Britain and Switzerland get together to talk about the traffic of stolen cultural goods. “Governments need to raise the profile of cultural goods to the same level of priority as tobacco, arms and alcohol,” and greater enforcement of borders is key.
Tag: 02.11.04
Promoting Classical Music On Its Strengths
“Rock music, to adopt Nietzsche’s famous distinction, is perceived as alluringly Dionysian – a surrender to instinct and emotion, an invitation to the orgiastic. Classical music, on the other hand, has become purely Apollonian: it represents restraint, structure, order and discipline.” But, writes Rupert Christiansen, the way to incite the passions about classical music isn’t to hip it up. Rather, play to the strengths…
NY Nannies Get Tossed By Publisher
“Last week that Random House canceled the second novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, the authors of the phenomenally best-selling The Nanny Diaries. As news began filtering out that the newly reconfigured little Random had canceled the reported-to-be $3 million contract, phones all over town started to ring. ‘Random House wants its money back,’ people said. ‘The book is a disaster!’ It may come as a shock to those who work in more normal businesses, but this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day.”
Bragging Rights For Hockey
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will unveil Thursday a 137-year-old painting it claims is visual proof that Canada’s national past-time was first played in Nova Scotia. ‘There is quite a debate. There are tonnes of written records of hockey and hurley and all these others claims, but … to our knowledge there’s no one else who has an earlier visual record of hockey being played’.”
Beyond Ratings (Or Something Else)
A senior BBC official says that traditional ratings measures are inadequate, and different means should be found to determine the success of shows. “This new measure should have the ambition to get closer to our audiences, understanding what really has impact for them – what they think, feel and care about. I know it’s a huge task, but Ofcom should design something to meaningfully challenge the tyranny of overnights.”