“Peter Nero will lead the Philly Pops next season in Verizon Hall and then, at the end of 2012-13, pass the baton to a successor after 3½ decades of Gershwin, film music, Broadway, and a smattering of core classics. He also, at that point, turns over his rights to the name of the ensemble” – unless the orchestra misses any of Nero’s severance payments.
Tag: 08.03.12
Reykjavik Becomes A Hotbed Of Street Art
“It seemed that down every other alley, in every little hallway and behind every store there was some quality street art to be found.”
Daisy Foote, On Her Dad Horton And The Family Business Of Playwriting
“While I was so proud and thrilled for him, I could also indulge in some grand moments of self-pity. Why did I choose this, of all professions, to go into when Horton Foote was my father? It never lasted very long; it couldn’t, as he was always the one I would call, and he’d remind me that over the years he’d wasted too much time comparing himself to other playwrights. Then he’d tell me: ‘Just keep writing. Keep writing.'”
Gene Smith, 83, Biographer Of Presidents
“Recently, Mr. Smith wrote a brief obituary of himself, in third-person singular. It says, ‘He used to muse that if there was an afterlife — granted a long shot, he said — he’d love it for the opportunities offered to interview people he studied in life.'”
We Mean It This Time – Hollywood Is Figuring Out Social Media At Last
“After several years of experimenting, studios have thrown themselves deeply into a medium which is still barely understood. They are now developing elaborate social media campaigns early on, sometimes as soon as a film gets greenlit. Researchers are conducting deep numerical analysis on posts and tweets to guide marketing decisions, sometimes predicting box office revenue with pinpoint accuracy. They’re looking not just at opening movies, but sustaining their word-of-mouth through subsequent weeks. And they are getting more surgical about targeting their ever-fickle, ever-elusive core audience of young people.”
Too Much Like: Twitter And Tumblr Are Destroying Literary Criticism
“If you spend time in the literary Twitter- or blogospheres, you’ll be positively besieged by amiability, by a relentless enthusiasm that might have you believing that all new books are wonderful and that every writer is every other writer’s biggest fan. It’s not only shallow, it’s untrue, and it’s having a chilling effect on literary culture, creating an environment where writers are vaunted for their personal biographies or their online followings rather than for their work on the page.”
Funding Initiative For New York Indie Theatres Gets Off The Ground
“Economic hardship has forced many independent theater groups and artists to shut down or move out of New York City in recent years. The experimental artistic spaces left standing, which have long served as a home and training ground for some of the biggest actors, writers, and directors in Hollywood and on Broadway, face a continuing challenge to make ends meet.” A new fund hopes to address that.
What’s Better Than Still Photos And Video? The Animated GIF!
Animated GIFs have made this year’s Olympics much more fun. (Will they enliven arts reporting next?)
Suburbs: Ugly, Environmentally Problematic – And Home Of Funders For Arts In The City
“As Chicago ponders its evolving cultural plan, it’s worth remembering that its influence does not stop at Howard Street or Austin Avenue or at Jack’s Lounge down on South Halsted Street. Some soothing rhetoric is sorely needed about the crucial unity of Chicagoland, it being impossible for Chicago to thrive without the ‘land,’ especially in the cultural sector.”
Ping Is Apple’s Most Public Big Failure – Because It Didn’t Share Well
“Ping failed because Apple didn’t make it easy enough to share the music users truly care about–rather than simply receipts for the songs they purchased. Others in the space have avoided such stumbles–it’s arguably the reason why Spotify has become so popular and why Google wanted to enable full-song sharing on Google+. ‘We have to make sure that if I want to share a song with you, that you can listen to that song whether or not you’re a Rhapsody subscriber,’ Irwin says.”