Category: today’s top story

“At The Voice it was possible to believe that intellectual work was a form of real and effective political activism and that resistance to the machine (Hollywood included) was not only possible, but also necessary. For Voice writers, a movie was never only a movie: it was a way of seeing, living in, understanding and, yes, even changing the world.”

“This is altogether a new effect,” Christopher Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing “an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically” in the last four decades, he added.

“Lawrence Golan had argued that taking works back out of the public domain would hinder creativity by making artists more cautious about remixing or otherwise using works, fearing their status could change in the future in a way that required payment to copyright holders. More broadly, academics have expressed concern that upholding the 1994 law would make it much more difficult to write books or assemble course readings without having to deal with a host of legal hurdles–or just prohibitively expensive fees–to avoid violating copyrights.”

“Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Gustav Leonhardt … was a pioneer and pillar of the early music movement. As a harpsichordist, organist, scholar, conductor and teacher, he was a major figure, exercising very considerable influence on his contemporaries and juniors, and in particular making the Netherlands a focal centre for the performance of Baroque music.”

The company had been relying very heavily on three donors – one of whom abruptly decided that he wanted nothing more to do with Opera Boston’s general director, who had been working there for nine months, and withdrew his money.

For musicians who have lived long with their instruments, it’s hard to let go, even when they can’t play any longer – and even for $10 million.

“Patron X said he had no idea he was the culprit. He said his company replaced his BlackBerry with an iPhone the day before the concert. He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert, not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and would sound even if the phone was in silent mode. ‘I didn’t even know phones came with alarms,’ the man said.”

British Prime Minster David Cameron: “Our role, and that of the BFI (British Film Institute), should be … helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions.”

When an audience member in the front row allowed his iPhone to ring loudly for several minutes during the final movement of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, maestro Alan Gilbert halted the music and stared down the offender until (after another minute) he turned the device off.