“The relationship the middle class had with north Indian classical music from the mid-19th century onward was hardly lacking in ambivalence. It was identified with the prostitutes’ quarters, and with the bazaar, where its most accomplished practitioners were reportedly found. … By the time the middle class began to show a grudging but genuine curiosity, it had become, by the new standards of 19th-century India, disreputable, and had to, in a sense, be Vedantaised.”
Tag: 09.21.12
Keats Was A Bona Fide Opium Addict, Says New Bio
“John Keats, … a devotee of aesthetic isolation who swooned at the thought of his so-called ‘bright star’ Fanny Brawne and succumbed to TB when he was 25, was an opium addict. The claim is made in a new biography, to be published on Monday, by Prof Nicholas Roe.”
In Crazy Secret Publishing Agreements, Readers Lose Out
Not in love with the author of the Harry Potter series and her new adult book: “The arrival of The Casual Vacancy has been more remarkable for showing the ruthless, bullying side of publishing that has become all too common. And, given Rowling’s history of litigation, one can only imagine she has done little to discourage it.”
How Can The BBC Support Writers?
A new drama and comedy-writing prize changes the game in the U.K.
Pandora, Other Streaming Music Services Getting Help From The House
“Titled the Internet Radio Fairness Act, the bill would make it so that the royalty board must apply the same calculations to Internet radio as it does for satellite and cable radio.”
The Hobbit: It’s Not Just For Kids (As Hollywood Clearly Knows)
“Bilbo’s story is much more than just the development of an unlikely and reluctant hero. His Baggins side, which looks at times like mere parochialism and timidity, doesn’t fade and disappear as he adjusts to the world of adventure. Instead, Tolkien maintains the balance between these two aspects of Bilbo’s character, showing how they mature into courage and wisdom.”
Did Pacific Standard Time Actually Accomplish Anything for L.A.?
“The city did gain some of that hard-to-measure quality known as cultural cachet, with 80% of one group of respondents agreeing ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ that it ‘made me think more highly of L.A. as an arts/cultural destination.'” But museum attendance took a dive.
Sotheby’s Gets To China First
Beating out Christie’s for an actual presence in China, the art auction house has plans to establish itself inside a new free port in Beijing.
How To Adapt A (Spicy But) Lifesaving Young Adult Novel To The Big Screen
How did author and filmmaker Stephen Chbosky make his 1999 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, with its bad language, underage drinking, suicide, drug use and sex, into a PG-13 movie? An actors’ contest over the f-word didn’t hurt.
Rallying The Conservative Troops – With Poetry?
“In politics, mere dubious facts don’t ignite the media, or capture the imagination of the fact-laden undecided voter, with the same potency as exceptionally elegant, or pathetically inartful, expression. Politicians must be very afraid of the crudely put. So, is there a poet for Romney?”