Alex Ross’ playlist (tags: classical_music CSO) The two iron laws of cycling in the Netherlands (tags: across_the_board the_Netherlands) San Marcos Record: The Storyteller (tags: across_the_board the_Netherlands) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is making a sad mistake (tags: arts_management cultural_affairs media) 500 years of art in 1 YouTube video (tags: cultural_affairs new_media)
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A while ago I read about Best Buy’s secret intranet site, a look-a-like site of bestbuy.com, but with different prices to mislead customers. I really didn’t believe it; why would a big company like Best Buy do something so stupid? I filed that story away in my mind. A little while later my friend...
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Just before last week’s trip to California I ordered three copies of an, I am sure to most people, unknown book. One for me, one for my mother, and one for my father-in-law. This book has some almost implausible personal connections: the author now resides in San Marcos, Texas (where my father-in-law was born),...
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A year or two ago I was standing before the cage of a bald eagle in Lincoln Park Zoo. The poor bird is crippled and can’t fly anymore, so it just sits there. You can imagine my surprise when the lady next to me exclaimed in a nostalgic and patriotic mood that this was...
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Let me start by saying that I am probably the only Chicagoan who likes the 2003 addition to Soldier Field. This week conductor Kent Nagano programmed Brahms’s A German Requiem with interludes by Wolfgang Rhim, a contemporary composer. Few were happy about it, some even offended. For example, Sounds & Fury author A.C. Douglas:...
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You might have already seen the tulips, artsy bike installations and windmills on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile these past weeks. If you were wondering, yes, that’s the doing of us Dutch people, in partnership with the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. Last Monday I went to the Dutch Consulate’s celebration of Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day...
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Spanish-born Canadian author Yann Martel has a very unique way of bringing attention to the wish for more long-term and stable funding of Canadian arts. Publicity wise, this unique grassroots, guerrilla public relations effort is paying off. Let’s hope it gets the arts the funding it deserves. Martel directly appeals to Canadian Prime Minister...
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