“Not everyone is ready for this dance company that calls itself Gimp and its members with undeveloped or amputated limbs, and bodies beset with physical challenges.”
Tag: 03.17.09
The Magazine Business: Not As Bad Off As You Think
“It’s not that magazines are dying; it’s that magazines that were created solely for advertising or market-share purposes are… [But] the current downturn can be good for publishers. Magazines still offer an unsurpassed ability to marry literary ambitions with deep reporting, photography, and visual design.”
Alan W. Livingston, The Man Behind Bozo, The Beatles And Bonanza, Dead At 91
An entertainment executive with a gift for launching the right idea at the right time, Livingston signed the Beatles to Capitol Records, wrote the songs in which Bozo the Clown and Tweety-Bird were born, paired Frank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle, and co-created the long-running Western series Bonanza.
Planning A New, Sustainable Paris
“The results of a nine-month study commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the [ten] proposals aim to transform Paris and its surrounding suburbs into the first sustainable ‘post-Kyoto city,’ a reference to the treaty on climate change, with an expanded Métro system and sprawling new parks.”
The Most Expensive Piano Ever?
It’s a Bosendorfer. “A well-heeled buyer could take it home — or one just like it — for a cool $1.2 million. That reportedly makes it the most expensive new limited-edition grand piano available.”
Tweet By Tweet, A Crime Novel Only Slightly Abridged
“Faber author R.N. Morris is serialising a slightly abridged version of his 2007 crime novel A Gentle Axe in bite-sized chunks via regular updates on Twitter. … Morris updates his Twitter account ‘a few times a day’ and followers can send him questions about the book, which he then responds to.”
For A Refreshing Read, Dip Into Another Language
“Ever get tired of reading in English? There’s something limiting — imprisoning almost — in being stuck with your native tongue all the time. … If you can read in another language, doing so gives you a break from the idioms and constructions that swirl through your head all day long.”
To Memory Nothing Is Ever Really Lost (Except When It Is)
“For researchers who study memory, the ease with which people forget jokes is one of those quirks, those little skids on the neuronal banana peel, that end up revealing a surprising amount about the underlying architecture of memory. And there are plenty of other similarly illuminating examples of memory’s whimsy and bad taste — like why you may forget your spouse’s birthday but will go to your deathbed remembering every word of the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ theme song.”
Anne Brown, Gershwin’s Original Bess, Dies At 96
“Anne Brown, a penetratingly pure soprano who literally put the Bess in ‘Porgy and Bess’ by inspiring George Gershwin to expand that character’s part in a folk opera that originally was to be called ‘Porgy,’ died Friday in Oslo. … Even after winning the Margaret McGill prize as the best singer at Juilliard, she had no hope in those days of reaching the top tiers of opera,” due to racial discrimination. So the Baltimore-born singer moved to Norway, where she became a citizen.
Danish Museum Resists Italy’s Bid For Artifacts’ Return
“The Italian government has successfully brokered deals with American museums and private collectors for the return of what it says are looted antiquities. But it is finding the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum in Copenhagen, harder to crack. … At the core of the dispute are Etruscan and Greco-Roman objects that the Glyptotek bought from Robert Hecht, an American antiquities dealer now on trial in Rome….”