“The site activates your webcam automatically; when you click “start” you’re suddenly staring at another human on your screen and they’re staring back at you, at which point you can either choose to chat (via text or voice) or just click “next,” instantly calling up someone else. The result is surreal on many levels.”
Tag: 02.05.10
Bolshoi Ballet Returns To Cuba After Three Decades
“Members of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet will perform in Havana’s Karl Marx theater next week in their first appearance on the island in 30 years.” The Russian dancers’ appearance alongside the Cuban National Ballet at Havana’s international book fair is “part of a renewal of relations between Cuba and Russia.”
TV Viewers Crave Action, Not Necessarily Violence
An Indiana Univ. study of 400 college students found that viewers preferred versions of programs with the violence edited out to versions with violence included. What they liked was action and suspense. “Suspenseful, nonviolent content is again just as arousing, but without the aversive reaction”
Why Are There So Few Female Magicians?
It’s “an intriguing question, especially in an age when women are more likely to participate in comedy, acting, sports and music.” Respondents – 220 male and seven female – to a survey of magicians consider possible answers.
The USA’s Sixty Biggest Donors
Arts givers in 2009’s top 10: Michael Bloomberg (No. 4), Louise Dieterle Nippert (No. 5) and Eli and Edythe Broad (No. 7).
Broadway Surprise: Backers Haven’t Backed Away
“Looking ahead, the faces of those swimming in the investor pool have changed, but basically the same number of check writers are afloat. Says producer Roger Berlind (‘A Little Night Music’), ‘There are more producers above the line who are enthusiastically contributing — no shortage of people playing that role.'”
Obama Names Chuck Close, Jhumpa Lahiri To Arts Panel
Newly appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Chuck Close and Jhumpa Lahiri “will become the first visual artist and writer on an advisory panel weighted with actors and business people.”
What’s An E-Book Worth?
“The question of whether e-book prices should be significantly lower than their print analogs has become a fundamental divide in a simmering dispute between book publishers and the 800-pound-gorilla that is Amazon.com. In part the issue is about consumer choices but like the other digitization wars which preceded it — and continue — in music, television, film and even news, it’s also about ensuring that a creative industry survives.”
The People Versus George Lucas
“The upcoming movie The People vs. George Lucas gives disgruntled Star Wars fans a chance to vent their frustrations about the direction the franchise has taken over the years. Thousands of fans submitted video clips for the crowdsourced film, which will have its world premiere this March at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.”
British Library To Post 65,000 E-Books
“While some other services, such as Google Books, offer out-of-copyright works to be downloaded for free, users of the British Library service will be able to read from pages in the original books in the library’s collection.”