“HBO has joined a recent FCC filing in which it argues that its video-on-demand programming-and all ‘Subscription Video On Demand’ services-should fall into the category of ‘Copy Never.’ In a broadcast-flagged world, that translate into consumers not being able to record on-demand broadcasts by HBO. No TiVo, no VCR, no video capturing on your PC, no nada.”
Tag: 02.07.06
My Death, Now In Previews
A prominent Hungarian director who is dying is staging previews of his own funeral. “Peter Halasz, who is also an actor, writer and satirist, is in the final stages of liver cancer, and will begin lying in an open coffin at an art museum in the Hungarian capital Budapest later this week. ‘I’m curious how a funeral looks from the other side’.”
In Scotland: Dance To Get Fit
Scotland is planning to spend £1.2 million over three years to encourage 144,000 children in 800 schools to take up dancing as a way of exercising.
Bush Budget Slashes Public Broadcasting Money
George Bush’s proposed budget takes a big cut out of money for public broadcasting. “In the president’s 2007 budget request, CPB funding will be cut by $53.5 million in 2007 and $50 million more in 2008. Those cuts don’t reflect others made in funding at the Education and Commerce departments and the elimination of specific programs for digital TV conversion and satellite delivery system. Public broadcasting officials estimate that the entire budget cuts run $157 million over the two-year period.”
Bush Culture Funding – Status Quo
George Bush’s proposed $2.77 trillion budget doesn’t include any big increases for culture. “The modest boost will most likely offset inflation but not give enough cushion to try new things. On the other hand, none of the agencies received sizable cuts.”
Prize Portents
“In the fields of literature, movies and music, prize scandals prompt people to pay attention to awards, if only to see what gauche lapse in taste happens next. And debates about the credibility of a prize, by their very existence, benefit the concept of art and artistic value by implying that they exist in a realm separate from politics and compromise. Clearly, questions about prizes’ credibility haven’t hampered their proliferation: ours is a culture beset by and obsessed with prizes, even if we disagree about their meaning. So what do they mean?”
Toronto Radio Station Refuses Theatre Ad Because Of The “V” Word
“Toronto radio station CHFI has refused to run a series of promotional spots for Eve Ensler’s play The Good Body, which opens next month at the newly refurbished Music Hall on the Danforth. The reason? The commercials use the word ‘vagina’.”
The Neuroscience Of Dance Improv
Neuroscientists are studying improvisation in dance. Is there some similarity with how birds move in flocks? “There’s no lead bird who dictates, ‘Now we’ll be in this V.’ They’re forming patterns by sensing where they all are in space, by wind currents, all the different variables. They’re self-organizing themselves into a pattern. That’s what the dancers are experiencing, they’re forming their own patterns from within.”
Largest Mexican Music Festival Is A Free For All
“Once on the verge of extinction, the fast-paced and irresistibly rhythmic son jarocho (pronounced ha-RO-cho) is undergoing a revival. The genre is being fueled by a new generation of jaraneros, a name derived from the genre’s typically small guitar, or jarana. This evolution of son jarocho doesn’t have a new name yet, but it definitely has a new energy and fresh sound.”
Producers Pedal Fast As Two Networks Become One
“The future is always precarious in the ruthless world of television. But this fall, when CBS and Warner Bros. launch the CW, a new youth-oriented network, and shut down the WB and UPN, there will be one less network renewing shows and buying new ones.” That has producers scrambling.