Friday Miscellanea

Why do standing ovations now seem obligatory? Over my lifetime, the cultural norm of standing ovations has gone from rare to common, which makes it hard to acknowledge an actual masterpiece. The now …

Friday Miscellanea

Does this make you sing "I wanna be sedated"?  Asset manager takes stake in publisher, commits $1.7 billion to buying copyrights, including Joey Ramone’s Brookfield Asset Management  Inc.  …

Friday Miscellanea

The New Criterion has an extensive (but not nearly extensive enough) review of this year's Salzburg Festival . Jay Nordlinger has been attending this festival for a long time and it shows: The re…

Friday Miscellanea

Via Marginal Revolution we learn that Art Garfunkle has been keeping a record of what he has been reading since 1968. Looking at the list for recent years I am abashed. And I thought I was a reade…

Friday Miscellanea

Here is another in a steadily lengthening series of attempts to understand how the Internet is changing the nature of culture in society:  The Book That Explains Our Cultural Stagnation . “There was …

Friday Miscellanea

The important news of the week:  DAVID GARRETT SELLS NEW YORK APT TO BUY A GUARNERIUS . The German violinist just spent 3.5 mllion Euros at auction on a Guarneri del Gesù. To afford it, he tells Bild…

Friday Miscellanea

Making up a bit for not personally attending the Salzburg Festival this year is this ample New York Times Review:  At the Salzburg Festival, Riches, Retreads and Notes of Caution The premiere of a ne…

Friday Miscellanea

I don't know how I missed this in the May issue of The Critic:  Before and after gould . I first heard of the indivisible connection between Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Glenn Gould when I was …