Tag: 12.15.04

Google, Schmoogle! Canada’s Got It Covered.

Google’s plan to digitize large chunks of the knowledge contained in major U.S. libraries is sure to get lots of attention, but the fact is that major digitization efforts have been underway in Canada for some time. “Many major libraries and national archives are digitizing parts of their collections, not as a way of replacing physical libraries, but as an extension of their reach… Library and Archives Canada, which combines the former National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada, has been especially active, scanning millions of pages of documents a year. It has now put all of the publications, including pamphlets and books, printed in Canada in the 18th and 19th century on-line for the public to access.”

Is Berlin Deadening The Human Spirit?

Berlin imposes strict rules on any architect wishing to erect a new building, rules drawn up and enforced by the city’s powerful director of urban development. The strict code has had some benefits, but overall, Lisa Rochon says that it is killing German architecture. “Urban-design regulations and zoning bylaws… dictate the maximum height of the building (22 metres), a setback for upper storeys, a careful ratio between window openings and masonry walls and a preference for buff-coloured limestone. The preferred elevation looks taut and minimal. The result is an architectural flatness that, when combined with the city’s grey winter light, can deaden the human spirit.”

The OutSourced Editor

“Alas, the era when the old-school Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins turned F. Scott Fitzgerald’s sheaf of scribbles into This Side of Paradise appears to be well and truly over, with many publishing houses appearing to be not much more than glorified Kinko’s that acquire, bind, print and ship out.” Editors who acquire books at big publishing houses rarely actually edit anymore; the job is outsourced to freelancers…

You Pay The Piper, You Call The Tune

The regional government of Wales has announced that it will be bypassing the UK’s Arts Council and taking over the fiscal management of all the major Welsh arts groups immediately. The change marks a dramatic shift in the way the arts are funded and managed in the UK, as politicians and bureaucrats will now have absolute authority over the affected groups, without the usual democratic council of experts acting as middleman. Strangely, no one in the Welsh arts community seems to be protesting too loudly.

Lebrecht: I Was Banned By The Met

Norman Lebrecht was asked recently to appear on the Metropolitan Opera broadcast as a commentator. Then he was disinvited. “The Met’s curse is unlikely to blight my life, as it did the careers of many artists. My only surprise was that it hadn’t happened before. In a quarter of a century of reporting musical affairs and commenting on them polemically, I have never been censored. I have been threatened with legal writs and, once, with a fist in my face, but no arts organisation until now has ever felt it necessary to shut me up.”

Major Moves At SPAC

The chairman of New York State’s embattled Saratoga Performing Arts Center has resigned in the wake of a scathing audit which accused the center of absentee management and severe negligence in its oversight of one of the Northeast’s prominent summer arts venues. The SPAC board also canceled its planned $400,000 buyout of its president, Herb Chesbrough, which was specifically targeted for withering criticism by the auditors.