“A master printmaker whose self-effacing style and virtuosic command of traditional techniques coaxed the best out of European artists including Picasso, Braque and Matisse, and later helped younger American artists like Jim Dine and Jasper Johns express their visions on paper.”
Tag: 01.29.08
40-Somethings – There’s A Reason You Get Depressed
“People are most likely to become depressed in middle age, according to a worldwide study of happiness. The team of economists leading the work found that we are happiest towards the beginning and end of our lives, leaving us most miserable in middle years between 40 and 50.”
Can’t Tell These Books By Their Covers (Really)
Flapart is “fake book covers that feature tongue-in-cheek titles such as The Nutritional Benefits of Nose-Picking and Laser Eye Surgery at Home. The intentionally controversial dust jackets can either be used as an innovative form of gift wrapping, or simply as a way of striking up conversation during an otherwise mundane commute to work.”
Real Progress In Writers” Strike?
“The guild agreed last week to take proposals to unionize animation and reality TV writers — demands that contributed to December’s abrupt collapse — off the table. That left new-media compensation as the major hurdle to overcome.”
TV Network Ratings Plunge With Full Impact Of Writers’ Strike
The top five English-language broadcasters were down a collective 21% in adults 18-49 vs. the corresponding week of a year ago, according to Nielsen. (In most weeks earlier this season, that falloff was closer to 10%.)
Writers’ Strike – A Glimmer Of Hope, And Then…
“SAG muddied the picture Tuesday by blasting the DGA’s two-week-old tentative deal, prompting an immediate rebuke of SAG’s leaders by DGA president Michael Apted. SAG’s dismissal of the DGA deal may dash hopes that the directors pact would serve as a template for a WGA deal and get the scribes back to work in the next few weeks.”
Arts Education – Against All Odds
“The Center on Education Policy survey found that U.S. students have been spending more time on math and reading and less on other subjects since 2001. The 2007 report, which examined how No Child Left Behind had affected curriculum and instructional time, showed that 16% of districts surveyed had reduced class time for art and music.”
Martin Amis – Misanthrope Or Freedom Fighter?
Martin Amis’s critics claim he is devolving into his father, the scowling, spitting misanthrope who somehow distilled the spirit of the 1950s into his novel Lucky Jim. Kingsley was, towards the end of his life, a militant defender of the Vietnam War and a harrumphing foe of feminism, and said of apartheid South Africa: “You should shoot as many blacks as possible.”
Movie Industry Goofed On College Downloading (So Where’s The Apology?)
“We also have to admire the MPAA’s arrogance. The MPAA now asserts that college students account for 15 percent rather than 44 percent of the P2P piracy affecting the motion picture industry. However the press release says nothing — not a word — about the source of the other ’85 percent’ of the P2P piracy that affects the industry’s revenues, the activities of “civilians” who use consumer broadband services.”
Democratic Music (It’s All How You Listen)
“The passive listening paradigm is a really important metaphor for being able to allow other viewpoints into your thought process, and as such is fundamental to the survival of democracy.”