It all started when Sir Roger Norrington, an advocate of the “musical authenticity” movement, ordered that Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory – nearly the de facto national anthem – be played without vibrato. This, for the Proms’ nationally revered final night on September 13…
Author: French Clements
Against Studios’ Wishes, the Go-Ahead for a New DVR
In a reversal of a ruling that favored film and TV studios, Cablevision may now introduce its contested digital video recorder. The new model stores programs on the company’s servers, instead of in a customer’s set, eliminating expensive hardware. “The ruling could have a huge impact on the relationship between pay-TV operators and programmers, who are concerned that cheaper DVR functionality will lead to accelerating advertising viewership losses.”
Finding Context for Solzhenitsyn’s Message
“What link can we find to a figure like Solzhenitsyn today? The left compares America’s holding of enemy detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere to the Gulag…” John McCain, also a victim of internment, might disagree. According to one editorial, he “clearly comprehends the impact of Solzhenitsyn’s writings, of the power of words, of art, and of truth.”
Star Architects Ponder Ethics Of Designing In A Totalitarian State
Says Rem Koolhaas, when it comes to working in China: “‘a position of resistance seems somehow ornamental – that it is egotistical to think that the government cares what you, as an architect, think about its human-rights or environmental record and might change its policies accordingly.”
What’s Wrong With “West Side Story”?
Plenty, writes theatre critic Geoffrey Wheatcroft. He doubts its status as the great American musical, in score, lyrics, and plenty more: “these prosperous bourgeois liberals conjuring up the life of teenage gangs have all of Steinbeck’s little-man-where-art-thou condescension.”
Time, Inc. To Make Movies Ripped From The Headlines
“While some of the film deals are expected to derive from new stories in Time Inc. mags, the architects also hope to leverage the conglom’s historical assets through archived articles and photos from Time and Life that date back to 1923, including some of the most famous photographs of the last century. The company publishes 120 magazines globally and generates up to 3,000 articles each month; the venture gets a first look at all of those articles.”
A New Kind Of Playground?
David Rockwell usually builds playgrounds for adults – high-end restaurants, theatre sets and expensive stores. But, he wondered, is there a way to rethink the traditional children’s playground? His first project “will forswear slides and jungle gyms and instead employ an open multilevel space with large sand and water features, dams, cables, pulleys and an array of ‘loose parts’ — toys and tools that kids can use to alter the environment.”
This Year, TV Advertising Set To Overtake Newspaper Ads
But not for long: Web ads are hot on the heels of broadcast television. “Internet advertising will boast an 18.9% compound annual growth rate from 2007-12, compared with 2.6% for broadcast TV and negative 2.8% for newspapers,” according to a study.
An Important Lebanese Festival Makes A Comeback
In its heyday in the 1960s and 70s, Lebanon’s Baalbek festival attracted visitors from around the world. Stars like Ella Fitzgerald, Herbert von Karajan and the Lebanese singer Fairuz performed here. But in 2006, the festival was cancelled as war broke out between Israeli and the Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah.
The World’s Ten Oddest Travel Guides
Wordsworth wrote a travel book? It’s true. Others on the list include the Lonely Planet Guide to Micronations, “a meditation on just what it is that drives people to want to get away, even if only for a few square meters, from the hassles and history of the land they were born into.”