Once, book parties “were as central to the book-publishing experience as collecting blurbs and freaking out over your book jacket. How else could you get through this self-induced ordeal without imagining the scene: reviewers and critics and editors and writers. . . . The hugging, the raised glasses, the rueful toast by one’s editor about how long the book took, the copies displayed on a mantelpiece. Not so now. In these cost-cutting days, the book party is no longer to be counted on as a well-earned prize.”
Tag: 05.14.06
Berlin Philharmonic Takes Itself To School
“Fearing the loss of future audiences, the once-staid Berlin Philharmonic has constructed an elaborate education program, something still relatively rare on the Continent. Many orchestras in Britain and the United States have been making similar efforts to draw in youngsters and educate the public, but in catching up, the Berliners have created one of Europe’s most ambitious programs.”
Childhood Secrets
Sometimes, the childhood compositions of great composers ought to be left hidden in peace. “One argument says that we need to know everything about great people and that every surviving scrap about them is fair game. For the scholar, yes. For the public reputation of the artist, I’m not so sure. Dead composers are defenseless. They aren’t around to censor what happened before the achievements that mattered.”
Tops At Cannes = Little At Box Office
What does it mean for a film to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival? “The Palme d’Or has very little effect on business in the United States, very little. There have even been cases when the Palme d’Or winner went unsold here for years.”
A Leading Architecture Firm Does The Splits
After a decade working together, Rem Koolhaus and Joshua Prince-Ramus are splitting up, with Prince-Ramus taking all of the architecture firm’s 35 members of the New York office with him. “So, no hard feelings, no intrigue? No, both men insist, their parting is simply a response to unfolding circumstances and an attempt to clarify issues of authorship and control. ‘It ultimately became a clear decision, but not an easy one,’ said Mr. Prince-Ramus, 36. ‘The sadness is something we deal with in private,’ said Mr. Koolhaas, 61.”
Soaked In Media (For Fun And Relaxation)
In Japan, those in search of a reality escape can go to media immersion centers. “The first Gran Cyber Café opened in 1999. Today there are 10, serving some 5,000 people a day. Each has a slightly different orientation — some are geared to teenagers, some to salarymen — but the atmosphere is the same throughout the franchise: equal parts lending library, newsstand, arcade, Kinko’s and youth hostel. An inspired extension of the basic Internet cafe, the Gran Cyber Cafés shift their meaning the more you study them, as if by a trick of their trademark low light.”
Wales Book Fest An Unlikely Lit Hit
“The Hay Festival, which began in 1988 as an insane glint in the eye of its organizer, Peter Florence, has expanded and expanded to become one of the world’s best-known and most exciting literary events — the ‘Woodstock of the mind,’ as former President Clinton, a participant several years ago, put it. (Think of it as a literary Sundance festival, minus the Hollywood swag.)”
The Titain That Maybe Wasn’t A Titain But Might Be A Titian Once Again…
“Long known as the work of the great Italian Renaissance painter Titian, this somber, unsigned oil portrait of a middle-aged, 16th-century Italian duke was consigned to obscurity when an art critic questioned its authenticity nearly 70 years ago. But an art historian who has spent eight years researching the painting believes it is a Titian after all.”
Will Yale Be The Next Juilliard Or Curtis?
Starting next year, thanks to $100 million gift, tuition at the Yale Music School will be free. “Now as the school prepares for commencement on May 22 for the final graduating class to have paid the $23,750 annual tuition each year, many faculty members and students are wondering how the donation will affect Yale’s reputation. Will subsidized tuition affect the type and quality of new students? Will the school claim a place alongside conservatories like the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia?”