“The 75 movies are a real rarity — in part because early film was volatile and degraded quickly. ‘Only about 20 percent of the films produced in America during the silent era — that is the era of motion pictures before 1929 — survive today in the United States in complete form,’ says Annette Melville, director of the nonprofit Film Preservation Foundation.”
Tag: 06.07.10
Why Doesn’t NYU Learn From Its Architectural Mistakes?
“As NYU has grown from a local college to a globally known research and teaching powerhouse, the Village has struggled to survive the university’s strikingly tin ear for history and architecture. NYU seems to forget that the youthful urban vitality and diversity of the Village and its surrounding neighborhoods are central to its appeal.”
Critic: BBC’s Wall-To-Wall Opera Season. Enough Already!
“Madly as I adore opera, consuming it for breakfast, lunch and dinner reminds me of the Shakespearean view that surfeit can lead even the most voracious appetite to sicken and die. The opera season is asking a lot of us – time, for one thing.”
Martin Amis: Only Un-Fun Books Win Prizes
“There was a great fashion in the last century, and it’s still with us, of the unenjoyable novel. And these are the novels which win prizes, because the committee thinks, ‘Well it’s not at all enjoyable, and it isn’t funny, therefore it must be very serious.’ ”
Studies: In Important Ways Our Brains Get Better As We Age
“Even while it outperforms its younger self in many ways, the middle-age brain gets a bad rap. It’s true that we can lose our focus or get distracted more easily as we age, but there is plenty of emerging and established science to show that people underestimate the formidable talents of the mature brain.”
“Seinfeld” Has Earned $2.7 Billion Since It Went Off The Air
It is rare that TV studios reveal the amounts made by their most successful TV series, but at an investors’ conference late last month, execs spilled the beans about just what a moneymaker the show has been over the past 12 years.
South Africa Slashes Arts Funding Ahead Of World Cup
“Government funding for South African arts initiatives has been slashed in the lead up to this month’s Fifa World Cup–despite the fact that planned expenditure on the event is scheduled to reach around R13.7bn ($1.75bn).”
Tony-Winning Cops Spend Most Of Their Time On Thefts
“Eighty per cent of our crime is grand larcenies,” said the commanding officer of one of the two NYPD precincts being honored at this year’s Tony Awards. “You go out to the theatre, you go out to dinner, you put your pocketbook on the back of your chair–and somebody comes and steals your wallet.”