“The gestation of the [8th] symphony may have been long and troubled, but Sibelius had, at various times, referred to his manuscript as ‘brilliant,’ ‘a great work in the making,’ a piece that would have been ‘the reckoning of [his] whole existence.’ For so long, he had had but one desire: to finish the piece before drifting off ‘to the final silence.’ Why, then, did Sibelius destroy such a highly anticipated and promising work? This remains one of the most perplexing questions in all of music history.”
Tag: 02.29.16
The Long Legacy Of James Baldwin
“James Baldwin realized that while he ‘loved’ his country, he ‘could not respect it.’ He wrote that he ‘could not, upon my soul, be reconciled to my country as it was.’ To survive he would have to find an exit.”
Seriously? Anish Kapoor Thinks He Owns The Rights To A Color?
“Painters are outraged that Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor who designed the blood-red Orbit tower for the London Olympics, has exclusive rights to the artistic use of this revolutionary new colour. NanoSystems has confirmed that he alone can paint it Vantablack.”
Losing Yourself In The Cloud – And Getting Yourself Back
“The underlying concern with the Internet is not whether it will fragment our attention spans or mold our minds to the bit-work of modernity. In the end, it will likely do both. The deeper question is what can be done when we realize that we want some control over the exchange between our brains and the Web.” James McWilliams proposes an answer to that question.
Surviving An Honor Killing: The Story Behind The Oscar-Winning Documentary Short
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, director of A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, explains how the subject of her film came to be shot in the face and hand, put in a bag and thrown into a river; how she survived, and what she was coerced into doing afterward.
‘The World’s First Feature-Length Painted Animation’: A Van Gogh Biopic Told With His Own Paintings And Letters
“Loving Vincent … brings together the skills of over 100 painters trained specifically to mimic van Gogh’s own technique and brushstrokes, with each frame composed of actual, hand-painted artworks.”
Google’s Computers Are Now Creating Art. And People Are Buying
“If you feed enough photos of your uncle to a neural net, it can learn to recognize your uncle. That’s how Facebook identifies faces in all those photos you upload. Now, with an art “generator” it calls DeepDream, Google has turned these neural nets inside out. They’re not recognizing images. They’re creating them.”
The DC-Lobbyists-Talk-Books-With-A-Congressman Book Club
“The private event, which is run by the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, is a little-known fundraising vehicle where lobbyists for Wall Street banks, insurance companies and accounting firms gather monthly to discuss literature with a Republican panel member.” You don’t have to have read the book, and yes, of course they’ve done Atlas Shrugged.
Actor George Kennedy, 91
“In a career spanning more than 175 films and television credits, Mr. Kennedy was among the most dependable and versatile performers in Hollywood. Whether malevolent, earnest or serving as comic relief, he held his corner of the screen opposite charismatic movie stars including Cary Grant, Paul Newman, John Wayne and James Stewart.”
International Criminal Court Opens First Trial For Cultural Destruction
“In the first case of its kind, the alleged Malian jihadi leader Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi … is charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague with razing nine mausoleums and the 15th-century Sidi Yahia mosque in Timbuktu in northern Mali.”