“If there is an art market equivalent of a blue-chip stock, it is a major impressionist painting. History suggests that there will be a reliable return on it over the years. It is a lesson not lost on today’s buyers.”
Tag: 01.31.09
Israel’s Ban On Performing Wagner Likely To Last
“The Wagner ban is said to be unpopular among Israeli musicians, and two prominent conductors, Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta, have sought on more than one occasion to scrap it. Yet it remains in force nonetheless, and Mr. Stern’s statement suggests that it will continue to be for some time to come.”
Don’t Write Off Inaugural Poet Just Yet
“Despite having offered bland and distractable universalism on the day that the world was watching, Elizabeth Alexander has developed a strongly polyvocal poetics over the course of her career.”
John Updike – Last Man Standing
Updike was “America’s last true man of letters, an all-purpose writer and a custodian of literary culture. He wrote more, and in more different genres — stories, novels, poems, essays, reviews, occasional journalism — than anyone since Henry James, and it’s hard to imagine how he can be replaced. Who has the energy, or the eyeballs, for that much reading?”
Why Radio Continues To Be Popular
“Radio wins more listeners each year. Using only sound, radio stretches the imagination and makes the listener its partner. A humble plastic box can introduce you to writers, ideas, arguments, facts, music and atmospheres you might not encounter in two lifetimes. Speech radio, in particular, is a curious medium: more vivid than print, bringing ambient noise and atmosphere, conveying tones and breaths and hesitations and tension in the voice.”
Podcasting Proves A Hit For Novels
“It seems a ripe time for novel podcasting to grow. Traditional book publishers are struggling. Book sales are down Unlike audiobooks, novel podcasts are truncated into segments and may include ambient sounds, music as well a cast of voices playing different characters.The success of novels is democratically decided: word of mouth leads to more downloads.”