To this list of English-language classics, we’ve added three new classics by Jane Austen — Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey — all of which are byproducts of the new television series, The Jane Austen Season. You’ll also find some new audio files from the great Librivox collection, including E. M. Forster’s Howards End, Charlotte Bronte’s Jayne Eyre, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise. And finally we’ve added some selected poetry and prose by Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau.To review the longer list of classics, click here.
YouTube is a little more than two years old. It’s a mere toddler. But, it’s now owned by an overgrown, fully-bearded nine year old. Yes, that would be Google, and that means that YouTube is ready to storm its way into the media mainstream, pampers and all.
You can be sure that GooTube has already cooked up several strategies that will lead the video unit to media domination. But, even to the untrained media observer, it’s fairly clear that Google’s video unit has chosen the 2008 election as an arena in which it intends to compete with other major media outfits for eyeballs.
In April, YouTube launched its political channel CitizenTube (get more info here) and, along with it, its first major line of video programming called You Choose ’08. The concept here is simple and promising: Citizens ask questions to the ’08 candidates, and the candidates respond. The results, however, have been largely disappointing. When you strip everything away, what you get are politicians speaking the same platitudes that we’ve seen for decades on TV. (See a sample reply here.) The only difference is that the video quality is worse, and they’re managing to get their platitudes in front of a young demographic, which is no small feat. For better or for worse, YouTube is to the ’08 election what MTV (remember Bill playing the sax?) was to the ’92 election.
While neither CitizenTube nor the political campaigns are using the video platform in revolutionary ways, the millions of average users who make YouTube what it is are doing a better job of it.
Of particular interest is the way in which videos are emerging on YouTube that counter images being carefully projected by candidates and their campaigns. Here are two quick examples.
GOP candidate Mitt Romney has been predictably working to cast himself as a social conservative. Twice in recent months, he has shown up at Pat Robertson’s Regent University to deliver lines like this:
“We’re shocked by the evil of the Virginia Tech shooting…” “I opened my Bible shortly after I heard of the tragedy. Only a
few verses, it seems, after the Fall, we read that Adam and Eve’s
oldest son killed his younger brother. From the beginning, there has
been evil in the world.”
…“Pornography and violence
poison our music and movies and TV and video games. The Virginia Tech
shooter, like the Columbine shooters before him, had drunk from this
cesspool.”
But then, however inconveniently, videos from Mitt Romney’s past political campaigns show up on YouTube, ones which should make evangelicals think twice, and there is not much Romney can do about it. The past hurts, but it doesn’t lie:
Then there is Hillary Clinton. She’s got the money, the party machine is backing her, trying to wrap up the nomination with a bow. But then a damning attack ad crops up on YouTube. This pitch for Barack Obama remixes the “1984” TV ad that famously introduced Apple computers to America, and it casts Hillary as a political automaton, an image that rings true for many. (The Obama campaign denies having anything do with the video, and its creator remains unknown.)
It is with videos like these that YouTube gets politically interesting. Just as quickly as a political campaign projects an image for Romney or Clinton, your average web user can scrounge up footage that calls that image into question. A retort is always possible, which was never the case on TV. And the cost of delivering/countering a message runs next to nothing. Again a first. YouTube equalizes, and it isn’t a terrain on which the rich can instantly claim victory. Just ask Romney and his over $200 million in personal wealth. What good has it done him in YouTube land?
We now serve you 25 art/visual art blogs, all of which have also been folded into a larger list of 100+ culture blogs. We’re now calling it The Big List of Culture Blogs (pretty creative, eh), and we’ll add to it over time.
Art News Blog: The blog digs up new stories, reviews, guides, and articles found online and shares them each day. Stories have an international focus with an emphasis on the visual arts.
Art World Salon: Looks at the fast-paced transformations taking place in the global art world. Frequently looks at the economic side of things.
Conscientious: A weblog about fine-art photography (and more).
Contemporary Pulitzer: An art blog put together jointly by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.
Cronaca: A compilation of news concerning art, archeology, history, and whatever else catches the chronicler’s eye, with the odd bit of opinion and commentary thrown in.
Edward Winkleman: Art, politics, gossip and tough love from a NYC arts dealer. You’ll find this site listed on many-a-blogroll.
Eye Level: A blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, it uses the museum’s collection as a touchstone and is dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture. Surprisingly, one of the few blogs to come out of the museum world.
Life Without Buildings: News and notes from an architecture weblog with a penchant for giant statues and postmodern culture.
Looking Around: A blog by Richard Lacayo, who writes about books, art and architecture at TIME Magazine.
Magnum Photos: A multi-author, aesthetically well designed photography blog.
Modern Art Notes: Voila, Tyler Green’s blog about modern and contemporary art. The Wall Street Journal has called MAN “the most influential of all visual-arts blogs.”
smARThistory: General Musings about using technology to teach with images by two art historians, Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Often features links to worthwhile art history podcasts.
Whether you think John F. Kennedy was a great president or just a guy
who enjoyed sultry birthday
serenades (see clip below), you have to admit
his hold on America’s cultural imagination is still powerful four
decades after his assassination. Two major new works of history tackle
the question and, predictably, come down on opposite sides of it. David
Talbot’s Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years offers new evidence furthering the great conspiracy theory, while Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy agrees with official history and the Warren Commission.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about these latest products of the
Kennedy industry is the fact that both books are taking advantage of
new media formats to combat the traditional problem with Big History
texts–weight. Bugliosi’s tome comes in at a back-wrenching 1,612
pages, so be thankful that his publishers included the many endnotes on
an accompanying CD. (You would be well-advised to save a few months and
read the New York Times review here.) Talbot’s Brothers is only a third as long, but that’s still almost 500 pages–so why not enjoy it as an eBook instead, or just check out the excerpt on Salon? Or take in itsNew York Times review here. If your eyes are tired already, rest assured that both authors also appeared on the Leonard Lopate show (Bugliosi mp3; Talbot mp3 ). And if you happen to live in the Bay area, you can go see Talbot will be in San Francisco promoting the book tomorrow, May 22.
The 60th Cannes Film Festival is in full swing. It’s all film for ten plus days. But last night, music – or really U2 – took center stage. Before the midnight screening of their new rockumentary, U23D, the Irish band played a two song set (Vertigo and Where the Streets Have No Name) on the red carpet. It was short and sweet. You can watch it below. Cheers.
There are some early signs that publishers and booksellers may be seeing the light.
Until recently, the book world applied an irrational logic to downloadable audiobooks and podcasts. As we noted back in February, the paper version of the bestselling business book, The Long Tail, ran consumers$16.47 on Amazon. And yet the cheaper-to-produce audio version implausibly amounted to $31.95 on iTunes and $27.99 on Audible. Did it make sense? Hardly.
Since February, a little bit of reason has been injected into the market. As the The New York Timesrecently noted, the publisher Henry Holt made a smart move. They took the popular podcast, The Grammar Girl (iTunesFeedWeb Site), and within days spun off an hourlong audiobook priced at a sane $4.95. The next thing you know, it became the bestselling audiobook on iTunes. Here, the audiobook format let publishers respond to a market opportunity — and far more quickly than they ever could have with a traditional book. (A traditional Grammar Girl book won’t come out until next year.)
Rational act #2: Some publishers are now releasing audio versions of new books before issuing the actual hard copies. Why? Because, they’ve found that digital copies can generate buzz and greater sales for paper copies. And yes, in these situations, the digital and paper versions are comparably priced.
Finally, booksellers are now using audio to inform consumers and motivate them to click “Add to Shopping Cart” a little more often. Take for example the new line of podcasts from Amazon. Created by in-house editors, Amazon Wire (iTunes — Feed) offers interviews and exclusives with authors of new books. Amazon BookClips (iTunes — Feed) puts a spotlight on up-and-coming and bestselling authors. And with Significant Seven (iTunes — Feed), Amazon points you to new must-read titles. How well integrated into Amazon’s sales efforts, and how effective these podcasts will be at generating sales, all remains to be seen. But it at least points to a more sensible way of bringing the digital and paper worlds together.
Our foreign language lesson podcasts got a little love yesterday from the great Lifehacker site. Many thanks to them. For any visitors who aren’t familiar with our other podcast collections, here’s a list that you’ll want to peruse.
Ever wondered what Second Life is and if you should care about it? Imagine a 3‑D immersive game where you control an avatar and travel through constructed environments–and now take away the game part. What’s left is a fairly wide-open creative space where users can create and sell in-game stuff–houses, objects, clothing, etc–or engage in group activities ranging from concerts to political activism to prostitution. It’s free to join but to own land (and receive a larger stipend of in-game cash) you have to sign up for a monthly subscription.
The online community has been growing fairly rapidly over the past year or two, now boasting over one million users who logged in during the past month. Big business has taken notice of the trend, and companies from Toyota, Microsoft and Sony BMG have all launched virtual presences in SL.
The service has been receiving some of its most enthusiastic press from educators who hope to take advantage of the free-for-all 3D spaces as tools for pedagogy. You can find a lot of engineering schools, medical institutions and, of course, the Star Trek Museum of Science on this list of science places in SL. The world’s creators actively encourage educational participation and teachers from many universities (including Harvard, Columbia and more) have tried running courses or training sessions in the simulation. There is at least one skeptic out there, though: Clark Aldrich, a consultant for an e‑learning company, offers up ten things he sees missing from SL as an educational tool.
Whether or not Second Life becomes a permanent fixture of the Internet landscape, it’s certainly captured a lot of peoples’ attention. To learn more about it check out the plethora of podcasts available on iTunes. At the very least this world does offer some zany opportunities for multiple layers of simulation. Check out this video of a U2 “virtual tribute band” performing a concert with lovingly rendered tribute avatars:
Once upon a time we told you about TED Talks, the annual conference that brings together the world’s “thought-leaders, movers and shakers.” These talks have been available on iTunes in both audio (iTunes — Feed) and video (iTunes — Feed). And now you can apparently find some on YouTube. Below we highlight a few.
First up, Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor who recently wrote Stumbling On Happiness, a book that uses psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy and behavioral economics to show how our imagination — our unique ability to predict the future — usually interferes with our basic ability to be happy. Here you get some kernels of thought from the bestselling book, and some insights into why a paraplegic is often as happy as a lottery winner. Good stuff here.
Next, we give you Al Gore doing a little stand-up comedy (no kidding) and speaking on global warming, much as he does in An Inconvenient Truth. No other introduction is needed.
All About Jazz Bloglist: What you get here is not so much a blog, but, even better, a meta-list of jazz blogs. This should keep jazz aficionados busy for some time.
Arjan Writes: A well-reviewed blog that looks at pop-alternative music. Features album reviews, interviews and free downloads of demo tracks and new releases, plus videos from new bands.
ArtsBeat: A blog put out by reporters and critics from The New York Times. Includes reporting from arts events from around the world, including recent reports from the festival at Coachella and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Blogcritics Music: A community of writers and readers from around the globe musing about music.
Brooklyn Vegan: An “NYC-centric mostly-music blog that focuses on reporting international
news, live show reviews, pictures, tour dates, gossip, tips, MP3’s,
videos, and just about anything else a music fan could want.”
Ionarts: A DC-based arts blog with a marked focus on classical music.
Largehearted Boy: A “music blog featuring daily free and legal music downloads as well as news from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture.”
Live Music Blog: Nothing like a title that pretty much summarizes it all. Yes, this is a blog about live music.
Marathon Packs: Writes about and lets you listen to interesting songs.
Moby’s Journal: Here again another not-entirely-musical blog by a music celeb — Moby.
Motel De Moka: A daily blog posting eclectic playlists, including indie rock, acoustics and ambient.
Music for Robots: An acclaimed mp3 blog that features diverse music. All music
is posted with the permission of the artist and/or label.
Nothing But Green Lights: A UK-based mp3 blog that keeps track of indie, electro, folk & pop, all from the UK. The site only posts tracks that the internet is giving away for free, or ones that have been granted permission.
NYC Opera Fanatic: A blog for the opera lover (a term, however unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to me).
Sandow: “Is classical music dying? That’s a big topic, and a blog seems like a perfect way to attack it.” That’s how critic, Greg Sandow, describes his blog.
Stereogum: A popular gossipy blog about the indie music scene. The site often posts mp3s of new music, plus offers record reviews, announces tour dates, and covers music festivals.
The Modern Age: A highly touted blog about “about music, pop culture, the Strokes, puppies, Jack White, and cute boys.” Brought to you by Miss Modernage.
Twangville: Covering “twang-infused music with an alternative slant.” Alt-Country, Americana, Indie, Rock, Folk & Blues.
America’s misadventure in Iraq has had multiple costs for the US, with just one being the decline of American moral leadership on the international stage, and particularly within the Middle East. Intellectually, we know that America’s prestige is momentarily shot. But to get a feel for what this means in practice, it’s worth listening to this interview (iTunes — MP3) with Lawrence Pintak, who directs the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism at The American University in Cairo. A longtime observer of the Middle East, Pintak sees the evolution of America’s image going something like this: Before 9/11, the proverbial Middle Eastern cab driver expressed deep admiration for America and Americans, even while disagreeing with American leaders and policies. When the Twin Towers fell, sympathy for America was never greater. Now, six years later, it’s all gone awry. The mental line that separated Americans and American policy is gone, and the antipathy toward America is fairly complete.
What partly explains this shift is how the war has been refracted through the Middle Eastern media. Ever since Al Jazeera started airing in 1996 (you can watch it here in English), the Middle East has had its own free media and seen events through its own lens. And, in the case of the Iraq war, it has meant seeing what we don’t see — the unsanitized war, the bodies, the leveled buildings, etc. — but also much more mundane things that shape overall impressions. It means seeing, for example, how tone-deaf US spokesmen in Baghdad show up at journalist conferences in Abu Dhabi (a completely non-military event outside of Iraq) in army fatigues, leaving essentially the impression that the US sees the larger Middle East as a military stage.
Pintak knows the region well, and he articulates America’s perception problem in a balanced and thoughtful way. Check it out here: (iTunes — MP3) Also, on a related note, anyone who wants to digg more deeply into Middle Eastern perspectives may want to explore Mosaic: World News from the Middle East (iTunesFeed). This Peabody award-winning podcast provides a daily compilation of television news reports from across the Middle East. The news comes from independent and state-run news services, and it is all translated into English.
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