Tag: 06.29.05

Will iPods Change Book Publishing?

“That folks can pick up a gadget approximately the size of a cigarette lighter at their local library, programmed with a current bestseller for their listening pleasure, is the realization of countless sci-fi movies and Philip K. Dick novels. The future has clearly arrived: Apple’s immensely popular iPod—the software company shipped 5.3 million of the variously priced and sized devices in its second fiscal quarter of 2005 alone—is making consumers more comfortable with the idea of downloading audiobooks and listening on-the-go. So could DABs—which are more accessible, hip and cost-effective than traditional formats like cassettes and CDs—be the next big thing?”

Can Downloading Save Classical Music?

Norman Lebrecht on the Supreme Court ruling holding software companies liable for the illegal file-swapping: “The music industry… can now stop penalising innocent teens in their bedrooms and go for the geeks who make the stealing systems.” On the huge demand for free Beethoven downloads from BBC: “There is clearly a demand for more – so much so that such commercial download sites as I-tunes and Napster have linked up to the BBC’s output and some have launched Beethoven promotions of their own. There is a web buzz about Beethoven that could never have been achieved by plastic and terrestrial means of communication.”

Glimmerglass Taps New Haven Exec

Upstate New York’s famed Glimmerglass Opera has a new general director: Michael MacLeod, who has been the executive director of the New Haven (CT) Symphony since late 2001, will take over the Cooperstown-based company this fall. MacLeod is credited with bringing New Haven’s finances into balance in the tough years following the 9/11 attacks.

The Science Of What We Believe

“Once the preserve of philosophers alone, belief is quickly becoming the subject of choice for many psychologists and neuroscientists. Their goal is to create a neurological model of how beliefs are formed, how they affect people and what can manipulate them. And the latest steps in the research might just help to understand a little more about why the world is so fraught with political and social tension.”

9/11 Themes Find Their Ways Into This Summer’s Movies

Can “War of the Worlds” send people back into the movie theatres? “In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Hollywood was squeamish about making any movies that touched on the themes of 9/11, even tangentially. Any number of movies about terrorists were either scrapped or rewritten. As time went by, though, a group of filmmakers realized that 9/11 played such a dramatic role in the nation’s psyche that ignoring it would be foolish.”

One Movie Chain Turns To Money-Back Guarantee

The movie theatre business is so spooked by declines in box office in recent months that AMC, one of the biggest chains, is offering a money-back guarantee. If you don’t like “Cinderella Man” you get your money back. “The no-hassle money-back guarantee is a rarity in the business, where fans who sit through awful flicks usually leave with little more than bad memories. But AMC’s results are encouraging enough that CinemarkInc., another big exhibitor, is planning a similar promotion for the three-day weekend.”

A Crisis In Jung Bio?

A biographer of Carl Jung says that a new German edition of her work has been marred. “This is a chilling moment in the annals of Jungian scholarship. The heirs of C.G. Jung, led by their spokesperson Ulrich Hoerni, have raised objections concerning the alleged invasion of their privacy that, due to German law, has forced Knaus Verlag [the publishers of the German edition of Jung: A Biography] to include their opinions of Jung’s life and work within the pages of my book. These will appear as annotations to my extensive notes that follow the text. This unprecedented invasion of my book by the Jung heirs is an appalling act and is happening against my will.”

Making A Mess At The WTC

The newly redesigned “Freedom Tower” is a mess, writes James Russell. “It’s a monument to bureaucratic bungling and political gutlessness. [Daniel] Libeskind stood up today to endorse the design, even though the scheme ashcans everything he did that touched people. His willingness to defend the continued gutting of his plan is beginning to look pathetic.”