Reports this week said that conductor Michael Tilson Thomas stopped a New World Symphony performance in Miami last Friday and asked a mother and her fidgeting child in the front row to leave. But MTT has come forward to say that that’s not quite the way things went down. (Social media posts from other audience members have backed him up.) (includes audio)
Tag: 10.22.14
Walk Like A Happier Person, Feel Like A Happier Person
Yes, it sounds like the sort of bromide your Sunday school teacher might have dished out. But some experimental psychologists are finding that this particular “act-as-if” trick can actually work.
Shameless Plug: An Analysis Of The (Now-Deflated) “Tree” In Paris
“What, I ask you, should one expect if one asks artist Paul McCarthy to create a Christmas tree for the place of honor at a renowned, must-attend art fair?” Cat Weaver gives us the bottom line.
Piracy May Not Be Entirely Bad For Television
“Illegal downloading and sharing of film and TV content is a major crime. Media piracy has even become fertile new territory for organised crime rings … But the reasons why ordinary people watch pirated programmes are complex – and the effect on a media brand’s content creators may not be so simple.” (video)
When High Fashion Sparked A Preservation Movement
“At the turn of the 19th century in the U.S. and Europe, it became wildly popular – and that’s an understatement – for ladies to wear feathers and whole taxidermied birds on their hats. … Ornithologists started to sit up and take notice. One estimated that 67 types of birds – often including all of their sub-species – were at risk for extinction.”
Why Are Scary Clowns Stalking Around Britain and France?
“From city to city, people dressed up like circus escapees have been roaming the streets, getting into mischief, and generally scaring the bejeesus out of passers-by. Apart from young children and acute coulrophobics, the spooky-clown epidemic has been taken more or less in a spirit of fun. Until last week, that is.”
“Goodfellas” Actor Sues “The Simpsons” For $250M
“Frank Sivero says that The Simpsons ripped off the Frankie Carbone character he played in 1990’s Goodfellas and he wants to be paid for it. In a lawsuit filed today, the actor says he wants to be paid a lot – $250 million and more for the Springfield Mafia’s Louie.”
All About Douchebags – Where The Epithet Came From, And Who Qualifies
“They are at least preferable to their nearest equivalent, the arsehole, who is petty and spiteful and astringent and actively gets off on other people’s misery. The douchebag just blunders around in his obnoxious pool sliders, naively wondering why nobody’s having as much fun as he is. Boris Johnson? Total douchebag.”
Why Is Getting Data On Artists So Difficult?
“Because almost everything about the ways that artists work seems to defy typical practices for collecting labor and earnings statistics, which may also speak to the larger problems with the ways we collect labor statistics in this country in general, but that’s a discussion for another day.”
What The Success Of John Coltrane’s New Recording Says About Today’s Music Business
“When an album released solely within a physical framework holds its own against major label competitors with digital backing (one thinks of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett again), what does it say about the state of music sales in 2014?”