“Journalistic encounters with the cerebral, musically brilliant Mr. Maazel are unpredictable. He can be dismissive, censorious, attentive or engaging, attitudes also encountered by the musicians who play for him. On this day in early June he was philosophical.”
Tag: 06.14.09
NY Arts Groups Band Together To Survive
In New York, 11 diverse downtown arts organizations “have come together to forge a collective and active response to the grim economic climate. Calling themselves the Lower Manhattan Arts Leaders, they meet once a week to plan strategy and exchange ideas about helping government policy makers and grant-making foundations become aware of the vital ways in which small arts groups feed the life of a neighborhood.”
Tony Kushner’s Next Stage
“Perhaps alone among American playwrights of his generation he uses history as a character, letting its power fall on his protagonists as they stumble through their own and others’ lives. And like a prophet, he wants his listeners to think hard about the world and their place in it.”
English’s Millionth Word? Yeah, Right!
“It’s hard to find scholars who react with anything less than blunt outrage at the headline-garnering “Million-Word March,” which was begun in 2003 by Paul JJ Payack, the president and chief word analyst of Global Language Monitor. They point to the frequently revised predictions of the fateful word’s arrival, perhaps to coincide with the publication of his book about the project.”
Contention: Music Downloading Has Been Good For Music
“I think we’re seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster.”
London’s Theatre Boom – Ticket Sales Up, Broadway Recognition
“This has been hailed as an exceptional period for drama in Britain, the effects of which extend far beyond its shores: almost a third of all Tony nominations this year went to Brits. Whether this golden moment has come about despite or because of the political and economic apocalypse is up for debate.”
Canada – A Twitter-Free Zone
“When asked ‘Are you aware of Twitter?’ just 26 per cent of more than 824 respondents answered yes during the online survey conducted in March, Ipsos reported Thursday. The latter were asked ‘Do you actually use it?’ Of those, only six per cent — or about 1.45 per cent of respondents — said they did.”
Of Complexity And Catastrophic Failure
“It may be true, in fact, that complex networks such as financial systems face an inescapable trade-off – between size and efficiency on one hand, and global stability on the other. Once they have been assembled, in other words, globally interconnected and integrated financial networks just may be too complex to prevent crises like the current one from reoccurring.”
Beat Poet Harold Norse, 92
“Although Mr. Norse is often classified with the Beats, he had already developed his themes and his style when, in the early 1960s, he fell in with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso, just a few of the many writers with whom he formed romantic or professional relationships.”