“In a new interview this week with the French magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur (French), the new French minister of culture slammed Hadopi, France’s controversial anti-piracy regime, and seemed to indicate that it will be shut down.”
Tag: 08.02.12
The Trouble With TED
“TED is no longer a responsible curator of ideas ‘worth spreading.’ Instead it has become something ludicrous, and a little sinister. Today TED is an insatiable kingpin of international meme laundering – a place where ideas, regardless of their quality, go to seek celebrity … [where] books become talks, talks become memes, memes become projects, projects become talks, talks become books – and so it goes ad infinitum.”
The End Of Adultery? Sleeping Around Is Sooooo Millennia Ago
“First, not all men are created equal; there are few Ryan Goslings and many Kevin Redmons. The weaker among us quickly learned the futility of direct competition, and turned to ‘alternative reproductive strategies’ to spread our genes. (I may not be a dreamboat, baby, but I’ll bring you coffee in bed.) Second, females make choices.”
Caveat Lector, In An Age Of Real-time ‘Spoilers’ (Of The Olympics And Other Narratives)
“Perhaps we ought to renegotiate the social contracts around spoiling. It used to be that the onus was entirely on the one who might spoil to protect any privileged story information he or she might possess. Now, as stories begin to be told more asynchronously, I think we are beginning to live in a world in which those of us who wait to hear a story must accept that we’re taking on more of a risk of having that story accidentally spoiled. It’s on us, at least somewhat. More so than ever, at the very least. And I also think we can begin to forgive those storytellers who are more geared toward instant delivery of the news.”
Why Music Is At The Core Of Our Identities
“In the 100 years or so since recorded music has been widely available, our lives have become suffused by it: we are born and die to music, we eat and shop and travel and make love to music, we work and play to music. Some of our most powerful memories are either of music, or are accompanied by music – and sometimes, even as listeners, we seem almost to become the music that we hear.”
Study: More Consumers Buy Print AND E-Books
According to Book Industry Study Group’s newest edition of “Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading” report, the percentage of e-book consumers who exclusively or mostly purchase e-books fell from nearly 70% in August 2011 to 60% in May 2012.
London’s Almeida Theatre Drops Its Opera Festival Because Modern Opera Is Rubbish
“Michael Attenborough, the son of Lord Attenborough, has ditched the annual opera festival that was once a mainstay of the Almeida, the theatre he runs in north London.” Says Attenborough, “Modern opera studiously avoids anything so old-fashioned as melody or emotion, which seems to me a contradiction of what music is all about.”
It’s Final: Court Affirms Fisk-Crystal Bridges Deal Over Stieglitz Collection
“After seven years and several court appeals, the agreement between Fisk University and Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton to sell a half-share of the $60 million Alfred Stieglitz Collection was finalized in Davidson County Chancery Court on Thursday afternoon.”
Obscenity Trial For Burroughs’s Turkish Publishers On Hold For Three Years
“The Turkish publisher facing obscenity charges for releasing a translation of a William Burroughs novel has vowed not to be intimidated by an Istanbul court’s decision to postpone the trial, despite the ‘sword of Damocles’ which now hangs over its head.”
How Have The Olympics Affected London’s Arts Venues?
“Some – such as the British Museum, where visitor numbers are down by 25% and some West End theatres down by a third – have seen visitor numbers plunge since the Games started, but others, including the National Theatre, report business as good as last year, with near full houses every night.”