A choreographer and a theoretical physicist team up to create dance of three of Einstein’s papers. “Of all the art forms that one can use to express the notion of here, now and what happens then, dance is probably the best. In some sense, there are ways you can represent equations by movement because they often describe movement. The equations and ideas in Einstein’s papers are very dynamical. Dance is better suited to the 1905 papers than any of the other visual arts.”
Tag: 05.19.05
Why People Are Abandoning The Movie Theatre
Movie attendance is falling, and even the expected mega-hit Star Wars installment isn’t likely to turn things around. “If Americans went to the movies every week, as they did during cinema’s heyday in the 1940s, the national box office would be running about $2 billion a week, which it’s not even close to. Audiences have cooled on the moviegoing experience, in which high ticket and food prices and hit-or-miss sound and projection systems in neighborhood theaters have driven people to create their own Friday night popcorn experience.”
Sifton Named To Run NYT Culture Pages
Sam Sifton has been named culture editor of the New York Times. “He has demonstrated a strong sense of the intersecting worlds of the arts, a powerful devotion to strengthening the reporting tradition in Culture, and a coherent vision of how the disparate pieces of that complex department fit together. Sam has an impresario’s gift for matching writers with ideas.”
You’ll Need A Fingerprint To Watch A DVD?
A proposed new security system for DVDs would add an RFID tag and require biometric information to view the disk. “At the store, someone buying a new DVD would have to provide a password or some kind of biometric data, like a fingerprint or iris scan, which would be added to the DVD’s RFID tag. Then, when the DVD was popped into a specially equipped DVD player, the viewer would be required to re-enter his or her password or fingerprint. The system would require consumers to buy new DVD players with RFID readers.”
If It Bleeds… It Gets A Museum
What’s with this boom in museums devoted to conflict and/or atrocities? “This mania for memorial museums is a sign of a society with an unhealthy obsession. These new museums indicate a desire to elevate the worst aspects of mankind’s history as a way to understand humanity today. Our pessimism-tinted spectacles distort how we interpret the past. These museums tend to downplay historical exhibits, since the aim is to make yesterday’s conflicts relevant to today.”
South Korean Wins Montreal Competition
South Korean singer Sin Nyung Hwang has won the fourth Montreal International Musical Competition. The Geneva-based soprano won the top prize – worth $25,000 – Wednesday.
What We Really Want In Books – Get Happy!
Our hunger for happiness books is virtually unslakable. “It seems to be an American phenomenon. We buy can-do books that teach us to fix our problems. It’s like having your own personal life coach, and it’s less expensive than seeing a shrink.”
Music For Babies
“Numerous studies conclude that playing music to babies in the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel. And research suggests it can stimulate the brain’s alpha waves, creating a feeling of calm; a recent study of premature infants found that they were soothed by the music.” Now a new program aims at bringing music to the very young. “Sound Beginnings – and a planned “baby prom” next year – came about as babies and toddlers are rarely welcome in concert halls.”
London Symphony At A Crossroads
Clive Gillinson Leaves a successful London Symphony behind. “First among British orchestras, it set up a New York office and a residency at Lincoln Center. Its record label, LSO Live, sells tracks on iTunes. Gillinson slashed concert tickets to a fiver with a view to attracting younger listeners and urged players to get a life outside the orchestra, making chamber music and educational ventures in what he reinvisaged as a ‘portfolio career’. Life in the LSO is more varied than before; around one-third of the players have been attracted from abroad.” And yet there are persistent artistics problems to solve, writes Norman Lebrecht.
Chicago Lyric In The Passing Lane
Chicago Lyric Opera is a juggernaut of efficiency. “The 91 performances given last season generated box office revenues of more than $30 million, on an operating budget of $58.2 million. Fundraising topped $21.5 million, the highest in the company’s history. Of that amount, $5 million came from Lyric’s sold-out golden jubilee concert in October. The endowment campaign reached its goal of $50 million.”