“It’s been only three weeks since I announced that Moyers & Company would end, as originally planned, on January 3. … What I could not anticipate was the response of our viewers … We received thousands of well-written and heartfelt messages. … Our funders also weighed in with an equally simple but passionate message: keep going.”
Tag: 11.15.13
Publishers Still Have Lots Of Money To Bet On Big Novels
“Publishers lament that their margins are razor-thin and literary fiction doesn’t sell and the days of big advances are long gone. But guess what? They’re rolling in cash. They’re splashing it about like it’s 1989. What recession? What Twitter? What video games? They are longing, desperately longing, not just for the next sado-eccliasto-vampire pulp, but for a certain kind of old-fashioned sociopolitical Big Novel. And betting on it.”
Why It’s Easier To Be Innovative In Ballet Than In Opera
“Every classic work evolves through performance, but while opera imposes some fairly firm constants, the substance of a classic ballet is often just one grand jeté away from the drawing board.”
Over-Hyped: Just Because Music Is New Doesn’t Mean It’s Innovative
“Unfortunately, ‘new’ has become one of the most loosely and overused words in popular music. The term is most problematic when used to justify programming policies or the supposed altruism of the music industry.”
Can Podcasting Ever Be A Moneymaking Proposition?
“Producing a podcast can cost as little as the price of a good computer. But the amount of labor that goes into the production can be the equivalent of a full-time job.”
Developers Win A(nother) Battle Against Graffiti Artists
“‘I love the work and it’s going to tear my heart out to see it torn down, but as a judge I have to apply the law,’ said the Brooklyn federal court judge Frederic Block.”
How To Write 5000 Words A Day For (Approximately) $20 An Hour
“It isn’t particularly hard to write any of this because it’s already obvious how the writing should go. This type of writing is like driving a car to the airport; you already know how to get there, you just need to make sure you follow the rules and don’t crash along the way.”
Lectures Never Worked, So Why Are We Addicted To Them (Instead Of, Say, Holodecks)?
“Go to Second Life and check out a classroom–and they’re exactly like they are in the real world. It’s strange, because this is a place you can move by teleporting, you can do whatever you want.”
Paris’ National Museum Of Modern Art Gets A New Director
The internal appointment of Bernard Blistène, the director of the cultural development department at the Pompidou, came as a surprise to some observers.
Ours Brains Work The Way Google Searches Work (Or Don’t)
“To capture more complex patterns, the brain does better by amalgamating and integrating information from many different neurons with very different response patterns. The brain crowd-sources.”