“Although Mr. Styron’s ouevre seems somewhat slender in retrospect, each of his major novels built upon its predecessor’s achievements, working variations on earlier ideas, while amplifying them through the echo chamber of history.”
Tag: 11.03.06
The Chelsea Powerhouse
15 years ago, Manhattan’s Chelsea was an urban blight. Now “by one count, made by the Web site chelseaartgalleries.com, there are now 318 galleries in the neighborhood, many more than SoHo had at its peak. Along with the garment district and the diamond district in Midtown, Chelsea has emerged as one of the largest collections of like businesses in the city’s history.”
Updating The Bernstein Thing
“The field of classical music has long been waiting for some musician to come along who could use television with Leonard Bernstein’s galvanizing impact. The closest, it seemed, has been the dynamic maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, a natural who has masterminded some impressive shows. Until recently, though, TV had not been a central component of Mr. Thomas’s work. That has now changed.”
Where Science And Religion Part Company
“Trying to quantify religious experience by counting the number of times a person reports attending church, the most commonly used index of religious involvement, is like trying to measure a sunbeam with a ruler: It may be possible, but the essential character of the experience is lost in the process. It is like trying to quantify the aesthetic experience of listening to a Beethoven symphony by counting the number of times a listener smiles.”
Cities Vie For Movie Tourism
“Movie tourism is such a thriving business – witness the planeloads of pilgrims to New Zealand in the wake of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ – that tourist offices from Hawaii to the hinterlands are leveraging their connections to Hollywood.”