“More than 3,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister ‘to ensure that all members of the public have continued, free and open access to the complete historic and valuable musical instrument collection,'” which the museum is to break up to increase room for the fashion collection.
Tag: 02.01.10
Uh, Tech Companies? Women Don’t Need Stuff To Be Pink
“Diamond encrusted phones, pink fairy princess laptops, pink headphones… The list goes on. … So why do technology companies still think the way to attract women is to ‘pink it and shrink it’? How do we put an end to the genderisation of technology?”
Time To Ban Accents From The Theatre Stage?
“A bad accent makes the suspension of disbelief a real effort for the audience because we start thinking about how the line is said, rather than the line itself. And the moment we become irritated by a poor accent, we start noticing all sorts of other deficiencies in the production – the hubris of celebrity casting, for example.”
Edmonton Gets A New Museum
“The $88-million gallery was redesigned by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout. It has double the exhibition space of the former gallery.”
The Year The Booker Prize Lost Itself
“The date on which the award was given was also moved from April to November, creating a gap when a wealth of 1970 fiction could not be eligible. Among the big names in the running for the Lost Man Booker – which will be awarded in May – are Iris Murdoch, David Lodge, Muriel Spark, Joe Orton, Melvyn Bragg, HE Bates, JG Farrell, Ruth Rendell, Nina Bawden, Brian Aldiss and Susan Hill.”
The Top-Selling Movies Of All Time (Sorta)
“Of the top 25 grossing films of all time on Hollywood.com’s U.S. box-office ranking, 18 were released in the past decade. Adjust the totals for higher admission prices mainly due to inflation, and “Avatar” would be the only one of those 18 to make the list–at No. 24, as of Thursday.”
Amazon Gives In To Macmillan On E-Book Pricing
“Amazon [had] shocked the publishing world late last week by removing direct access to the Kindle editions as well as printed books from Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest publishers, which had said it planned to begin setting higher consumer prices for e-books.” By Sunday evening, the online retailer relented, agreeing to restore Macmillan titles “even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”
Do We Take The Arts Too Seriously?
“Art is often discussed in reverent tones, we invest in it, create daunting palaces for it. … The idea that seriousness is somehow a measure of value and that art needs to be treated seriously all the time is a weird one. Much of the time, people value things that make them laugh, cry, scream, think or [get] inspired – much more than they value the worthy and the serious.”
Five Stages Of Dying? Sure. Five Stages Of Grief? Not So Much.
“Perhaps the stage theory of grief caught on so quickly because it made loss sound controllable. The trouble is that it turns out largely to be a fiction, based more on anecdotal observation than empirical evidence. … In On Grief and Grieving, [Elisabeth Kübler-Ross] insisted that the stages were ‘never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages.’ If her injunction went unheeded, perhaps it is because the messiness of grief is what makes us uncomfortable.”