“With backing from the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, National Geographic Al Arabiya aims to reach readers across 15 countries from Morocco to the Persian Gulf. It will contain translated articles from the 122-year-old U.S. edition and original pieces tailored to the region.”
Tag: 09.22.10
God vs. Higher Power: The Original Arguments Over AA’s Big Book
“For millions of addicts around the world, Alcoholics Anonymous’s basic text – informally known as the Big Book – is the Bible. And as they’re about to find out, the Bible was edited.”
Project Gutenberg Adds a Smartphone App
The e-reader app for Android devices, which updates itself automatically, divides the entire PG catalogue by category and includes a funcion for book-sharing.
Walking Into Someone Else’s New Production at the Met
When Stephen Wadsworth replaced Peter Stein as director of the Met’s new Boris Godunov, this is what he faced: “mostly completed set and costumes by two longtime collaborators of Mr. Stein’s; a cast and a conductor, Valery Gergiev, hired to work with his predecessor; and a dramatic conception of Russia’s greatest historical opera that was unknown to him.”
Composer Geoffrey Burgon, 69
While he’s most familiar for the scores to such popular TV and film productions as Brideshead Revisited; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; and Monty Python’s Life of Brian,, Burgon’s primary focus was concert music. He composed an opera, music for dance, orchestral scores, and song cycles; his sacred music is now standard repertory for choirs all over England.
Britain’s Museums Are the Nation’s Pride (So Don’t Cut Their Funding)
Jonathan Jones: “The rebuilding and renovations that have taken place in the last decade have rescued our museums. But they have also done more than that. A city or town or rural area with a fine museum is a place with pride. … The recent growth and expansion of our galleries is part of a reborn pride in modern Britain.”
Detroit Symphony Heads Into Last-Chance Negotiations
“Detroit Symphony Orchestra management and players have scheduled an eleventh-hour negotiating session Friday morning in an effort to settle a rancorous contract dispute before a potential work stoppage.” The previous day is the last one for which the DSO is legally required to pay its musicians.
‘It’s a Strange Hybrid’: The Active Author as Book Critic
Lesley McDowell: “I can’t think of another art form where the ‘practitioner’ and the critic overlap like this. … [Ironically, few] critics have anything to gain by penning a bad review. … Writers, on the other hand, have everything to gain, and that’s when the hybrid crossover becomes a problem.”
Frank Gehry Defends His Rejected Design for Jerusalem Museum
The architect hastens to remind us that the reason his design for the Museum of Tolerance was, at $250 million, twice as expensive as the new version, is “[b]ecause mine was twice as big. People are always complaining that my work is too expensive.” He says of the project, “I’m glad I got out of it.”
America’s Other Culture War
Ron Rosenbaum: “The great schism in American culture, the most deeply rooted civil war, is not the rift between the two major political parties but a battle at the center of our other two-party system, the two parties of societal self-diagnosis: the Party of Narcissism (PON) and the Party of Low Self-Esteem (PLSE).”