent." San Francisco Examiner 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 10:25 am

Mixed Year For Arts Funding In Congress How did the arts make out in the US Congressional session just closing? Well, the extra $18 million President Bush requested for the National Endowment for the Arts got cut to $2 million. But also Congress ignored Bush's proposal to cut $35 million from arts in education funds. So a mixed result... And things arenh't likely to change much in the new Congress... Back Stage 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:03 pm

Chinese Intellectuals Under Fire Again Public intellectual debate has been on the rise in China in the past few years as the economy opened up. But the new openness may be closing up quickly. "A scathing commentary on the list, published last month by a Shanghai newspaper and republished by the party's main mouthpiece, People's Daily, said that promoting the idea of “public intellectuals” was really aimed at “driving a wedge between intellectuals and the party.” The window for free debate that opened a crack over the past couple of years, as China's leadership shifted to the “fourth generation” of leaders, is closing again." The Economist 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:48 pm

Melbourne's New Theatre Complex Melbourne is getting a new theatre complex, and the architecture is firmly contemporary. "The $91 million project combines two buildings - one providing a new home for the Melbourne Theatre Company and the other housing the city's first purpose-built recital hall for acoustic music. They will be built on a car park opposite the ABC headquarters." The Age (Melbourne) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:26 pm

Click here for more Arts Issues stories...

People

Arts Prize Gets A New Chief The Cleveland Arts Prize, which recognizes local artists who have attained national attention for their work, has named Terri Pontremoli as its new executive director. Pontremoli had previously managed a jazz festival in the city, and had raised $6 million for local jazz groups. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 6:49 am

Click here for more People stories...

Theatre

Changing Patterns In NY Theatre How are people deciding to go to the theatre in New York? It's changing: "Our research shows if you're a young person in your 20s and you want all New York has to offer, you read Time Out New York or The Village Voice. In other words, the Times is less important, and nothing beats word of mouth. Well, one of the things we're interested in is how to build word of mouth as news coverage shrinks." Back Stage 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:11 pm

Click here for more Theatre stories...

Publishing

PEN v. PEN Disputes are ripping apart the British writers' association PEN. "In one camp are the ascetics, who believe that PEN's only purpose is its traditional one of working selflessly and frugally for persecuted writers around the world. In the other are the modernisers - decadents, say their critics - who envisage a rather more glittering future involving celebrities and media events. In both - as you might expect - are some of the most sharp-tongued people in Britain. The reluctance by those involved for the fighting to be made public is, for others, a further reason to be bitter." The Independent (UK) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 6:52 am

Click here for more Publishing stories...

Media

At The Movies: Which History? Movies on historical subjects are popular. But the history they tell is colored as much by the time in which the movie is made as the original story itself. "There's a huge problem in that (students) assume the history they see is true. However, historical films often are more about the period in which they're made than the period they depict." Toronto Star 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 8:28 am

Movie Morals Police: Back To the 1930s Some groups are protesting the movie "Kinsey," claiming that the movie glamorizes someone they blame for weakening American morals. "Such organizations don't really care about "Kinsey" - an art-house picture that, however well reviewed or Oscar-nominated, will be seen by a relatively small audience, mostly in blue states. The film is just this month's handy pretext for advancing the larger goal of pushing sex of all nonbiblical kinds back into the closet and undermining any scientific findings, whether circa 1948 or 2004, that might challenge fundamentalist sexual orthodoxy as successfully as Darwin challenged Genesis." The New York Times 12/12/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 9:18 pm

Is Your DVD Player About To Be Obsolete? "Tech writers are bracing for a VHS vs. Betamax-style format war, with consumers forced to choose sides or buy two separate, incompatible players. Last week's stumping for HD-DVD, which is sponsored by Toshiba and NEC, can only be read as a pre-emptive effort to make Sony's Blu-ray look like Betamax 2.0—a technology that's doomed to fail because all the movies you want will only be available on its competitor. If Hollywood makes that story come true, consumers won't get a happy ending." Slate 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:46 pm

Podcast - Have It Your Way Niche radio. Anywhere. Any time. That's podcasting. "On terrestrial or satellite radio, one can tune into a dozen formats or maybe even five dozen formats. But with podcasting, everybody is a format of one. Podcasting is just making it easier for this new set of niche listeners and this new set of producers to find each other." Christian Science Monitor 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 3:54 pm


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Copyright ©
2002 ArtsJournal. All Rights Reserved
style="MARGIN-LEFT: 150px">Click here for more Visual Arts stories...

Music

A Failed Chamber Music Org - 3 Cents On The Dollar Two years after it suddenly shut down operations, the Washington Chamber Society has settled claims of creditors. "And so a listener who put down more than $500 for two subscriptions to the announced 2002-03 season ended up receiving a refund check for $19.07 -- more than two years later." Washington Post 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 7:11 am

The Pavarotti Legacy? "How good was Pavarotti? Will he be remembered a century from now, as we remember such indisputably great tenors of the past as Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, or Lauritz Melchior? Possibly, but not necessarily. To be sure, he was in his prime a remarkable singer, without doubt the foremost lyric tenor of his day, and well beyond his fiftieth year his luminous, pointed tone and crisp diction retained much of their quality. On the other hand, Pavarotti was never a distinctive interpreter, and his acting was at best barely competent. Instead, he cultivated an expansive, outgoing manner that charmed his listeners at the expense of the dramatic credibility of the operas in which he appeared." Commentary 12/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 10:18 pm

The Musicians' Life: Poverty "We don't often hear about the poverty of musicians. There is a pop culture myth, particularly prevalent among the young, that music makes you rich, fame equals fortune, and that anyone who dwells in the magic realm of television, or has their visage in the pages of a magazine, must be reaping abundant financial reward. But only one in 10 records makes a profit, and even fewer of those make enough money to support the livelihoods of those involved." The Telegraph (UK) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 9:58 pm

Protests Rise Against Homophobic Jamaican Dancehall Stars Jamaican dancehall music stars are flamboyantly homophobic in their music. "People have known about and protested against dancehall artists' homophobic lyrics since the early 1990s, when Buju Banton had a Jamaican hit with Boom Bye-Bye, a song advocating shooting and burning homosexuals. In the past six months, however, the protest against homophobic dancehall has gained momentum. No one seems entirely sure why the campaign of letter-writing and event picketing, headed by UK pressure group OutRage!, has suddenly started yielding results, but you can only gawp at its new-found effectiveness." The Guardian (UK) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 9:39 pm

Click here for more Music stories...

Arts Issues

Proposal: Cut SF Arts Funding The chairman of San Francisco's budget committee last week "recommended taking roughly $800,000 from the combined budgets of the opera, symphony and ballet in order to keep more social services afloat during mid-year reductions. The sum equates to half The City's current backing, which performing arts supporters point out has already been reduced by 25 percent." San Francisco Examiner 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 10:25 am

Mixed Year For Arts Funding In Congress How did the arts make out in the US Congressional session just closing? Well, the extra $18 million President Bush requested for the National Endowment for the Arts got cut to $2 million. But also Congress ignored Bush's proposal to cut $35 million from arts in education funds. So a mixed result... And things arenh't likely to change much in the new Congress... Back Stage 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:03 pm

Chinese Intellectuals Under Fire Again Public intellectual debate has been on the rise in China in the past few years as the economy opened up. But the new openness may be closing up quickly. "A scathing commentary on the list, published last month by a Shanghai newspaper and republished by the party's main mouthpiece, People's Daily, said that promoting the idea of “public intellectuals” was really aimed at “driving a wedge between intellectuals and the party.” The window for free debate that opened a crack over the past couple of years, as China's leadership shifted to the “fourth generation” of leaders, is closing again." The Economist 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:48 pm

Melbourne's New Theatre Complex Melbourne is getting a new theatre complex, and the architecture is firmly contemporary. "The $91 million project combines two buildings - one providing a new home for the Melbourne Theatre Company and the other housing the city's first purpose-built recital hall for acoustic music. They will be built on a car park opposite the ABC headquarters." The Age (Melbourne) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 7:26 pm

Click here for more Arts Issues stories...

People

Arts Prize Gets A New Chief The Cleveland Arts Prize, which recognizes local artists who have attained national attention for their work, has named Terri Pontremoli as its new executive director. Pontremoli had previously managed a jazz festival in the city, and had raised $6 million for local jazz groups. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 6:49 am

Click here for more People stories...

Theatre

Changing Patterns In NY Theatre How are people deciding to go to the theatre in New York? It's changing: "Our research shows if you're a young person in your 20s and you want all New York has to offer, you read Time Out New York or The Village Voice. In other words, the Times is less important, and nothing beats word of mouth. Well, one of the things we're interested in is how to build word of mouth as news coverage shrinks." Back Stage 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:11 pm

Click here for more Theatre stories...

Publishing

PEN v. PEN Disputes are ripping apart the British writers' association PEN. "In one camp are the ascetics, who believe that PEN's only purpose is its traditional one of working selflessly and frugally for persecuted writers around the world. In the other are the modernisers - decadents, say their critics - who envisage a rather more glittering future involving celebrities and media events. In both - as you might expect - are some of the most sharp-tongued people in Britain. The reluctance by those involved for the fighting to be made public is, for others, a further reason to be bitter." The Independent (UK) 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 6:52 am

Click here for more Publishing stories...

Media

At The Movies: Which History? Movies on historical subjects are popular. But the history they tell is colored as much by the time in which the movie is made as the original story itself. "There's a huge problem in that (students) assume the history they see is true. However, historical films often are more about the period in which they're made than the period they depict." Toronto Star 12/10/04
Posted: 12/10/2004 8:28 am

Movie Morals Police: Back To the 1930s Some groups are protesting the movie "Kinsey," claiming that the movie glamorizes someone they blame for weakening American morals. "Such organizations don't really care about "Kinsey" - an art-house picture that, however well reviewed or Oscar-nominated, will be seen by a relatively small audience, mostly in blue states. The film is just this month's handy pretext for advancing the larger goal of pushing sex of all nonbiblical kinds back into the closet and undermining any scientific findings, whether circa 1948 or 2004, that might challenge fundamentalist sexual orthodoxy as successfully as Darwin challenged Genesis." The New York Times 12/12/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 9:18 pm

Is Your DVD Player About To Be Obsolete? "Tech writers are bracing for a VHS vs. Betamax-style format war, with consumers forced to choose sides or buy two separate, incompatible players. Last week's stumping for HD-DVD, which is sponsored by Toshiba and NEC, can only be read as a pre-emptive effort to make Sony's Blu-ray look like Betamax 2.0—a technology that's doomed to fail because all the movies you want will only be available on its competitor. If Hollywood makes that story come true, consumers won't get a happy ending." Slate 12/09/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 8:46 pm

Podcast - Have It Your Way Niche radio. Anywhere. Any time. That's podcasting. "On terrestrial or satellite radio, one can tune into a dozen formats or maybe even five dozen formats. But with podcasting, everybody is a format of one. Podcasting is just making it easier for this new set of niche listeners and this new set of producers to find each other." Christian Science Monitor 12/10/04
Posted: 12/09/2004 3:54 pm


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Copyright ©
2002 ArtsJournal. All Rights Reserved