“BookReels, a dedicated interactive website that allows publishers and authors to post multimedia visuals ranging from animated book covers to trailers, is now available for readers as a unique way to preview and browse books.”
Tag: 06.05.14
Now Even VICE Is Writing About Arvo Pärt
“For several years, he has been the most widely-performed living classical composer, but that is just the beginning. Thom Yorke, PJ Harvey, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, and Keith Jarrett all claim him as a major influence. Lupe Fiasco, heavy metal bands, and Berlin DJs frequently sample his works. His music lurks behind scenes in There Will Be Blood, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Gravity, just to name a few of his film credits.”
David Lang: I Wrote A Piece For 1,000 Singers Because I Saw A Football Match In London
“Everyone in the stadium started to sing, and I found myself in the middle of a giant 38,000-strong choir. There was a huge repertoire of songs for every emotion – joy, defiance, taunting, encouragement, elation – and many hilarious ones of imaginatively lewd sexual ridicule. … We are not nearly so clever at our sporting events in America.”
Why Has Good Taste Gone Out Of Fashion?
“As the idea of good taste is ridiculed, bad taste has been embraced in its place. We are comfortable showing that we know what is bad, but all too quiet about what is good.”
Rem Koolhaus: Architecture As “Endless Calculation”
“The ceiling used to be decorative, a symbolic plane, a place invested with intense iconography. Now, it has become an entire factory of equipment that enables us to exist, a space so deep that it begins to compete with the architecture. It is a domain over which architects have lost all control, a zone surrendered to other professions.”
Hachette Lays Off 3% Of Staff Amid Battle With Amazon
“A representative from Hachette denied that the layoffs [of 28 staffers] were in any way connected to its dispute with Amazon.”
Amazon May Be Facing War With Two More Major Publishers
“Amazon.com Inc.’s sales contracts with some of the world’s biggest publishers, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, are next up for renewal, signaling that skirmishes over e-book pricing are set to spread.”
Federal Judge Throws Out Harper Lee’s Suit Against Museum
“U.S. District Judge William H. Steele of Mobile dismissed the case in a one-sentence order after lawyers for both Lee and the Monroe County Heritage Museum filed a joint motion seeking to end the suit. Lee last year accused the museum of taking advantage of her work by selling souvenirs and using the title of her only published book as its website address.”
Senegal Government Shuts Down Art Exhibition On Homosexuality In Africa
“The move comes several weeks after an attack on the Dakar gallery by Muslim fundamentalists … ‘Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness’ opened at Raw Material Company on 11 May, but a day later, the non-profit art centre was vandalised and the building damaged.”
The Contradictory (Anti-)Patriotism At The Heart Of ‘Saving Private Ryan’
John Biguenet reconsiders Speilberg’s D-Day movie – including its notoriously sentimental prologue and epilogue – and what it means to say about battlefield morality.