“The shelves of the two leading services, Netflix Instant and Hulu Plus, seem to be full of films you’ve never heard of, arranged in no particular order. The latest hits haven’t arrived yet, and there’s no one around to help you out except for the digital equivalent of the surly, underpaid clerk: those ‘recommended for you’ algorithms that pretend to know your taste but come up with the oddest suggestions imaginable.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
First Novel by American Woman Wins Oldest Book Award In Britain
The James Tait Black Prize for fiction goes to a novel about an American photographer in Vietnam. “Tatjana Soli, a Californian novelist and short story writer, based the story on intense research of the Vietnam War and experience of the immigrant Vietnamese community in her home state.”
Last Gasp For The American Folk Art Museum?
Money troubles have grown so dire that New York’s American Folk Art Museum may dissolve, moving its collections to Brooklyn and the Smithsonian.
20 Percent Pay Cut For Wichita Symphony Musicians
Musicians, who accepted a 4 percent reduction last year and a 10 percent reduction the year before, go for broke with the Wichita Symphony. Worse: “The cut is tougher in light that many of the performers are teachers at Wichita State University or in public schools and have faced salary cuts in their primary jobs as well.”
Amazon Make Deal To Cut Out The Middleman (Uh-Oh For The Publishers)
“The acquisition of a potential print bestseller that could mark a decisive point in publishing. Will authors begin to deal not with agents and commissioning editors, but with the companies that sell their work direct to the public?”
Governments Want To Control Social Media – Why Are We Surprised?
Seth Godin says it’s no surprise control and repression have moved to technology, and even more to the spread of ideas. “Is disconnecting a cell phone or a social network any different from trashing a printing press?”
Why Can’t We Have Nice Stadiums? Lackluster Arena Architecture In The U.S.
“The billion-dollar replacement for legendary Yankee Stadium? A boring clone. The new Citi Field, home to the Mets? It’s stuck in even more of a historicist time-warp, meant to evoke Brooklyn’s old Ebbetts Field practically brick for brick.”
Stealing The Mona Lisa: A Minute By Minute Recreation
“Vincenzo Peruggia breathed in heavily the scent of his sweat as he waited, barely willing to exhale, in the tight, dark closet beside the Salle des Sept Martres gallery in the Louvre. He listened for the footfalls of the guards.”
Ballet Star Heads To New Zealand
American Ballet Theatre star Ethan Stiefel’s peripatetic dance life keeps him busy in New York and Europe. But now he’s headed way, way south to become the artistic director of Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Scholar: Shakespeare Meant For The Tempest To Be A Musical
Prospero: magician and singer-songwriter? A British researcher says that Shakespeare wrote a musical, and that he “should have shared credit for the play with Robert Johnson, a composer and lute player.”