“How many of our most joyful memories have been created in front of a screen? If we are to step off this hurtling machine, we must reassert principles that have been lost in the blur. It is time to launch a manifesto for a slow communication movement, a push back against the machines and the forces that encourage us to remain connected to them.”
Tag: 08.21.09
How YouTube Might Have Solved Its Copyright Problems
“With its ContentID program YouTube has created a mechanism that makes it just as easy for copyright owners to make money from unauthorized uploads as to order them deleted, the system’s design purpose. And they are starting to get with the program. In an area known for bitter lawsuits and hastily issued take-down notices, this is that rarest of birds: a feel-good digital music story.”
In Korea – A Town Built On Books
“Built on marshland, former flood plains and paddyfields 30km north-west of Seoul, Paju Book City is an attempt to create an ambitious new town based exclusively around publishing.”
Connecticut Town’s Shakespeare Fest Faces Existential Crisis
“For 30 years beginning in 1955, this community of 50,000 and its theater were central to the production of Shakespeare in America. But today, the legacy of what the theater once was is running headlong into the reality of what it should become.”
The End Of Movie Stars?
“A-list movie stars have long been measured by their ability to fill theaters on opening weekend. But never have so many failed to deliver, resulting in some rare soul-searching by motion picture studios about why the old formula isn’t working — and a great deal of anxiety among stars (and agents) about the potential vaporization of their $20 million paychecks.”
Dispute Over Frida Kahlo Find
“Princeton Architectural Press, which will soon publish a book of Kahlo’s oil paintings, diary entries and personal letters, says it has stumbled across ‘an astonishing lost archive of one of the 20th century’s most revered artists … full of ardent desires, seething fury, and outrageous humour.’ But news of the discovery has prompted a group of Kahlo scholars to denounce the items.”
A New Code For Dealing With Australian Aboriginal Artists
It prohibits dealers from “taking advantage” of artists or their representatives, acting in an unfair, bullying or threatening manner and exerting undue influence. Dealers must act in good faith, which includes not promoting the “dealer’s interests to the detriment of the artist”.
Gotta Dance – Hip-Hop For The Older Set
You have to be older than 60 for this group. “Though they are either retired or have day jobs such as teacher, therapist and legal secretary, the team members are united by a love of dancing. Some already are in dance groups with such names as the Happy Tappers or (inevitably) the Happy Hoofers. But all of them are challenged by hip-hop moves.”
The Book Most Unloaded At UK Second-Hand Book Shops?
It’s Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.”
A Summit To Rethink The Edinburgh Fringe
“With more than 2,000 companies and almost 35,000 performances, many feel it needs to change radically.”