Is humor the New Thing in art? “A lingering tendency among critics to dismiss artists who employ humor as mere jokers hasn’t prevented such artists from turning to satire with renewed vigor. Cartoon images now seem to be everywhere—in painting and sculpture as well as video and digital animation, tacked to walls or drawn directly on them. The funniest-looking figures, however, are less Popeye than R. Crumb’s bearded Mr. Natural, fraught with anxiety, swearing, sweating, and questioning every feeling and thought.”
Tag: 09.04
First-Time Author Vs. The Publishing Machine (Is This How It Works?)
A writer spends a couple of years researching and writing a long book, only to be apalled by the process of getting it to print. Where’s the editing? The support? The promotion? Is this really the state of book publishing in the early 21st Century?
The Recognition Is Great, But…
Competitions for composers are a difficult thing. How do you declare a “best” piece? Based on what? On the other hand, winning competitions is the only way many composers can get recognition for their work…
What Sank City Opera’s Ground Zero Move?
“The thrill of the initial idea of an opera house at Ground Zero seemed to have bowed to a fear of highbrow stuffiness and the burdens of a 2,200-seat venue in the cultural complex’s construction. But criticism surrounding New York City Opera’s proposal was aimed less at the institution itself — and at its innovation and its vital niche within the greater scheme of the New York cultural world — than at preconceived notions of a musty old opera house, largely filled by the elderly with the occasional sleeping grandchild in a clip-on tie, in the midst of an economically thriving Ground Zero.”
Pop Goes The Classical (Or Is It The Other Way Around?)
Why do do many pop stars try to write “classical” music? “Do they really aspire to be one of us? Are we to be envied by millionaires with legions of fans? Have we, at last, arrived? Perhaps we have, but truth be told, it seems more and more like we want to be one of them — and ought to be, according to some critics.”
The Brilliant Killjoy
A UK psychologist named Gordon Rugg is making headlines for unraveling the mystery of “one of the world’s great oddities: the Voynich manuscript, a hand-lettered book written in an unknown code that has frustrated cryptographers since its discovery in an Italian villa in 1912. How impregnable is the Voynich? During World War II, US Army code breakers – the guys who blew away Nazi ciphers – grappled with the manuscript in their spare time and came up empty. Since then, decoding the book’s contents has become an obsession for geeks and puzzle nuts everywhere.” Rugg’s ironclad conclusion, after only a few months of work: the Voynich isn’t a code at all. It’s a hoax.
Books As Dating Aid?
“The London-based arm of the venerable Penguin publishing house has begun to advertise its books as dating aids. According to Penguin, you’re not good looking—or Good Booking—unless you’re holding a book. ‘What women really want is a man with a Penguin. You may not even need to read it, just bend the covers, let it stick out of your pocket and the book will do the talking’!”