A very interesting article in the WSJ about what it says about society when it accepts fake over real, simulated over real- most evidently shown in the past month from Yo Yo Ma's inauguration cello that produced no sound, to the lip-syncing Jennifer Hudson at the SuperBowl. 

"The performers, you see, care too much about their art to risk presenting something substandard. But what is art without risks? Any live performance is a high-wire act, and the wire can be wobbly. Nowadays, it seems that -- when it really counts -- musicians are willing to put the wire on the pavement and walk along it as if they were doing something just as daring as the real thing."

Makes me wonder too about what the public thinks about authenticity of materials in architecture. Again.. back to Ruskin (see below).