Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz considers the changing reputation but enduring skill of Pierre Boulez who, after years dedicating himself to composition, has returned to conducting.
Howard's new record, Drum Lore, was inspired by a question a workshop student once asked him: Why are you teaching a composition class when you're a drummer? So Howard devotes the new album to tunes written by jazz percussionists.
His new book is called Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution (Perseus, 2001). It charts the movement begun by computer programmers who believe software should be given away for free. Moody is a London-based writer whose work has appeared in Wired, The Economist, and The Financial Times.
Robert Kaplow and performance group the Punsters give their satirical, dystopian take on how 1989 will turn out. They warn of computer viruses, financial collapse, and a rise of chocolate addiction among teenagers.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says Brown is one of the best musicians who played with Art Blakey in the 1980s. Both the composition and improvising on his new album are excellent.
The film Her, written and directed by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), follows a lonely man who falls in love with a computer operating system. Critic David Edelstein says it's the best film of the year by far. (Recommended)
Television Critic David Bianculli previews "Dream Season," a production of NFL Films that creates dream teams that compete in dream Super Bowls. Through computer generation and sophisticated editing, the producers take film from the last 20 years of televised football and extract key sequences featuring players from from top teams of their times and match them with other top opposing teams from different times. The effect is the video equivalent of the `what-if-the-'85-Raiders-played the-'87-Redskins' questions typical of radio call-in shows.
The new documentary Tarnation chronicles writer and director Jonathan Caouette's turbulent childhood with a mentally ill mother. He made the film on his home computer for just a few hundred dollars. Critic David Edelstein has a review.
The members of Sphere are heavily influenced by Thelonious Monk; some of them even performed with him. Jazz critic Francis Davis says their original compositions fall short of Monk's tunes, but the musicians' individual solos are outstanding.
Journalist and professor of environmental studies Donella Meadows. Twenty years ago she co-authored the book, "The Limits to Growth." The book used a computer model to project the impact of growth on the environment. It caused a sensation because of it's eco-gloom and helped spur the environmental movement. Now in the authors' sequel, "Beyond the Limits," they argue that we have shot past the earth's limited resources but that we are in a better position to avoid global economic collapse because of new technical possibilities.
Neil Gershenfeld is author of "When Things Start to Think." (Henry Holt) He talks about his research into the future technology. This includes shoes with computers in them, Refrigerators that tell you when the milk is expired, and coffee cups that know how you like your coffee. He co-directs the Things That Think research consortium at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Ma.
Maarten (mar-tin) Merkelbach is head of Tracing Services for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He is directing the use of a newly designed computer system to match up family members of Kosovo refugees separated during the exodus. We talked with him from Skopje, Macedonia.
Jon Favreau's adaptation of the Disney classic reprises the story of a little boy raised by wolves. Critic David Edelstein says The Jungle Book seamlessly blends computer animation and storytelling.
Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to Benny Carter, the elder statesman of the alto saxophone. He reviews the new American Jazz Orchestra recording of Carter compositions, featuring Carter, pianist John Lewis and bassist Ron Carter, among others.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews reissues of the songwriting team's music, recorded in the early 20th century. Schwartz praises the performers' precise renditions of these classic compositions.
Joshua Quitner and Michelle Slatalla are authors of "Speeding The Net: The Inside Story of Netscape and How It Challenged Microsoft." (Atlantic Monthly Press) Quittner is the computer columnist for Time magazine and an assistant managing editor at Time Inc's on-line site Pathfinder. Slatalla writes a technology column for The New York Times. They have also collaborated on the books: "Masters of Deception," "Flame War," "Mother's Day," and "Shoo-Fly Pie to Die."
William Ulrich's new book is "The Year 2000 Software Crisis" (Yourdon Press). It is a guide to solving the problems that will arise in the millennium when computer software will translate the two-digit shorthand '00 as 1900, not 2000. For companies world-wide this computer failure could lead to business failure. Ulrich is President of Tactical Strategy Group, Inc. and a strategic Year 2000 advisor for corporations and government agencies.
Singer, songwriter, guitar player, Dan Penn. Penn has written soul music classics--"Do Right Woman," "Cry Like a Baby," "Sweet Inspiration," "I'm Your Puppet," for example. His compositions have been made famous by the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke and Otis Redding. Penn left his tiny hometown of Vernon, Alabama when he was sixteen. . . a white kid, singing like Ray Charles and in love with black music.
The musician immersed himself in jazz during his years of classical training. With so little in the canon written for his instrument, he mostly performs his own compositions.
Our rock critic reviews albums by Tom Verlaine of the '70s New York punk band Television: the instrumental album Around, and Songs and Other Things, which includes his compositions and vocals.
