“The corporation is the biggest, oldest and most revered public broadcasting company in the world, a centerpiece of the British brand, as essential to Britains view of itself as the National Health Service or the royal family. … But despite all that, or perhaps because of it, the BBC seems at times to be an all-purpose whipping boy, an easy target for casual joking and at times naked derision from the country’s political establishment.”
Tag: 04.24.11
Dancing For Agnes De Mille: Amanda McKerrow Remembers
“She demanded your full attention, and was demanding in terms of what she needed you to do. … She had such an amazing vocabulary. The difficult thing about talking with her was that she was always correcting your grammar.”
Amid Bankruptcy, Philadelphia Orchestra And Philly Pops Feud
“In essence, Pops leaders contend that since the trial five-year consolidation of the two groups, the Pops has not received the kind of support it needs to flourish. Attendance has suffered, they say, because the association has not invested in adequate marketing and advertising.”
The ‘Beehive’ Where Chagall Learned To Paint Like Chagall
“Chagall arrived in Paris in 1911 at age 24. … Like many poor artists in Paris and a few writers, he soon rented a cheap apartment and studio in La Ruche (the Beehive) at No. 2 Passage Dantzig in the rundown slaughterhouse district near Montparnasse on the Left Bank.”
Gilbert Gottfried Sort-Of-Defends His Tsunami Jokes
“When I look at how the media just went nuts with it, there were so many tricks they had. Number one, they didn’t say ‘his jokes,’ they said, ‘his comments and remarks,’ because if you say jokes, it just lets the air out of the sails. If you say ‘jokes,’ people say, ‘Well, yeah, he’s a comedian, he makes jokes’.”
So What Is A Book Anymore?
“Now, there are e-books, and blogs that turn into books, and long pieces of journalism that are somewhere between magazine articles and short books and a whole series of ongoing attempts to reimagine the entire industry of writing and selling books. If you’re an author, it’s a time of incredible chaos, but also incredible opportunity.”
“Three Cups” Author Cancels Public Appearance
“Officials with the Massachusetts Conference United Church of Christ, a group sponsoring the May 3 event, say in a statement that they were told Mortenson was having surgery in Bozeman, Mont., to repair a hole in his heart and couldn’t make the Worcester speech.”
The New Global Cinema
“Many of the newer films are global by design. Most are co-productions, jointly financed by studios in Asia, Latin America and Europe; and they’re premiered at festivals in Venice, Berlin and Toronto.”
Is Jazz Really the Authentic American Music?
“It seems that as long as there has been a music called jazz, someone has been trying to call it an American art form and someone else has poo-poohed the attempt. It seems that as improvisation became more important to jazz performance, the musical result became more questionable in terms of authenticity.”
The Robot Orchestra – Liberation
“The Machine Orchestra carries an undeniable cool factor, but it could also seem an unnecessarily complicated way of making music. And might performing robots dilute a core reason we play musical instruments in the first place — for the human expression of emotion through sound? Kapur and Darling maintain the opposite: that playing traditional instruments, even in the world of DJs and experimental electronica, can be limiting. “