Film critic Peter Bradshaw has fallen prey to the addictive allure of YouTube. “In parallel with its own exponential growth, my fascination with YouTube has galloped into a raging obsession. Whole evenings, theoretically dedicated to writing, have been hijacked by a terrible need to click away from the Microsoft Word document, onto the internet browser, and from there the lure of YouTube is irresistible. What’s not to be fascinated by? However slick or however rickety, the best of these mini-movies have an unmediated quality, a found-object realness that is completely lacking in anything available in the cinema or on TV.”
Tag: 10.24.06
For £11,100, Rights To An Unknown’s Lyrics
An unknown London singer-songwriter harnessed the power of eBay to auction his words — and it worked. “Jonathan Haselden has spent the last four months marketing his lyrics as a way of raising money to promote himself and his music. The idea is that individuals and companies can buy song lines, use them in any way they wish and, if all goes to plan, get a share of the royalties when the song is successful.”
Kennedy Breaks Arm
Violinist Kennedy has broken his arm in a bicycle accident. “Most of Kennedy’s performances, all cancelled through the month of November, were to have been based on his recently issued debut jazz album, Blue Note Sessions,”
On The Annual Deluge Of Movies For Grownups
“Why does Hollywood put out virtually all of its best adult-oriented movies in the last 12 weeks of the year? The simple answer: Oscar fever. The industry’s obsession with the Academy Awards, which began as a symbol of achievement and are now a high-powered marketing tool, has transformed the end of the year into the Oscar Follies, offering a legitimate batch of award contenders surrounded by a scrum of hapless pretenders being released at year’s end only because of studio delusions, blind adherence to conventional wisdom and arm-twisting by narcissistic stars and filmmakers. The result is often a bloodbath.”
If The Electricity Is On, So Is Iraq’s “Daily Show”
A parody newscast in the style of “The Daily Show” is winning audiences in Iraq. “Debuting last month during Ramadan, while families gathered to break their fast after sundown, the show, ‘Hurry Up, He’s Dead,’ became the talk of Baghdad, delighting and shocking audiences with its needling of anyone with a hand in Iraqis’ gloomy predicament today. … The show’s success is a testament to the gallows humor with which many Iraqis now view their lives — still lacking basic services and plagued by unrelenting violence more than three years after the American-led invasion.”
Meditation: Better Than Caffeine
“Meditation is often credited with helping people feel more focused and energetic, but are the benefits measurable? A new study suggests that they are. When researchers tested the alertness of volunteers, they found that the practice proved more effective than naps, exercise or caffeine.”
Turn Down That iPod! (Or: High Volume = Risk)
“Avid iPod users who wonder if they are putting their hearing at risk may find some relief in a new study that tries to arrive at guidelines for safe listening levels. The key to avoiding hearing damage, the researchers say, appears to be limiting not so much how long one listens to music but how loud it is played.” Full blast, it seems, is an officially unhealthy setting….
To Safeguard Cultural Heritage, U.N. Spreads Nuclear Technology
“Curators at top museums in Europe and the United States have long reached for the instruments of nuclear science to hit treasures of art with invisible rays. The resulting clues have helped answer vexing questions of provenance, age and authenticity. Now such insights are going global. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations unit best known for fighting the spread of nuclear arms, is working hard to foster such methods in the developing world, letting scientists and conservators in places like Peru, Ghana and Kazakhstan act as better custodians of their cultural heritage.”
Artist With Alzheimer’s Paints His Eroding Self
“When he learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, William Utermohlen, an American artist in London, responded in characteristic fashion. ‘From that moment on, he began to try to understand it by painting himself,’ said his wife, Patricia Utermohlen, a professor of art history. … The paintings starkly reveal the artist’s descent into dementia, as his world began to tilt, perspectives flattened and details melted away. His wife and his doctors said he seemed aware at times that technical flaws had crept into his work, but he could not figure out how to correct them.”