Limelight, the Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s performing arts magazine, has cooked up a vicious, vicious video inviting us all to decide which city is Australia’s cultural capital. (The magazine has also done a serious study of the two cities’ offerings in seven categories, but only print subscribers are allowed to read it.)
Tag: 05.23.12
Why English? (What A Mess)
“How did this unsystematic system come about? And is it really that bad? Some say that there are only a few hundred deeply irregular words, but the trouble is that most of them are common.”
Women Writers And T.V. – Are Things Getting Better?
This year, sort of: “Overall, women were responsible for 32 percent of the pilots produced in 2012. According to Swanson, this is a decrease of three percent from the highs of 2011, but represents solid growth after 2010’s low point of 20 percent.”
Proustian Mind-Pops Get Attention From Researchers
“Sudden, unannounced memories might help people make connections between disparate ideas more quickly – but they might also be the building blocks of hallucinations.”
Questions With No Answers As China Continues To Imprison Art Shippers
“The director of a China-based art shipping company that had two employees detained by Chinese customs officials at the end of March says he is concerned for their health and has not heard from them since police took them into custody. The pair are being held as part of a probe into alleged undervaluation of works of art imported into the mainland.”
Why Can’t We Leave Dead Musicians Alone? (There’s A Name For It)
“It’s called the ‘death effect’ and it’s the same for actors, authors and artists — whether it’s an increase in exposure or a supply-induced demand (no more painter, no more paintings), public hunger for a person’s work grows exponentially following their passing. When it comes to musicians, however, the situation has the added element of necromancy, a sort of pop culture-tinged resurrection.”
Apple: What? Us Fix E-Book Prices?
“Apple argued that its foray into e-books has actually fueled demand for e-books by forcing Amazon and rivals, including Barnes & Noble Inc, to compete more aggressively, including by upgrading e-reader technology.”
Explaining This Thing Called ‘Modern Dance’ To Those Paying The Tuition Bills
“Dance cannot be dismissed as a free-spirited life path with no career trajectory or something that’s inevitably going to leave me waiting tables for the rest of my life.”
Art Thieves In Detroit Make Off With Warhol, Beuys, Larry Rivers
“The FBI says that sometime between April 27-29, an Andy Warhol silk screen used to produce Flowers and 18 works by other artists were stolen from a business in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.” The collection “includes drawings, prints and paintings by artists such as Larry Rivers, Francesco Clemente, Philip Taaffe, Peter Schuyff and Joseph Beuys.”
If We Met Advanced Aliens, Could We Distinguish Them From Gods?
“Sci-fi classics, such as Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, explore precisely this idea, that highly advanced alien intelligences would be essentially indistinguishable from gods. This is not news, really, as it has already happened right here on Earth a few centuries ago.” (Think of Cortes and the Aztecs.)