Ask 100 classical musicians what their favorite hobby is, and cooking will almost certainly be the #1 answer. “Which raises a question: Are food and music connected? Most musicians agree that their discipline often fosters a highly sophisticated sense of taste,” and the brain’s response to food is not unlike its response to music.
Tag: 04.16.08
Seattle Artists Facing a Squeeze
A few years ago the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle had a thriving music and theatre scene. But a spurt of redevelopment and rising rents have squeezed out much of the art. Anything to be done?
Professors Experiment With Online “Open Textbooks”
“Colleges and individual faculty members continue to experiment with putting course information and material online, and ‘open textbooks’ typically are licensed to allow users to download, share and alter the content as they see fit, so long as their purposes aren’t commercial and they credit the author for the original material. This allows instructors to customize e-textbooks and offer them to students for free online or as low-cost printed versions.”
Why Not Give One To Yanni While You’re At It?
Andrew Lloyd Webber is receiving a special award at this year’s Classical Brits, and Norman Lebrecht is appalled. “It is not Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mission to challenge the ear and mind. He is not a classical composer by any known measure. He is a popular entertainer of inestimable attainments.”
So, An Architecture-Themed Project Runway, Then?
“Architecture might be slow-moving compared with fashion, yet in its epochal way it can move in similar cycles. Decoration is the vogue one moment, minimalism the next… The connection between the two disciplines is age-old.”
One Stones Tribute Recalls Another
Martin Scorsese’s new IMAX concert film of the Rolling Stones is getting plenty of attention, but has everyone forgotten that there was a classic concert film of the same band produced back before they got so… well, old? “The film took a long time to reach theaters. But when it was released in 1974, it was with all the hoopla of a live concert, booked into big theaters like New York’s Zeigfield.”
NJ Ballet Mounting Major Tour
“New Jersey Ballet, a company that takes pride in its local roots, will kick off its 50th anniversary season with a tour of Russia in June… Seventeen of the troupe’s 20 dancers will join the tour, performing a repertoire largely set to jazz, blues and electronic music that highlights the company’s American character.”
What’s So Elusive About Comedy?
Why is it so hard to make a really good comedy these days? “Do people become less funny if it’s longer than the 20 minutes or so of sitcom time? Or unable to film it? Beats me.”
Virginia Tech Turned To Words To Heal Wounds
It’s been exactly a year since the horrifying gun massacre at Virginia Tech University that killed 32. And while it would be stretching things to say that the campus has returned to normal, one professor says that “writing has been a powerfully cathartic refuge” for students and faculty alike.
Hearings Will Examine Net Neutrality
The FCC is holding hearings on the business practices of internet service providers that block consumer access to certain file-sharing sites. “The investigation and public hearings are the agency’s most serious examination of ‘net neutrality,’ the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equal.”