“Comedian Bob Slayer was asked by The Scotsman newspaper to write a piece about the way the Edinburgh Fringe is financed. One week ago, they told him it would be printed in today’s issue. Yesterday, they told him they had decided not to run it. This is the article they are not printing for whatever reason …”
Tag: 08.04.12
Tales Of The Book Of Kells
The extraordinary illuminated manuscript offers more than just gorgeous artwork and Gospel text and commentary: looked at carefully, it can tell us some things about the lives of its creators.
Mali’s Great Cultural Treasures Are Being ‘Crushed’ By A Coup And Civil War
At the National Musuem of Mali in Bamako, “there’s no one around, not a visitor in sight. And that, says the museum’s chief researcher, Fatou Toure Sako, is demoralizing. She says television images showing Islamists destroying some of Mali’s most important historical sites breaks her heart and brings tears to her eyes. They include revered, centuries-old Sufi saints’ mausoleums in Timbuktu and the great door of the Sidya Yahya mosque.”
Science Is Actually Way Fun, If You Just Use Some Great Music And Animation
“Science especially suffers from an unfun reputation: an emotionless discipline practiced by exacting, white-coated brainiacs. Given that recasting the serious with the silly is a classic comedy formula, combined with the number of science teachers eager for ways to reach intimidated students and the general dearth of high-level thinking on YouTube, there’s an underserved audience of science-minded viewers.”
When E-Books Are Cheaper Than A Cuppa, Literature Has A Problem
Cheap e-books are devaluing literature, says crime writer Mark Billingham. If they cost “less than half the price of a cup of tea,” readers don’t value authors or books.
Mihaela Ursuleasa, 33, Classical Pianist
“Ms. Ursuleasa, who was performing internationally by the time she was a teenager, was known for her large tone, fleet fingers and eclectic programming, though she was perhaps most closely associated with Romantic composers like Prokofiev, Chopin and Schumann.”
Is The Music Too Loud At The Olympics? Organizers Say Turn It Up
The London Olympics organizing committee worked with Universa Music “to divide 2,000 plus songs into five distinct playlists that are themed to provide the most appropriate soundtrack to each sport.” But has that music been too loud? They don’t think so.
Turning London’s Southbank Centre Into A Shopping Mall? Bad Planning
“The Southbank Centre should not be like everywhere else. It should be a place apart, where you can breathe a different kind of air and see the city in a different way. Its raised walkways give you a new perspective on the river, and its rugged 1960s architecture, like a craggy rock formation, creates a different sense of time to central London’s frenetic streets. These concrete structures have been much criticised but even though they have been minimally cared-for over several decades they still have nobility and – something increasingly precious because it is getting rarer – the provision of space and surface that is open, free, unprogrammed, unconsumed by branding and marketing.”
Architecture Mecca: Columbus, Indiana … Of Course
“More than 60 public buildings in Columbus have been built by a veritable who’s who of modern masters — I.M. Pei, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier, Harry Weese, Robert Venturi and James Polshek, to name a few.”
We Might Have A Spotify For Audiobooks – And An Alternative To Amazon – At Long Last
“It works like this: users pay £9.99 a month for unlimited access to Bardowl’s library of audiobooks, which they stream via their iPhone or iPad. And, yes, you can listen offline.”