“[The] media has mythologised her as a diva who sometimes uses a megaphone in her Clerkenwell [London] office, and who hobnobs with A-list friends such as Karl Lagerfeld. She encourages it, playfully: today her toenails are the colour of Greek lemons, to match [her] chic canary-yellow coat.”
Tag: 09.06.10
Roald Dahl: the Shlimazl Behind the Monster
“Dahl had an idyllic childhood until the age of 3, when his older sister suddenly died and was followed, weeks later, by her heartbroken father. This was the beginning of a toxic tsunami of bad luck that would toss Dahl around for the rest of his life. … [It’s] sometimes hard to know … whether to root for Dahl or for whatever angry hell-demon seemed so determined to bring him down.”
William Gibson Imagines the Future of Book Publishing
“My dream scenario would be that you could go into a bookshop, examine copies of every book in print that they’re able to offer, then for a fee have them produce in a minute or two a beautiful finished copy in a dust jacket that you would pay for and take home. Book making machines exist and they’re remarkably sophisticated.”
Tate Modern Imperative: We Have To Grow
“Nicholas Serota, director of all the Tate museums (a network that includes Tate Britain across the river in Milbank along with branches in Liverpool and St. Ives) and the mastermind behind the Tate Modern, insists that despite the rocky economy and the recent announcement of government cutbacks for arts financing, the Tate Modern must grow.”
Spat Over Franzen Coverage – Image Or Quality?
“Really? Is that where we are now, framing the discussion over literature in terms of public image rather than language and narrative? What does this have to do with the quality?”
Seiji Ozawa Conducts (Briefly) for First Time Since Cancer Treatment
“The 75-year-old Japanese conductor opened the Saito Kinen Festival in his homeland on Sunday. He is the festival’s founder and art [sic] director. Ozawa conducted the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, using a chair for support.”
Access Denied: How Fortress Britain Is Blocking Cultural Exchange
Lyn Gardner argues that current British immigration rules that refuse visas to artists from non-EU countries are “causing damage to the UK’s reputation as a country that is open to engagement with international artists.”
Mr. Waterstone Wants His Bookstore Chain Back
“Tim Waterstone, the founder of the [UK] bookshop chain that bears his name, is reportedly mulling a bid to buy back the stores if the current owner, HMV, fails to improve the business by next year. The bid would be valued at £100m or more.”
“The Accordion Is Not a Punchline”
The maligned old squeezebox and its nearest relatives are indispensable to countless types of music, from Mexico to Ireland to Argentina to Louisiana to France to South Africa – not to forget polka, of course. Why does the accordion get no respect? Pauline Oliveros, doyenne of experimental composers and possibly the world’s first avant-garde accordionist, has some ideas.
The Musical Art Of Revival (Or Mimicry Or Tribute Or Raw Material)
A growing number of artists are drawing “from the music of the sixties and seventies with great fidelity, sometimes from one performer in particular. The goal of these artists isn’t just able mimicry, though a skeptic would say that the work begins there. But the method accepts a certain pragmatism of pop–that enough work has been done that starting from scratch is just plain inefficient.”