Arguably, science has never been more important in our lives. “Science offers a way of finding out about, and changing, the world around you. As such, it is increasingly central to all our lives. It touches everything that we hold dear, from communication, to nutrition, to reproduction – and now promises to take us into a strange world of cyberspace, biotechnology and nanoscience. The pride and scorn for science, that saw most people through the 20th-century, is now giving way to fear. Why the change? Jargon and methodology, more than ever, are raising the wall between the cognoscenti and Everyone Else.”
Tag: 04.10.03
Workers Want Art, Music In Workplace
A new survey of workers in the UK suggests that “60 percent of employees feel that music or art in the workplace would prove both motivational and inspirational. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents – who either worked full-time or part-time – said that they would like to see art in their workplace, however, only 48 percent said that their employer invested in workplace art.”
Johnny On The Spot – The Perfect Life Of John Eliot Gardiner
Conductor John Eliot Gardiner “heads the list of most recorded, and most awarded, musicians in history. He has wealth, a knighthood, a captivating wife, charisma. At home in several languages and an accomplished historian, he is also infuriatingly brainy. Put another way, he is ambitious, self-centred, workaholic, privileged, caustic. Human nature is not always generous to those who win.”
Computer Program Can Identify Composers?
“A standard PC file-compression program can tell the difference between classical music, jazz and rock, all without playing a single note. This new-found ability could help scholars identify the composers of music that until now has remained anonymous.”
Greece’s Acropolis Museum – Now All It Needs Is The Art
“Greece is rushing to build the $100 million New Acropolis Museum to house the Marbles for the 2004 Summer Olympics, locating it next to the rocky citadel in the heart of ancient Athens. The three-level museum will be topped with a glass-walled Parthenon Gallery to display the carvings in brilliant sunlight, just 800 feet from, and slightly below, the temple they once adorned. Innovative and earthquake-proof, the museum aims to rebut longtime British objections to the Elgin Marbles’ return – that Greece lacked first-rate display space to assure the safety of the 480-foot-long section of the Parthenon frieze. British officials are also worried that a repatriation of the Marbles, even on loan, could set a precedent for other claims on antiquities removed from original sites.”
Dutoit’s Legacy Lives On In Montreal
A year after the Dutoit debacle, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra would like to move on, and look to a future it insists is still quite bright. But Arthur Kaptainis isn’t ready to forget the man who gave the MSO its reputation and distinctive sound: “There are many subscribers and musicians who prefer a disposable past. By suspending its former practice of listing in its concert programs its first and most recent performances of works, the MSO administration itself has attempted to toss Dutoit into the memory hole. But it has not succeeded. The evidence of what he achieved is inextinguishable, for it is there every week.”
Murdoch Buys DirecTV
Capping a three-year effort to gain a foothold in the U.S. satellite TV market, Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch has engineered the purchase of a majority share of the nation’s largest home satellite provider. Under the terms of the deal, Murdoch’s News Corp., which owns the Fox network and an extensive array of regional sports networks, will acquire 34% of DirecTV’s parent company. The deal is said to be worth $6.6 billion.
Rosetta To Put Out Random House E-ditions
“RosettaBooks, which in 2001 angered Random House by putting out digital versions of William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice and other titles without the publisher’s consent, announced Wednesday it had agreed with Random House on the release of 51 e-books… Under an out-of-court settlement reached last December, Rosetta was allowed to keep publishing Sophie’s Choice and the other books and collaborate with Random House on additional releases.”
The Believer Tiptoes Into View
In recent weeks, a new magazine has begun to creep quietly onto the racks at a few select independent bookstores in the Midwest. It seems to be vaguely literary in nature, but also appears to flout a great many traditional rules of literary navel-gazing. It’s called The Believer, and yet it’s a bit unclear what its publishers might believe in. It has a manifesto instead of a title page, and makes no effort to stand out in any way, despite a clear attempt to appeal to a young, hipster literary crowd. So what is The Believer, and who is behind it? Let’s just say that the new mag is a heartbreaking periodical of staggering marketing savvy.
The Highwaymen Ride On
The South Florida artists known as the Highwaymen, who originally took up painting as a way to pick up a few extra dollars and perhaps find a way out of their poverty-stricken lives in the orange groves, are enjoying an unexpected renaissance. The artists, who focused almost exclusively on Florida landscapes as their subject matter, began painting in the late 1950s, and have turned out an astonishing volume of work over the years. Initially sold for $25-$30 apiece, a painting by one of the original Highwaymen can now sell for upwards of $10,000.