Thursday, May 25
The Power Of Crowds "Just as distributed computing projects like UC Berkeley’s SETI@home have tapped the unused processing power of millions of individual computers, so distributed labor networks are using the Internet to exploit the spare processing power of millions of human brains. The productive potential of millions of plugged-in enthusiasts is attracting the attention of old-line businesses, too. For the last decade or so, companies have been looking overseas, to India or China, for cheap labor. But now it doesn’t matter where the laborers are – they might be down the block, they might be in Indonesia – as long as they are connected to the network." Wired 05/25/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 5:56 am
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The Louvre From On High? What will Atlanta's High Museum deal with the Louvre to borrow artwork look like? Lee Rosenbaum asks the question: "How many of those loans will actually come from the Louvre's A-List? The High is paying top dollar for the cachet of the French museum's imprimatur." But the museum could be sending lesser works by well-known names. "The proof will be in the seeing. But the proliferation of high-rent shows, whereby major museums beef up their budgets at the expense of other museums, seems like the wrong kind of fundraising." CultureGrrl 05/25/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 6:40 am
Cooper-Hewitt Thinks More Modest "A year after exploring a $75 million expansion that would create three new floors underground, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has decided on a relatively modest $25 million renovation that involves little construction." The New York Times 05/25/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 6:32 pm
The China Puzzle "For architects, China is the land of dreams. The construction statistics tantalize. The Chinese consume 54.7 percent of the concrete and 36.1 percent of the steel produced in the world, according to a 2004 report in Architectural Record. Hungry architects are drawn to China by the abundance of economic opportunities. But Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss firm that designed the stadium, doesn't need to drum up business. It has more work than it can handle." And yet, the promise of China is also the problem with China... New York Times Magazine 05/21/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 5:00 pm
Biloxi And The New Urbanism "New Urbanism arose as a reaction to sprawl, the default American landscape of highways lined with strip malls and big-box stores and suburban subdivisions populated by a homogeneous and insulated middle class. The New Urbanists proposed higher-density, pedestrian-friendly communities: old-fashioned neighborhoods with schools and shops, parks and offices, single-family homes and low-income apartment buildings, all mixed together and connected by shady streets and wide sidewalks." But is that what Biloxi wants? New York Times Magazine 05/21/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 4:57 pm
Architecture In The Breach "In recent years, it is architecture more than any other aspect of contemporary culture that has touched the rawest nerves. It was architecture that Saddam Hussein used to consolidate his grip on Iraq. And it was architecture that the Serbs and the Croats deployed in the first stages of their bloody battle over the division of the former Yugoslavia... Often quite wrongly, architecture is equated with political beliefs...
New York Times Magazine 05/21/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 4:52 pm
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If 4 Out Of 5 Prefer African... "Last year, the music magazine fRoots polled what it considered to be the 200 most influential movers and shakers in the music industry (promoters, record companies and journalists) on the best global and folk records of 2005. Four out of the top five records came from West Africa." So why does African music still have a tough time getting into the global mainstream? New Statesman 05/25/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 7:21 am
A Shortage Of Organists "The number of organ students nationwide has fallen sharply since the 1950s, and many churches say they can't find competent musicians to play the hymns, choral accompaniments and solo works that have been a staple of worship services for centuries." Chicago Tribune (AP) 05/25/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 6:46 am
Music Minus One (21st Century Edition) "DreamMusician.com hopes to entice musicians who want to play along to hits by artists like Smash Mouth, Tears For Fears, Rick James and others while pretending they're actually filling in on a given part. The site, which launched earlier this month, sells song downloads for about $2 each and compilations of the same song with different instrumental parts removed starting at about $18." Yahoo! (AP) 05/25/05
Posted: 05/25/2006 5:59 am
New Licensing Scheme Killing UK Live Music? A new venue-licensing regulation in the UK is killing live music in small venues, say musicians. "Reports have been received by Equity branches that the work involved in getting an entertainment license now means many venues have simply stopped using live performers altogether and reverted to using recorded music." TheStage 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 6:09 pm
Is Berlin Tiring Of Rattle? The critics are starting to turn on conductor Simon Rattle, four years into his reign atop the Berlin Philharmonic. He's being accuse of "being boring and predictable, and inducing 'mild despair' in his audiences." The Guardian (UK) 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 6:03 pm
Zukerman: National Arts Center Orchestra Needs New Hall Pinchas Zukerman wants a new hall for Ottawa's National Arts Center Orchestra. "The orchestra needs a new venue because there is not enough space at its current location, Zukerman said. He added that a new building would give the orchestra a new identity and downtown Ottawa some much-needed nightlife. Zukerman said he envisions the new facility to be a world-class building that would have three halls — a 2,000-seater, a 1,200-seater and a 500-seater — as well as an orchestral academy for budding musicians." CBC 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 4:29 pm
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Orlando Thinks Big For Performing Arts Center Plans have been unveiled in Orlando for a massive new performing arts complex. "Drawing on the best features of arts centers around the world, planners envision three performance halls of varying sizes, as well as classrooms and offices. The center would sit on a large courtyard where outdoor concerts and shows would be staged. It would be flanked by private development valued at an estimated $500 million, including offices, hotel rooms, residential towers, restaurants and shops." Orlando Sentinel 05/25/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 7:23 am
Have Critics Lost Their Clout? (The Critic-Proof Project) "By proving just as immune to hostile reviews on the screen as on the page, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether printed and broadcast opinion matters at all. Has our culture now created a sort of genetically modified turkey - the critic-proof product?" The Guardian (UK) 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 5:59 pm
Columbia Campus Vs. The Neighborhood "When Columbia announced its plans to build a much-needed new campus in a corner of Harlem called Manhattanville, it saw a gritty neighborhood of auto-repair shops, tenements and small manufacturers that would probably pose little obstacle to its ambitions. Columbia says that the project will advance a vital public interest and help revitalize parts of Upper Manhattan. Yet the university has met remarkable resistance. One man's urban improvement, it seems, is another man's urban debacle." New York Times Magazine 05/21/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 5:05 pm
Toronto Arts Groups Seek Funding For Buildings From Feds Six major Toronto arts organizations take their case for added funding for building projects to the federal finance minister. "The institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Royal Ontario Museum, are looking for a $49-million investment from the Harper Conservatives to help them complete various building projects." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 4:36 pm
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An Architect Planning The Gulf Coast Andrés Duany is the prophet of new urbanism. "Opponents cast this architect as an imperious enemy of progressive design and a threat to the Gulf Coast, where he has been involved in plans to redesign communities that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina." The New York Times 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 5:45 pm
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Zimbabwe Cracks Down On Playwright Playwrights in Zimbabwe say they are being targeted by the government. "Nervous that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is getting ready to launch a violent campaign to end his 26 years of rule, the head of state has targeted poets, playwrights, satirists - even nightclub stand up comedians - and branded them all as “enemies of the people." TheStage 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 6:14 pm
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Big Read - A Big Chore? So the National Endowment for the Arts is launching a big program to try to get people to read more books. But Sara Nelson wonders if the whole thing doesn't sound too much like homework. "I can't help wondering whether it's the role of the NEA to be the substitute teacher, a stranger granted authority to give a reading assignment. It's like homework. Will even the most well-meaning outreach, participation by individual communities and NEA-provided educational materials really inspire a heretofore reluctant reader to pick up the titles he shunned in high school?" Publishers Weekly 05/15/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 7:33 am
Living And Dying By The Book Superstore Book superstore chains have been putting small bookshops out of business. "Ultimately, though, the greatest vulnerability of chains may be their muscle-bound nature. If print-on-demand technology, though still poky and faintly disreputable, ever achieves the availability and quality of traditional books, the need for overstock returns, remainders, and huge retail spaces may evaporate. Strange to say, someday superstores may be the historical curiosity that indies are now in danger of becoming." Village Voice 05/23/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 7:02 am
Guy Lit Strikes Back Benjamin Kunkel's debut novel, Indecision "is the latest in a spate of books that have collectively been dubbed "lad lit," the male riposte to "chick lit" — that juggernaut spearheaded by Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary in 1996, which sold two million copies and spawned both a sequel and a companion book, two films, and countless imitators. Each of the recent lad novels is a sort of anti-bildungsroman, in which a sardonic, clever, unapologetic slacker refuses to grow up, get a meaningful job, commit to relationships, or find any meaning in life." Chronicle of Higher Education 05/26/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 4:16 pm
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Supersized Costs - Studio Pulls Plug On Expensive Comedy Fox pulls the plug on filming a comedy that was to have cost $112 to make. "At an over-$100 million budget, the talent is making $60 million before the studio can recoup its costs. The economics on it make no sense." The New York Times 05/25/06
Posted: 05/25/2006 5:47 am
ITV Opposes BBC Rate Hike The British commercial TV network ITV is opposing the increase the BBC is asking in the home license fee. "The BBC has asked the government for a rise of 2.3% above inflation for the next seven years, meaning the licence could rise to £180 by 2013. But an independent report commissioned by ITV argues the corporation needs a licence fee - currently £131.50 - rising only at the rate of inflation." BBC 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 4:24 pm
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Troubled Dance Theatre Of Harlem Gets $1 Million From Ford "The Ford Foundation grant will fund the DTH School and Dancing Through Barriers, its education and community outreach program. Over the next four years, the DTH School will develop and implement a strategic recruitment plan, augment its curriculum to offer more robust training and artistic experiences including guest faculty and choreographers for its students. It will also formulate a comprehensive K-12 curriculum for use in rendering its education activities and residencies in New York City and around the world." Yahoo! 05/24/06
Posted: 05/24/2006 6:23 pm
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