“Almost universally considered the world’s greatest cellist, Rostropovich was a man who wore his emotions easily, both onstage and off. He lavished bears hugs and kisses on new friends, was quick to tears and played concertos for the hundredth time as if for the very first — or last. Balding, unpretentious and sober in an ever-present pinstriped suit, he was the last superstar of classical music, a throwback to an era when a man who played Tchaikovsky made a difference in international relations.”
Tag: 04.26.07
Doors To The Renaissance Come To US
It took Lorenzo Ghiberti 27 years to make the iconic bronze doors for Florence’s Duomo. They are a Renaissance masterpiece. The doors have now undergone a restoration that took 25 years. And they’re making a one-time tour of the United States…
Barcelona Cathedral Endangered By Train
“The chief architect working on the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona yesterday condemned a plan to build a bullet-train tunnel less than two metres from Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece.”
The Curious Case Of Apple’s Digital Protection Policy
“Independent artists have been complaining for years that Apple was deaf to their requests to include their music at the iTunes Music Store without applying digital rights management (DRM) software. The reversal makes it even less understandable why independent artists who want to release their music via iTunes but without DRM have been unable to do so.”
Egypt Complains Over German Refusal To Loan Nefertiti
Germany says it won’t lend a 3,400-year-old statue of Queen Nefertiti to Egypt because it is too fragile to travel. Egyptians don’t accept the excuse. “We will make the lives of these museums miserable,” the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt said. “It will be a scientific war.”
FCC: We Know Violence When We See It?
“The commission concludes that, oh yes, let’s expand the FCC’s power to regulate broadcaster content with a new law, but cautions Congress on the difficulty of actually defining excessive violence. One person’s example of gratuitous media violence is another person’s idea of a film classic, a fantastic war documentary, or a brilliant newscast from an urban riot. But far from being daunted by the perpetual needlework of OK’ing one kind of violence because it’s artistic, historical, or newsworthy but nixing another as too wanton, the FCC appears to relish the idea of refereeing all television programming everywhere.”
Renovate Your Brain!
“Welcome to the age of neuroplasticity: the notion that adult brains are more adaptable, capable of reprogramming themselves, than was once thought. As a host of popularizers have begun to argue, neuroplasticity has enormous implications not only for our physical health but for our mental health.”
America’s Disappearing Book Reviews
One by one America’s newspaper books sections are being hacked to pieces. “By choking off such discussion of books (rumored to have ideas associated with them) we impoverish the public weal and help ensure that they are shipped back to their point of origin after the very briefest of shelf lives. And no one calls that censorship, either.”
Canadian CD, DVD Sales Plummet
“Sales of CDs, music DVDs and other physical music formats in Canada fell 12 per cent in 2006, CRIA said in a statement released Thursday. And then things got worse — first quarter sales in 2007 were down 35 per cent, according to industry statistics.” Digital downloads didn’t make up the losses. “There were just 20 million songs downloaded legally in Canada in 2006, compared with 1.3 billion illegal downloads.”
Festival Funding Or Political Boondoggle?
A scandal is brewing over a Canadian government plan to fund summer festivals. Which festivals? A memo has been discovered asking members of parliament of the ruling Conservative Party to recommend festivals from their districts…