Tag: 11.27.00

AS BAD AS ALL THAT?

Is American culture going to the dogs? Morris Berman thinks so: His book “Twilight of American Culture” paints “a copious chamber of cultural horrors: corporate publishing and the death of small bookstores, New Age platitudes and spiritual nostrums, ignorant college students and their jargon-ridden post-modernist mentors … you get the idea. For blame, Berman trots out The Usual Suspects: globalization, corporate domination, endless greed, insidious marketing, the media circus, and of course, the stupidity and gullibility of the American public.” Really? – The Idler 11/27/00

THE NEW CAPITALISM

“With Russia’s government strapped for cash, the country’s sprawling network of great arts institutions is being forced into the unfamiliar world of commerce. The Russia Museum is one of the winners, organising an ever-expanding network of souvenir shops, a web site, and this year a record 15 foreign exhibitions. None of this has come easy to Russia’s museums and theatres. For 70 years the former Communist regime paid their entire budget, and also taught that private enterprise was a sin.” – The Scotsman 11/27/00

THE PROBLEM WITH PUBLISHING

“The real problem is not books but publishing, or publishing as we have known it. Free trade, globalization and the Internet are having their disruptive way with what once was a profession that operated like a gentleman’s intellectual club. Ironically, the country that appears to be suffering the most from consolidation of the publishing industry is the United States. Even more ironic, the country best equipped to withstand the global behemoths may be Canada.” – The Globe & Mail (Canada)

CART BEFORE THE HORSE?

It’s somewhat surprising the publishing industry is still betting millions on the future market for e-books, given the dismal performance of the CD-ROM and the fact that reliable e-book technology is still in development. Nevertheless, authors, publishers, online distributors, and e-book middlemen are feverishly trying to stake their claims in the new digital landscape. “Everyone at the table has an eye on someone else’s plate, even before the food has arrived.” – New York Times

WIN THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND SELL … 233 COPIES?

Susan Sontag’s “In America” sold only 233 copies for the week ending Nov. 19, “which would reflect only a few days of award buzz. ‘In America’ – which has received mixed reviews – has sold only 3,972 copies since being published in January. Chances are, the award will raise that number, but to judge by the halfhearted reception Sontag got at the ceremony, the book inspires mixed feelings.” – Inside.com

EARLY MUSIC

“In 1912, Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the phonograph, funded a massive talent search throughout Europe, with the hope of finding some outstanding artists to record for his own Edison Record Company. More than 300 singers agreed to make two-minute cylinders to give Edison some idea of their voices.” – Public Arts

THE MYTH OF FIRST PERFORMANCE

There’s always been an aura about “The Premiere” of a new piece of music, a sense that, most often with the composer present or involved in some way, that a first performance provides some special window into a work. In reality though, “far from receiving an absolute truth, those present at these revelations were more often given half-glimpses of unpolished works in their infancy. That is, when they could hear the music at all.” – The New Republic

CHAPLIN THE COMPOSER

When Charlie Chaplin won an Oscar for his movie “Limelight,” it wasn’t for his acting but for composing the film’s original score – a talent few of his fans are aware of. “Perhaps because he was so multifaceted – a comic actor of extraordinary imagination, an untiring, perfectionist director, the co-founder of United Artists – it seems unfair that Chaplin had one more talent. But, though it is largely overlooked today, the creator of the ‘Little Tramp’ was an accomplished musician who wrote soundtracks for nearly all of his films.” – The Guardian