“What do we do with the writer of 8,000-word explorations of contemporary life? Do we treat the form as apprentice work? Do we continue to associate it with the preciousness of being a writer’s writer, the limited horizon of craft labor?”
Tag: 09.07.13
The Problem With Painting
“The painter’s basic challenge, the manipulation of colors and forms and metaphors on the flat plane with its almost inevitably rectangular shape, is no longer generally seen as art’s alpha and omega, as the primary place in the visual arts where meaning and mystery are believed to come together.”
How Netflix Is Starting To Change The Ways We Watch TV
“While recent studies have shown that services like Netflix and practices like “cord cutting” haven’t reached a point where they are siphoning viewers away from traditional television, a TiVO survey of its subscribers found that more than half also had a Netflix subscription. The company has already won the first major battle: penetrating the living room. Now it is focusing on content.”
Just In Case You Somehow Thought Your Smartphone Was Private, It’s Really Really Not
“The documents state that it is possible for the NSA to tap most sensitive data held on these smart phones, including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where a user has been.”
Throw Together Some Geese, Komodo Dragons, Tennis Balls On Sticks, And Computers …
… and you get the dragons of the HBO hit series “Game of Thrones.”
The Consensus On Starchitect Zaha Hadid Is … That There Isn’t One
“She tests everyone – her staff, her clients, the users of her buildings, and herself – and offers an unspoken deal. If you survive all this, I will make something fantastic, and you could be part of it, is roughly how it goes, and people’s view of her will depend on which part of the deal they experience most.”
For The First Time, Top Award At Venice Goes To A Documentary
And the film – a documentary about Rome’s ring road – was just one surprise in a night of unexpected winners.
Zubin Mehta’s ‘Dream’ Kashmir Concert Creates A Massive Outcry
“‘How can you have a concert in a walled garden, surrounded by rings and rings of security?’ said the novelist Mirza Waheed, one of several Kashmiri cultural figures who protested the event. ‘The entire idea sort of collapses that this is a concert for peace. The people are not invited. It is as simple as that.'”
Murray Gershenz, 91, Obsessive Record Store Owner Who Found A Late Career In Show Biz
“Need a cute or cranky grandfather? Call Murray. He appeared in ‘The Hangover,’ ‘I Love You, Man’ and other movies, and had recurring TV roles on ‘Parks and Recreation,’ ‘The Sarah Silverman Program’ and ‘The Tonight Show.'”
Tech Should Empower – Not Enrapture – People
Red Burns, one of the founders of tech design, saw technology “as something you needed to get to the real work: improving people’s lives, making them feel more connected, bringing delight in big and small ways, and empowering them to affect change.”