Newsman To Publishers: Fact-Checking Isn’t That Hard

If the publishing world ever wants to get away from the seemingly perpetual literary frauds that have left it with egg on its face over the past several years, says Bob Thompson, it simply must get past the silly idea that fact checking is too cumbersome a process for publishers to engage in. If your memoirist is claiming to have lived with a pack of wolves to escape Nazi oppression, for instance, you might want to make a phone call or two.

Met Unveils New Season With Nod To Its Past

New York’s Metropolitan Opera is planning a gala performance in March 2009 to celebrate the company’s 125th birthday. The 2008-09 season will also include a new production of John Adams’s “Dr. Atomic,” five other new productions, and an expansion of the Met’s popular digital simulcasts in movie theaters worldwide.

The Growing Allure Of The 5-String

String instruments have four strings. They just do. Any standard string instrument with more or less than four strings is either a gimmick or broken. But wait: 5-string violins (which have the four violin strings plus a viola’s C,) are gaining popularity among teachers, fiddlers, and any number of other serious musicians.

What You Just Said Is The Opposite Of True

To many close observers of the London music scene, the UK culture minister’s decision to attack the BBC Proms as unfriendly and inaccessibly seems, if not actually offensive, certainly bizarre. “Over more than two months, the Proms provide the most sustainedly accessible high-quality musical festival anywhere. They are just about the most inappropriate target in the world of subsidised classical music.”