Music
50 years ago on Feb. 9, the Beatles made their American debut on the Ed Sullivan show. To mark the anniversary, CBS will be airing “The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles” featuring modern stars singing covers of Beatles songs in the exact date and time slot as the original airing. Performances are set to record on Jan. 27, and no performers have been announced as of yet.
The Grove Dictionary of Music has long been the go-to book for scholars of music. It’s spin-off, The Grove Dictionary of American Music, is about to get an overhaul. On Dec. 2, a new edition of American Music will be released, with much more scope and depth. Whereas the previous edition had 90 entries about country music, for example, the new edition will have over 300 essays on groups, individual musicians and subgenres.
Video Games
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) was released on Friday, Nov. 15, and sold over a million copies in its first 24 hours. Combined with over a million pre-orders by September, the next generation console is off to a good start. The PS4 with launch in Europe, Australia and New Zealand on Nov. 29, and in Japan by next year. Sony Entertainment President Andrew House says the company hopes to sell 5 million PS4s around the world by March 2014.
Architecture
The Sims Municipal Recycling Facility at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in New York is set to open within a month. Unlike most utilitarian developments, SMRF was not designed by the same engineers who planned its insides. Rather, the city of New York hired an architecture firm—Selldorf—best known for designing fashionable Chelsea art galleries. The result is a tribute to streamlined modernity in an unexpected place.