The author of All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and No Country for Old Men edited a new biography, by his friend Lawrence M. Krauss, of physicist Richard Feynman. McCarthy’s advice? Remove all exclamation points and semicolons.
Tag: 02.16.12
Reed Elsevier Fights Back Against Academic Boycott Of Its Journals
CEO Erik Engstrom: “We are taking the petition very seriously and we are engaging with our stakeholders to better understand and address their concerns … All [objections] … are based on misstatements or misunderstandings of the fact.”
When Did ‘Downton Abbey’ Jump The Shark? (And What’s The Deal With The Batman, Anyway?)
“Certain values the earl represents (benevolent paternalism toward employees, for instance, or the ability to see when his own inherited attitudes have become outdated and inappropriate) have been carefully chosen. And it is noticeable that the aristocrats in the series, even the ones who are supposed to be the most ridiculous, never lapse into the most offensive kind of upper-class drawl one would expect of them.”
The Orchestra As Multimedia Experience
“Is multimedia the breakthrough orchestras have been looking for to attract new audiences – as supertitles were for opera 25 years ago? Audiences have shown little resistance to visual elements incorporated into the Houston Symphony’s concerts, orchestra CEO Mark Hanson said. Yet other factors complicate the question.”
Humans May Have Parallel Moral Systems
“Why do we sometimes wrestle with moral dilemmas? A twist on a classic psychology experiment suggests that our minds have two parallel moral systems, and they don’t always agree.”
Opposition To Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial Going McCarthyite?
Christopher Knight calls out a conservative group whose campaign against Gehry’s very un-Neoclassical design for the monument includes, as Knight sees it, guilt by association and smears against an artist whom Gehry used as a consultant regarding the memorial’s sculpture.
Julie Taymor And Spider-Man Producers Reach Partial Settlement
“As part of the settlement, the producers said they have agreed to pay Taymor full royalties for her services as director of the New York production. … The settlement also provides for other payments to Taymor as a ‘collaborator’ when the show’s New York production recoups its investment.”
Should We Just Do Away With Black History Month?
Documentary filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman (yes, he’s African-American) suggests that Black History Month is “a double-edged sword that ghettoizes black stories into the shortest month of the year and discourages further attention on them in the remaining months.”
The Joy Of A Great, Big, Expertly Seasoned, Scenery-Chewing Ham
Charles Isherwood on Kevin Spacey as Richard III: “So while there is nary an understated note struck in the performance, those three-plus hours flew by mighty quickly. I can’t say I entirely respected Mr. Spacey’s endlessly ingratiating performance, but I definitely enjoyed it, as you enjoy indulging in something that you know is bad for you but cannot resist.”
A Need For Curators to Run Museums…
Who will “succeed the 60 or so Âdirectors planning to retire by 2019? Instead of candidates steeped in the ethos of museums, the top jobs would increasingly go to people drawn from the business world.”