“Compared with other animals, humans have a very unusual pattern to our lives. We take a very long time to grow up, we are long-lived, and most of us stop reproducing halfway through our lifespan.” Middle age “adds two healthy decades after the babies stop appearing – two decades which most other animals simply do not get.”
Tag: 03.08.12
Why Universal’s Takeover Of EMI Is Bad For Music
“Warner Music has tried to buy EMI more than once in the past decade, but was prevented from doing so by regulators. So why would they approve a merger between EMI and the much bigger label Universal? Because of piracy, apparently. Universal claims that due to the decline in recorded music revenue EMI needs investment – and the merger will provide it. But will it?”
Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin – Did It Shape Opinion?
“Did Fey’s spot-on mimicry affect how the rest of us viewed her? Newly published research suggests it did — to the detriment of her party. It finds young adults who watched the NBC comedy series’ Palin parodies were more likely than non-viewers to hold negative views of her.”
Las Vegans Are Really Happy About Their New Arts Complex
“You can almost hear timpani rumbling and horns ablaze when the Smith Center for the Performing Arts is mentioned in the Valley. Clouds part. Angels sing. People who were lost are found. … Not even a multibillion-dollar casino, promising new jobs and more tourists, can elicit such emotion within locals who are pinning community hopes on Downtown’s stately limestone centerpiece.”
Movie Industry And Older Viewers Finally Find Each Other
“A quiet revolution is afoot: older people are flocking to cinemas. But they don’t care for special effects. They want big characters, grown-up dramas and tales of late-blooming love. And so Hollywood’s changing its game …”
Seiji Ozawa To Take Another Year-Long Hiatus
“The 76-year-old maestro, who underwent surgery for esophageal cancer in 2010 and was treated for a hernia last year, had planned to conduct four concerts in Japan from March 17 but had decided to cancel the performances.”
Tablet Computers Transform The Art World
“During the latest Art Basel [fair], a collector agreed to buy a $250,000 painting – while sitting in a hair salon in Los Angeles, looking at the work on her tablet. These days, anyone with an iPad can create their own Damien Hirst painting, thanks to an app from the Gagosian Gallery … Some museum and gallery apps allow visitors to zoom in on a work for a closer look than they would get with the naked eye.”
Planned Ground Zero Arts Center Hires First Staffer
“Roughly two months after a board was named to create a performing-arts center at the World Trade Center, the institution has passed two important milestones: It has been granted nonprofit status and hired its first staffer to help bring the institution into being. The new hire is Maggie Boepple, a former president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.”
Facebook Co-Founder Buys The New Republic
“The newest owner of The New Republic magazine is Chris Hughes, a new-media guru who co-founded Facebook and helped to run the online organizing machine for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.”
How Gerhard Richter Became The Top-Selling Living Artist
“Last year, his works sold at auction for a total of $200 million, according to auction tracker Artnet – more than any other living artist and topping last year’s auction totals for Claude Monet, Alberto Giacometti and Mark Rothko combined.”