Nick’s Comments

• Apr 27th, 2012 @ 11:59pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Why Do We Celebrate The 'Solitary' Experience Of Books But Decry The Social Experience Of Online Social Media?
  Social media is isolating in the way that maintaining pen-pals is isolating. Yes, you're connecting with other people, but, in-between messages, you're left waiting, alone. No matter how many IMs you exchange or items you post on Facebook, you still lack the intimate human connection of even a phone call.
• Mar 19th, 2012 @ 4:44pm

  Re: Ravi

  on From Lori Drew To Dharun Ravi, Punishing People Based On Others' Suicides Is A Mistake
  The judge also barred the prosecution from saying that Ravi caused the suicide, and the defense from saying Clementi was suicidal. Throughout the trial both sides made only a few oblique references to the suicide.
• Mar 12th, 2012 @ 12:47am

  Re: Re: Re:

  on Forget Home Taping: Evil Robots Are Killing Music!
  Also, the sound transition wasn't some gradual event. It was complete within three years! I don't know how long it took for cars to become dominant, but certainly longer than sound film. TV took over 20 years to supplant radio. The transition from 35mm to video has taken about 15 (and is still ongoing), and only this year Kodak entered bankruptcy and Panavision stopped making film cameras. Silent to sound was a radical upheaval in cinema, and it continues to astonish me just how fast and complete it was.
• Mar 12th, 2012 @ 12:11am

  Re: Re:

  on Forget Home Taping: Evil Robots Are Killing Music!
  Except paying for recorded performances is called "going to the movies," "watching TV," "listening to a CD," etc. People go to live performances because they are live. I dunno about you, but I never hear anything but complaints when today's flavor of the month lip-syncs. And I've never heard, "they're performing to recorded music? Awesome, let's go!"
• Mar 9th, 2012 @ 11:00pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Forget Home Taping: Evil Robots Are Killing Music!
  This isn't quite so simple as resisting change. Though 1930 seems like a bit late to complain, the transition to sound, within about three years, put thousands of musicians out of work. Nearly every cinema in the world employed musicians, whether a single pianist or a large orchestra. Furthermore, in 1926, fully-silent films started to have recorded scores. It's just like when factory automation results in massive layoffs.
  
  We're dealing with this problem again, this time, with live theatre. Every year, penny-pinching producers reduce and eliminate their orchestras, augmenting or replacing them with recordings. You wouldn't say that the unions resisting this are Luddites, but that the live orchestra is an integral part of theatre. So it used to be with cinema.