Category: issues

A new study says that through multi-tasking, Americans have essentially created the 30-hour day. “According to the study, this group of multi-taskers spends most of its leisure time with media and entertainment, or about 4.7 hours a day. But factor in simultaneous activity and it’s jacked up to 7.6 hours – that is, for instance, for 2.9 of those 4.7 actual hours, the average American simultaneously reads magazines and watches TV, or listens to CDs and sends e-mail.” – Inside.com

A recent decision by the Korean government to open its door to Japanese culture have put the “local industries concerned on alert.” The biggest causes for alarm appear to be pop music, software games, television…and “Japanimations” – several of which already have “cult” followings in Korea. – Korea Times

“Virtual” education seems like such a good idea. But what about the quality of the learning.  “Many ‘virtual universities’ are little more than degree mills making millions of dollars selling dubious qualifications to the gullible.” – Sydney Morning Herald

Korean businessmen are learning a new word in French: “mecenat” –  meaning “the patronage of culture and the arts.” In an attempt to improve their corporate image and give support to the arts, private corporations have increased their donations by 50% since 1998. – Korea Herald

Everyone talks about the overload of information, the swamp of media overload we find ourselves in the middle of as we enter the 21st Century. “I would like to dispute this view, to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that communication systems have always shaped events.” – New York Review of Books

The chairman of the Arts Council of England  says there’s a crisis in British theatre. “British theatre is living in the past and is failing to attract young people,” he says, and called on the government to pour an extra £100 million into the arts to help solve some of the problems.  – The Independent (UK)

Almost 500 years after Leonardo da Vinci first put the concept down on paper, a British daredevil tests Leonardo’s parachute – and to the surprise of skeptics, floats “almost one and a half miles down from a hot air balloon. Ignoring warnings that it would never work, he built the 187lb contraption of wooden poles, canvas and ropes from a simple sketch that Da Vinci had scribbled in a notebook in 1485.” – The Guardian

As actors increasingly lash our at critics after receiving negative reviews (Donald Sutherland and Kelsey Grammer, most recently), the role of the critic – and arts journalism in general – is being widely debated. Should a critic be a neutral mediator of experience? Or a subjective arbiter of taste? “The critic is not a straw-poll merchant, a tipster or a second-guesser of audience taste, simply an individual paid to record his or her reaction. Throughout history this has been a source of creative tension between artists and critics.” – The Guardian

The Library of Congress has been expanding its services to the public. That has some in the US Congress wondering if the Congress is being slighted. Congressional testimony Tuesday takes an unexpected turn to focus on where the library’s allegiances are – to the legislators or the public? For every $1 of federal funds allotted for digital expansion and new programs, the library raises $3 of private funds. But, “if push ever comes to shove, the library will honor its commitment to Congress.” – Washington Post

A Carolina startup is offering customers the ability to buy their concert tickets online and print them at home. “The company provides its software for free to venues, allowing businesses to sell tickets online. Consumers are then able to immediately print their tickets after the purchase using any standard printer. Each ticket comes with its own 2D barcode.” – Wired