“Some studies have found that horn players are blasted with some of the loudest sounds in the orchestra. The levels are so high that many countries’ occupational health regulations would limit exposure like that to a half-hour a day.”
Tag: 09.26.12
Reality? Naah – We All Live In A Giant Computer
“Whatever kind of reality you think you’re living in, you’re probably wrong. The universe is a computer, and everything that goes on in it can be explained in terms of information processing.”
New Trend In Urban Design: Vegitecture
“Technologically speaking, turning a building into a living, self-sustaining one is complex, typically requiring a combination of sunshades, solar panels, and ventilation to catch water.”
Can An Arts Center Really Anchor An Urban Makeover? Newark Is Going To Try
“The New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts is the shining star of the state’s largest city, something that works in a place that has lots of things that don’t. … What NJPAC, as it is known, doesn’t have is a neighborhood, but it has the land and a plan, and that’s where Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff comes in.”
Book Bloggers Aren’t Killing Lit Crit, They’re Saving It
“What blogs can give readers is a sense of trust that, in professional circles, only the biggest lit-crit names – such as James Wood or Michiko Kakutani – can attain: a ‘criticism with personality’. They are expressing opinions about books in particular, and literature in general, based on a particular life of reading, written in a critical but non-technical language. What they can also give, crucially, is attention to books other than the newly published.”
Jeffrey Eugenides On Writing The First Sentence Of A Novel
“[What] I’m searching for with the first sentence is the entire book. … And the process is not always the same, but finally there is a sentence that seems to suggest the entire narrative and the tone and the narrative strategy and everything all in one. … Whenever someone compliments me on the first page of Middlesex, I say, ‘Thanks, it took me two years to write’.”
Reality TV Stars! Ballet West’s Series Renewed For Second Season
“After months of negotiations, The CW has ordered a second season of Breaking Pointe, the docu-drama set inside Salt Lake City’s Ballet West dance company. The show was not exactly a hit in Season 1. It averaged fewer than a million viewers during its six-episode run from May 31 to July 5, which is a weak showing even for The CW network. But Breaking Pointe did have a large online audience, and that was enough for the network to bring it back.”
What Are The Implications Of The Louvre’s New Islamic Art Wing?
“It has been granted a privileged position in the Louvre’s central courtyard alongside I M Pei’s glass pyramid, and will house the largest collection of Islamic art in Europe – a rotating selection from the Louvre’s 18,000 strong Islamic archive. It’s all very exciting, but what, exactly, are the implication of this grand new home for the cream of the Islamic cultural crop?”
Why Family Movies Are Getting Edgier
“Those that push the envelope in terms of content tend to do better both critically and commercially.”
Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center Faces Big Layoffs, Cuts
“An austere 2013 budget has been proposed that calls for eliminating 17 staff positions, about 10 percent of the center’s jobs … Programming and advertising costs for 2013 will be reduced by roughly $2.5 million to around $3.5 million.”