“Cephas was a big deal in the blues world – one of the very last exponents of true, traditional acoustic blues. In 1987, he and harp player Phil Wiggins won the Handy Award for blues entertainer of the year – an unheard-of honor for a traditional blues act. Two years later, Cephas received an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, a sort of living treasure award for American folk artists.”
Tag: 03.05.09
In Washington, A New Orchestra For A New Market
The D.C. Philharmonic will make its debut in April with a substantial program of Torke, Barber and Mahler. “And according to [founding conductor] John Baltimore… the ensemble will represent a new model for orchestras, funding itself by turning to a market he describes as ‘untapped.’ – ‘You just don’t find this level of educated upper-middle-class African American income anywhere else in the United States.'”
The Inverse Of Dead Man Walking?
“[The] compelling new documentary Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead, … which follows the relationship between Robert Blecker, a vociferous, hyperactive proponent of the death penalty, and Daryl Holton, a death row inmate in Tennessee, attempts to isolate capital punishment’s ethical core from the mille feuille layers of nuance that surround the practice.”
Wait, Isn’t The Books Biz Supposed To Be Shrinking?
“Just a month after announcing a restructuring that led to layoffs and the shuttering of an entire division, HarperCollins Publishers hopes to jazz up its book lists by opening a new imprint.” It Books will focus “on pop culture, sports, style and content derived from the Internet, like a planned collection of Twitter posts called Twitter Wit.“
Now We Know That Comics Have Made The Mainstream
“[T]oday The [New York] Times introduces three separate lists of the best-selling graphic books in the country: hardcover, softcover, and manga. We’ll update those lists weekly in this space, and offer a few observations along the way.”
A Kiri A Day Keeps The Riff-Raff Away
Once again, classical music proves its usefulness: “New Zealand opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has been credited by a local mayor with keeping vandals away from his city centre because they find her singing ‘bloody hideous’.” (In Christchurch, NZ, officials are planning to use Barry Manilow for a similar purpose.)
Are Women Funny? Sigh. Must We Go Through This Again?
“‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another act. Now, it is a girl, so be nice because she could be a bit … well, crap.’ No, it’s not a comedy routine, but a true introduction I’ve been given on stage before my act. It’s an attitude female standups have come to expect from insecure, chauvinistic hacks with little talent. But from Germaine Greer? Whatever happened to sisterhood?”
Barnes & Noble Buys E-Book Retailer Fictionwise
“What kind of role Barnes & Noble will play in the digital future became a little clearer this morning with the retailer’s announcement that it has acquired Fictionwise, one of the largest independent e-book retailers, for $15.7 million plus incentives over the next two years for achieving certain performance targets.”
War And Peace? Sure, I Read That. Twice!
“George Orwell’s 1984 and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace are among the books people are most likely to have lied about reading, according to a poll. Two out of three people admitted lying about reading a particular book to impress someone, the survey released to mark World Book Day found.”
With Website Redesign, MoMA Aims To Open Up
“MoMA’s new site, which makes its debut on Friday, is an almost complete reconstruction of how the museum presents itself online” as well as an attempt “to transform how the public interacts with an institution that can sometimes seem forbidding and monolithic.” Among other things, it will “include what its designers call a ‘social bar’ at the bottom, which when clicked will expand to show images and other information that users can ‘collect’ and share.”