Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Villawood Hollywood and Cold River



This Writer Wrote The Book Gravity, And Sold The Rights To Hollywood – And This Is What Happened Next


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“The principles involved go far beyond my individual lawsuit. Every writer who sells film rights to Hollywood must now contend with the possibility that the studio they signed the contract with could be swallowed up by a larger company — and that parent company can then make a movie based on your book without compensating you. It means Hollywood contracts are worthless.”  Tess Gerritsen 

You cannot make this stuff up. One of the sorriest chapters in recent American history was how we allowed an unprecedented opportunity to assist Russia in managing the end of its Communist era to turn into a looting exercise by well-placed insiders, including advisors under contract to Harvard.
If you are unfamiliar with this fiasco, which was also the true proximate cause of Larry Summers’ ouster from Harvard, youmust read an extraordinary expose, How Harvard Lost Russia, from Institutional Investor. I am told copies of this article were stuffed in every Harvard faculty member’s inbox the day Summers got a vote of no confidence and resigned shortly thereafter.
Jonathan Hay ran the day-to-day operations of the Russia Project. He was found guilty of violating three counts of the False Claims Act and was debarred from serving in USAID. But he’s managed to resurface in Ukraine, working in the local operations of a Polish think tank. Nicely played. Jonathan Hay

Primo Levi was first a scientist, then an artist. He resented the literary world’s considering him only a witness. Observer




The Meaning Of Art – Is Writing A Job Or…


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“There is something dreary about wanting writing to be a real job. The sense of inner purpose, so often unmentionable in a society enamored of professionalization, distinguishes a writer from a hack.”




Moscow Library Containing 14 Million Books And Many Rare Historical Documents Goes Up In Flames


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“It was founded in 1918 and holds documents from the League of Nations, UNESCO, and early parliamentary reports dating back as far as 1789.”