Collecting modern first editions or antiquarian books is a fun pursuit. It can be exciting and compulsive and, contrary to some critics, it is not a dreary bookish endeavour, followed only by the status-conscious rich. Anyone can collect first editions and, taking taste and pocket into account, the collector’s choice is limitless.
Tag: 05.02.17
Online Sales Have Broken The Concert Ticket Business
“In the first 24 hours after tickets go on sale, an estimated 20 percent appear on secondary sites. This is often where tickets end up when scalpers and brokers use methods like creating bots to bypass captcha technology and scoop up a large number of tickets, or by creating numerous identities and buying tickets on prepaid credit cards that can be loaded up with cash at a local CVS or Rite Aid to take advantage of paperless ticketing. They make a profit by engaging in price gouging, selling the ticket for much higher than face value, and gaining an upper hand on the real fans.”
Science Has Been Persuasive. But That Might Be Changing
If you look at public opinion polls, scientists are among the most trusted professions, certainly they are in the UK and probably in the US as well. But we’re getting to a stage where that’s at risk for a variety of reasons. Some of them are technical reasons and some of them are cultural reasons.
Gender Parity In Ballet? We’re A LONG Way Off
Throughout the last 50 years, the ballet world has frequently been seen as completely out of touch with the importance of diversity. The litany of men — geniuses, admittedly, in their own right — says nothing about the creative, choreographic power of women. This lack of equality not only reads as troubling but a bit safe. Why is it so difficult to see women taking the stage not just as fouetteing prima ballerinas, but as dance-makers as well?
Al Roker Tells The Entire Internet He Fell Asleep At The Met, And The Opera Crowd Comes After Him
The preternaturally cheerful weatherman for NBC’s Today Show posted to Instagram a photo of him napping during intermission at Der Rosenkavalier and confessed that he’d dozed during the performance as well. (Hey, the guy gets up at 4 a.m. every workday.) “Some opera fans and singers … saw it as a public slap in the face. Quite a few took to Instagram to criticize Mr. Roker for what they saw as rudeness.” (One soprano on the Met’s roster was downright vicious.)
This Year’s Tony Nominations Rewarded Risk-Taking
The “Hamilton” effect hasn’t transformed Broadway into a multicultural model kingdom, but there does seem to be more of a sense after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s improbable hip-hop juggernaut about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton that long shots with creative ingenuity and passionate conviction are worth the investment.
Washington National Opera’s Executive Director Steps Down
“[Michael] Mael took over his current role at WNO in 2011 after three years as chief financial and chief operating officer with the company. A calm and affable presence in a turbulent field, he presided over a return to stability after the Kennedy Center, in 2011, took over the company, which appeared headed for bankruptcy. For the past four seasons, WNO has boasted balanced budgets, after a long history of losses.”
Ben Brantley And Jesse Green Talk Tony Noms
Brantley (speaking from London): “As might have been predicted, angry crowds have already gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest the snubbing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, further straining already frayed Anglo-American relations.”
Col. Bruce Hampton, Granddaddy Of The Jam Scene, Dead At 70 After Onstage Heart Attack
“When [he] slowly fell to his knees during the finale of his star-studded birthday concert, fans and musicians alike thought it was another one of his quirky performance acts.”
Bollywood Heartthrob Vinod Khanna Dead At 70
“For a time Mr. Khanna was one of India’s most recognizable stars, a darkly handsome screen idol who appeared in more than 100 films, many of them runaway successes.” But he never quite achieved Amitabh Bachchan’s level of superstardom. likely because, at the height of his career, he left Bombay to spend four years at the now-notorious Rajneesh compound in Oregon.