Looking For A Right Click In A Left Click World "Our brains work the way our computers work because we made the computers. If the interfaces were at least marginally intuitive, they'd be worthless. Our brains do not crash as often as our computers do; on the other hand, our brains cannot retrieve the primary exports of Albania in .033 seconds... We live in a left-click universe, and what we need is a right-click button. We could figure this whole thing out if we had a right-click button." San Francisco Chronicle 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:56 am
How Do We Reclaim Real Public Discourse? (And Get Away From Talking Points) "We are witnessing a palpable decline in the public’s appetite for nuance, complexity and critical thinking, which in turn has spawned a virulent secular dogmatism and an alarming devolution in both the substance and style of public discourse." InsideHigherEd 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 5:11 pm
What's All This About Diversity? "The belief that cultural diversity, as such, is a valuable thing has taken hold in American society over the past two or three decades — precisely at the time economic inequality has not just increased, but accelerated its growth." InsideHigherEd 09/19/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 5:02 pm
Will Music Give Athletes Unfair Edge? Technology is allowing athletes to tap into the power of music to improve performance. "Technology like running shoes that increase the beat of music in time with a runner's pace and even implantable micro-mp3 players may one day give athletes the winning edge." But "the technology could create a whole new conundrum for sports authorities by making them redefine whether the use of performance enhancing music is cheating." Discovery 09/19/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 4:39 pm
Click here for more Ideas stories...
Young American Art - It's Hot In London Young American art is taking London by storm this autumn – not in the salerooms, but in our public institutions and private galleries where, behind the scenes, a new, potentially volcanic market is bubbling. The Telegraph (UK) 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 8:00 pm
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
The Barbican Finally Earns Some Respect London's Barbican Centre has been famously unpopular with critics and concertgoers ever since it opened, thanks to a monolithic concrete structure and legendarily bad acoustics. But in the last decade, the hall's managing director has made the absolute best of a bad situation, says Norman Lebrecht. "Today, on the eve of the Barbican’s quarter-century and his own final year, [John] Tusa has completed a £34 million pound refit that has remedied the acoustic, simplified the geography and create physical and intellectual cohesion." La Scena Musicale 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 5:54 am
The Evolution Of Orchestra Funding It has long been an article of faith amongst American orchestra musicians that the European orchestra model, under which orchestras are funded primarily by the state, is preferable to the American model, under which most of the money comes from private donors who must be wooed and kept happy. But these days, Europe's model is in trouble, and it is innovative orchestras with enterprising music directors and innovative programming ideas that are raking in the cash. Taipei Times (Taiwan) 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 5:46 am
A Titan Gets With The Times "The sleek, unmistakable Philadelphia Orchestra logo makes its debut on tiny iPod screens today as the orchestra attempts to expand its audience by transmitting itself in miniature. Starting today, the orchestra will offer recordings of live performances unavailable anywhere else. Downloads... will be a third of the cost of a typical compact disc." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 5:31 am
Chicago Lyric Back On The Air? Lyric Opera of Chicago has a new contract with its orchestra musicians, and like several other ensembles around the country, the new deal takes advantage of new union rules to cut labor costs for recording and online distribution. Lyric officials also hope that the new contract will mean a return to weekly radio broadcasts for the company, which has been off the air since 2002. Chicago Tribune 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 5:18 am
Ross: Hunt Lieberson Was The Best It's taken Alex Ross a few months to write about the passing of mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; he couldn't find the words. "She was the most remarkable singer I ever heard. She was incapable of giving a routine performance—I saw her twelve times, and each appearance had something explosively distinctive about it—and her career took the form of a continuous ascent." The New Yorker 09/18/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 6:23 pm
Canadian Opera - Victim Of "Ring" Curse? "Could it be that the Canadian Opera Company's opera house-opening production of the 16-hour epic has its own curse — a medical one? A rising casualty count makes it easy to think so." Toronto Star 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 9:34 am
Click here for more Music stories...
Mpls Libraries On The Brink Minneapolis recently spent millions to build a new central library, designed by architect Cesar Pelli. But the city's library system as a whole is woefully underfunded, and the board that governs it has presented a stark choice between closing 2/3 of the libraries in the system and drastically reducing open hours. "Those choices ought to make the stewards of Minneapolis blush. A solution that better befits a city reputed to be the most literate in America must be found." Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:38 am
On The Hunt For Talent "Where does talent come from? Talent is kissed by God, who remains perversely democratic about it. He bestows talent without moral judgment on both the good and the bad. Poor old Salieri! That upright patron saint of the mediocre could never accept the capricious injustice of it all. Why not him? Why did God choose an idiot savant named Mozart? On the other hand, talent needs luck, the helping hand of Fate." New York Observer 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 6:16 pm
Click here for more Arts Issues stories...
Sven Nykvist, 83 The Oscar-winning filmmaker Sven Nykvist, who was Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer of choice, died in Sweden on Wednesday... Mr. Nykvist won Oscars for cinematography for Bergman’s Cries and Whispers in 1973 and Fanny and Alexander in 1983." The New York Times 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:20 am
Turkish Defamation Case Thrown Out A Turkish court has thrown out charges of "insulting Turkey" brought by a nationalist attorney against novelist Elif Shafak, citing a lack of evidence. Shafak became the latest in a string of writers charged with the dubious crime earlier in the week, with the prosecution claiming that a chapter of her latest book which deals with the Armenian genocide of 1915 was an illegal defamation of her home country. BBC 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:01 am
Kary Schulman, SF's Grant Goddess "For the past quarter century, no other person has meant more to the vitality of the arts in San Francisco, to the amplitude and richness of culture itself here, than this longtime and fondly cherished director of the city's Grants for the Arts program. In a feat of sustained and museum-quality finesse, Schulman has turned City Hall bureaucracy into her own kind of art form." San Francisco Chronicle 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 9:31 am
Click here for more People stories...
Scrappiness Only Takes You So Far One of the original "indie" companies in the now-bustling Twin Cities theatre scene will take its last bows next month. "Fifty Foot Penguin was never afraid to poke a finger in the eye of convention... But, lacking a season subscription base or a cadre of supportive donors, a small theater has to prove itself and its mission with every show." St. Paul Pioneer Press 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:49 am
Click here for more Theatre stories...
Long List Gets Short Shrift Last week, Canada's $40,000 Giller Prize for Literature attempted to amp up the amount of attention it receives from press and public by announcing its first-ever "long list" of nominees. Unfortunately, they chose to release the list while a huge group of Hollywood stars was in town for Toronto's celebrated film festival, and the Giller barely made the back pages. Moreover, some observers are asking why the Giller needs a long list at all. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:27 am
A New York Review Of Books Without Its Founder? "Can The New York Review of Books survive without its founders’ specific genius. political and literary journalism it practices? A typical Review piece runs to 4,000 or 5,000 words, is pitched to readers who often have several advanced degrees, and may contain footnotes. Its intellectual and physical heft—the “Fall Books” issue came in at 100 pages—requires the kind of attention that becomes harder and harder to sustain with every new technological gadget we hitch to our belts or curl around our ears." New York Magazine 09/18/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 5:56 pm
What Your Books Say About You "What interests me about other people's books is the nature of their collection. A personal library is an X-ray of the owner's soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection. There is probably no such thing as complete chaos in such arrangements." Chronicle of Higher Education 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 5:05 pm
Family Decries Memoir As Fraud "The family of a bestselling author whose vivid memoir claims to document a 'hell' of sexual abuse inside a Catholic institution for fallen women denounced the book as a work of fiction yesterday." The Guardian (UK) 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 9:38 am
Click here for more Publishing stories...
SoCal's K-Jazz To Live On Los Angeles's only full-time jazz radio station, which was in danger of leaving the air, has gotten a reprieve courtesy of the California foundation which created it two decades ago. KKJZ is one of only two remaining full-time "classic jazz" stations in the U.S. Los Angeles Times 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:32 am
SNL Loses Five Players In Network Cut Saturday Night Live has been forced to drop five of its sixteen cast members by NBC, with some of the biggest names among those leaving the show. The onetime jewel in NBC's crown has lost audience in recent years, and the network as a whole has plummeted in the ratings, precipitating budget cuts across the board. The New York Times 09/21/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:14 am
Seeing Gold In God 20th Century Fox has launched an offshoot studio which will release Christian-themed films both in cinemas and on DVD. FoxFaith will attempt to capitalize on America's growing evangelical demographic, which it calls "underserved." BBC 09/20/06
Posted: 09/21/2006 6:09 am
Is NPR $225 Million Better? Alex Beam remembers that National Public Radio got $255 million from Joan Kroc's estate. "So what has changed? Two hundred twenty-five million dollars later, public radio certainly hasn't gotten worse. But I don't hear that it has gotten any better." Boston Globe 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 8:13 pm
Click here for more Media stories...
Trockaderos - In On The Joke The Trockaderos have enthusiastic audiences in the US and UK. But "even when audiences know and love the Trocks, different countries look for different things, and react in different ways. London and New York are the easiest audiences, spanning gay and straight punters, dedicated dance fans and ordinary theatre-goers; among them all, every joke and nuance gets appreciated. In dance-obsessed Japan, however, where the group are a national cult, enthusiasm is much more muted." The Guardian (UK) 09/20/06
Posted: 09/20/2006 6:35 pm
Click here for more Dance stories...
