“Done right, a spire makes its leap so deftly and so inevitably that a skyscraper would seem incomplete without it. Done wrong, it’s a clunky afterword, an unnecessary bit of embroidery, a vainglorious flagpole that’s simply trying to set a record.”
Tag: 10.27.08
Author Tony Hillerman, 83
Hillerman lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes began to dim, as his hearing faded, as rheumatoid arthritis turned his hands into claws.
Low-rated TV Shows Getting Reprieve Because Of The Economy?
“Industry observers say the recent cluster of low-rated shows granted full-season orders might have something to do with network executives watching the plunging Dow rather than their shows’ falling Nielsens.”
Donor Rewards: Naming Rights That Expire
Arts organizations sell naming rights to their buildings (and pieces of their buildings). But a Toronto philanthropist has put an expiration date on his naming right. “As a condition of their gift, the Campbells have said the AGO’s contemporary-art space can carry their name only until 2020, whereupon the gallery is free to have another big-bucks philanthropist pay to have his, her or their names added to the centre.”
Oakland Ballet Rises Again
“Could Ronn Guidi really reclaim the troupe he founded in 1968 – the troupe that foundered and finally folded seven years after his 1999 retirement – and bring it back to life with its old plucky spirit? But Saturday at the Paramount Theatre, extra points for perseverance were no longer necessary.”
The Perils (And Rewards) Of Being Billy Elliot
“The drama demands so much of a young performer–emotionally, vocally, physically–that it hardly seems sane to have tried telling it onstage. Billy goes full tilt for all but two scenes. There have been many injuries, and it has often happened, including to Trent in London, that a boy finished Act I but could not go on for Act II. Even leaving the role can be traumatic.”
And Now… Open Source Hardware
“In a loosely coordinated movement, dozens of hardware inventors around the world have begun to freely publish their specs. There are open source synthesizers, MP3 players, guitar amplifiers, and even high-end voice-over-IP phone routers. You can buy an open source mobile phone to talk on, and a chip company called VIA has just released an open source laptop: Anyone can take its design, fabricate it, and start selling the notebooks.”
Political Ads Have Been Propping Up Local TV
But after next week it’ll all be gone. “Given all of the bailing that the government has been doing in the private sector, perhaps it is only fitting that politics has been a lifesaver for a media industry. It is one of the certainties of democracy that America will never run out of hot air.”
The Art Forger As Touchstone
Han van Meegeren, “since his death, in 1947, has become a compulsive reference for philosophical discussions of fact and fraud in art–a subject bound to disquiet art lovers. (Be honest. What you are given to believe about an art work is going to color your experience of it.)”