Orchestras’ Tech Problem (Or: Tweets With Your Beethoven)

“On the one hand, orchestras are constantly looking for ways to reach audiences (let’s not even say ‘new audiences’ anymore; orchestras would be happy to keep diverting the ones they have). On the other hand, a good chunk of the orchestra-going public is horrified, and loudly so, at the thought of any modification to its beloved, traditional experience. It fears that introducing new technology automatically means dumbing down.”

Dueling Civil War Stories And A Hollywood Deal

“Over the last few weeks, the writers of a pair of Civil War-era histories about the anti-Confederate inhabitants of Jones County, Miss., have been trading barbs in an unusual public spat. It began when the author of one book, rights to which had been sold to Universal Pictures and the filmmaker Gary Ross, discovered that Mr. Ross had spurred the publication of a new and somewhat sexier work on the same subject.”