“It’s an era of shrinking budgets and exploding technology, a time when once-dominant MTV has morphed into reality-show central and the Internet has turned the entire planet into content providers. Size matters when cellphones are viewing screens and labels are staring down bankruptcy and a grass-roots, interactive culture is burgeoning in the music marketplace. Small, for so many reasons, is the new big.”
Tag: 02.17.08
Are Foreign Voters Changing The Taste Of The Oscars?
“The growth in non-American members of the academy, the 6500-plus invitation-only film industry body charged with voting for the Academy Awards, may just be the reason more story-based, smaller films such as Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, Crash, The Queen and this year, Juno and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, are making their mark on cinema’s big night.”
Iran Pressures Dutch Not To Show Film
Iran has urged the Netherlands to prevent the screening of a film in which a right-wing populist lawmaker plans to lay out his view of the Koran
Prominent Musicians Sue Recording Company Over Royalties
More than a dozen recording artists, including the estates of Count Basie and Benny Goodman, sued Universal Music on Friday, saying they had been cheated out of more than $6 million in royalties since 1998.
Exiled Writer Can Stay In India (But Only If She Hides)
The exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, who is accused of insulting Islam, will be allowed to stay in India it emerged today – but only if she remains in a government flat in a secret location in Delhi, unable to receive visitors or step outside her door.
Why Art Is Easy To Steal In Europe
While many galleries have alarms, guards, and other staff to prevent off-hour thefts, they don’t always take precautions to avoid the most obvious scenario: armed criminals walking right through the front door.
Art Thief Confidential
“Art theft is big business. After drugs and weapons, it is the third most lucrative international criminal operation, according to the FBI, and it is thought to be worth around £3bn a year, and rising in line with the soaring value of art.”
Detox Lit – The Art Of Abstinence
Meet the growing clique of “hic lit” authors who have forsaken the demon drink and are saving themselves fortunes in therapists’ fees by writing about their travails. Publishers are falling over themselves in the hunt for the next big title in the “painful lives” genre that has so captivated readers since bursting on to the book scene a couple of years ago
Why Your TV Is About To Become Useless
“Any TV viewer who uses an antenna and an aged TV (one lacking a built-in digital receiver) will have to either get a new television or a converter. Why? Because broadcast television – the over-the-air waves you pick up by rabbit ears – is switching formats, and old TV sets won’t handle the new signal. An estimated 70 million of America’s approximated 250 million TV sets fall into this category.”
Atheneum’s New Director Faces Challenges
Susan Lubowsky Talbott has taken over the troubled Hartford institution. “Certainly, the Wadsworth, as well as Hartford, faces a unique set of challenges. From the aging physical plant to the limited parking and nagging pessimism about the city itself, Talbott will face significant obstacles.”