Friday, November 30, 2007

Journal: Writers pick best books of 2007

Posted by John Stoehr on Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 10:32 AM

From the London Guardian:

David Hare, playwright

Michael Frayn has observed that the restoration of democracy in Germany in the 1950s was just as remarkable as its destruction in the 1930s. This is exactly why Five Germanys I Have Known (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Fritz Stern is such a fascinating book. Stern is a christened Jew, an eminent academic at Columbia University, whose family fled the Nazis in 1938 but who would one day return to address the Bundestag. Because this part-history, part-autobiography is such a sane, thoughtful account of the different manifestations of Germany in the 20th century and their implications, it has inevitably been the subject of stupid attacks. Ignore them.

Anne Tyler, novelist

Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses (Harvill Secker). It seemed to me a much larger and more consequential book than its small size would indicate.

Nicola Barker, novelist

My book of the year? It's a no-brainer:Jon Savage's pre-history of youth culture, Teenage (Chatto & Windus). It's a proper book - it has heft. And not only that, it's also fascinating and coherent and witty and challenging and perplexing and poetic and awe-inspiringly intelligent. Even just holding it in my hands makes me feel like a small child carrying a large birthday cake with all the candles lit.

Margaret Drabble, novelist

My book of the year is Hermione Lee's superb biography, Edith Wharton (Chatto & Windus). It is finely researched, finely narrated, moving and perceptive - a major book about a major writer.

Michael Ondaatje, novelist

I came to it late but the best book I read this year was a novel by JM Coetzee. The Master of Petersburg (Vintage) is an overpowering work about grief - involving Dostoyevsky and the death of his stepson - that gradually turns into a novel about revolution and political paranoia. This is a world of dark hallways and basements and whispers and fear, starkly written and just about flawless.

Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author

My favourite non-fiction book this year has been David Beerling's The Emerald Planet (Oxford), a minutely argued but highly readable history of the last half-billion years on earth. The story Beerling tells could not have been put together even 10 years ago, for it depends on the latest insights from palaeontology, climate science, genetics, molecular biology and chemistry, all brilliantly and beautifully integrated.

Full story . . .

Topics: Books

Journal: JSO talks today, dead-lock expected

Posted by John Stoehr on Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 9:56 AM

From today's Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville:

Musicians were scheduled to meet Thursday with the management of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra to discuss a labor impasse, the first time the two sides have sat down since an impasse

Several performances have been canceled in the past weeks. No decision has been made about whether the orchestra will play at next weekend's First Coast Nutcracker, which is the next event on its schedule.

The musicians' five-year contract with the symphony ended in August. They were continuing to perform while a new contract was being negotiated. But talks broke down two weeks ago and symphony management declared a lockout.

Alan Hopper, executive director of the symphony, said the two sides have been about $1.5 million apart over the five-year span of the contract.

He didn't expect the bottom line to change.

"We've always told them that we have a monetary mandate from the board," Hopper said. "We can move the chairs around in any way they want, but they haven't worked with us on it."

A spokesman for the musicians said they want a fair and equitable contract.

"We have been unwilling to talk about cutting each other's salary and benefits," spokesman Kevin Casseday said.

Full story . . .

Journal: Yet another bad day for record labels

Posted by John Stoehr on Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 9:48 AM

From Reuters:

Warner Music Group, the world's No. 3 music company, on Thursday said profits fell 58 percent as CD sales slipped further, but shares rose as investors hoped the worst of an industry slump was priced into its stock.

Warner Music shares closed up more than 8 percent, as analysts said it beat Wall Street expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter.

"The numbers were better than people thought, they were certainly better than we thought they would be," said Bishop Cheen, analyst at Wachovia. "Clearly the U.S. team is making it happen where they're out-performing the market."

Warner's net profit was $5 million, or 3 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, down from a year-earlier profit of $12 million or 8 cents per share.

Warner's stock price is still down more than 66 percent since the start of the year as evidence that the decline in music sales had accelerated became more clear to investors.

Warner is now the only major record and publishing music company still publicly traded after London-based EMI Group was taken private by leveraged buyout firm Terra Firma this year.

Shares in Warner Music rose 58 cents, or 8.1 percent, to close at $7.73 at close on Thursday.

Full story . . .

Thanks to ArtsJournal.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Journal: Best Books of 2007

Posted by John Stoehr on Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 4:50 PM

The National Book Critics Circle released the findings of its poll ranking the best books of the year. Here's what the nation's book critics think.

Fiction

1) Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead)

2) Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

3) Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Union (HarperCollins)

4) Philip Roth, Exit Ghost (Houghton Mifflin)

5) Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Graywolf)

Nonfiction

1) Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying (Knopf)

2) Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (St. Martin's)

3) Noami Klein, The Shock Doctrine (Metropolitan)

4) David Michaelis, Schulz and the Peanuts (HarperCollins)

5) Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes (Doubleday)

Poetry

1) Robert Hass, Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005*

2) Zbigniew Herbert, Collected Poems: 1956-1998 (Ecco)*

3) Robert Pinsky, Gulf Music (Farrar Straus & Giroux)*

4) Rae Armantrout, Next Life (Wesleyan)

5) Mary Jo Bang, Elegy (Graywolf)

*there was a three-way tie for first in poetry.

Thanks to Scott McLemee at Quick Study ...

Topics: Books

Journal: Internet radio in trouble

Posted by John Stoehr on Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 4:44 PM

From Wired Magazine:

It's a sad day for internet radio enthusiasts. Bloomberg reports that AOL and Yahoo may shut down their web radio services as a result of a 38 percent increase in royalty fees.

"We're not going to stay in the business if cost is more than we make long term,'' Ian Rogers, general manager at Yahoo's music unit, told Bloomberg.

The news comes roughly eight months after the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board hiked royalty rates for webcasts effective (retroactively) from 2006 through 2010. For 2007, webcasters must pay $.0011 to stream one song to one listener; and that rate will jump to $.0014 in 2008; and to $.0018 in 2009. The fee structure was expected to drive hundreds of net radio stations out of business with the exception of deep-pocketed businesses such as Yahoo and AOL.

It's not a totally done deal, though: Webcasters are scheduled to begin their appeal of the rate structure starting in February, and the whole process could carry on through much of 2008.

Full story ...

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