“An imagined conversation in a movie theatre last night…”
Tag: 10.29.09
United Airlines Loses The “United-Breaks-Guitars” Guy’s Luggage
“The video nabbed nearly 6 million views on YouTube and prompted the airline to promise it would do better. But when Carroll flew into Denver International Airport on Sunday, he learned that United had lost his bag. What’s worse, Carroll was in Colorado to do a keynote speech for a group of hundreds of customer-service executives.”
UN Official’s Play About Gaza War Draws Brickbats In Israel
The spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency is performing “a remarkable 20-minute, one-man play intended for Israeli audiences but so far unwelcome in Israeli theatres. It tells the story of the main UN warehouse in Gaza, a storage point for food and aid for a million Palestinians, and how it was hit repeatedly by Israeli artillery shells.”
Five Hours, Three Stages And One Enormous Space: In Memory Of Merce
“There was inevitably a lot of great dance and dancing. But also, inevitably, this was not exactly a dance occasion. … Nor, for that matter was it about Merce (yes, everyone called him and calls him Merce). What distinguished Cunningham from all other great choreographers was the degree of his inclusiveness.”
What We Get Wrong About Grief
“The idea that grief is work that we must do began with Freud. … [But grief] is not work, and it doesn’t occur in stages. It can be short-lived for some people and never-ending for others. Like breathing and consciousness and almost everything else about us, grief fluctuates.”
Owner Threatens To Close Canada’s National Post
“Canwest Global Communications will tell an Ontario court Friday that it will be forced to shut down the National Post, which has lost $62 million [Can] in the last four years, if the newspaper isn’t shifted into a company that holds its other dailies.” The conservative-leaning paper has reportedly never turned a profit.
Louisa May Alcott’s Lifelong Craving For Goodness
“At age 11, she wrote in her journal, … ‘I made good resolutions, and felt better in my heart. If I only kept all I make, I should be the best girl in the world. But I don’t, and so am very bad.’ Decades later, she returned to the journal and attached a note to the entry: ‘Poor little sinner! She says the same at fifty’.”
Bad Driving May Be Genetic (See, Mom? It’s Not My Fault!)
According to a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, people “with a gene variant limiting the availability of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it.”
When MoMA Rejected A Free Warhol
“So we take our hats off today to New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its ability to have a chuckle at its own expense. The institution has tweeted a recent blog post featuring a rejection letter that the museum sent to Andy Warhol in 1956.”
Google Search Could Be A Game Changer For Online Music
Google’s new music search feature, unveiled Wednesday, “was applauded by the music industry, which … is hoping the search feature will direct users to legitimate digital music outlets and in turn help them compete with free but often unauthorized sources of music.” It may also aid iTunes’ competitors.