“While Wal-Mart’s negotiations with the labels have yet to take place, the proposal is already causing agita at the majors. Some consider the proposal a non-starter, others say further negotiations might eventually yield a workable solution, and a few see it as appropriate, given the big picture.”
Tag: 03.02.08
Inflated Art Appraisals Cost Gov Millions
“These IRS reviews caught $183 million in exaggerated claims over the last two decades. But that probably represents a small fraction of the total problem, according to a more detailed 2006 study by the agency’s inspector general.”
A New Improved Way To Play The Cello?
“Frances-Marie Uitti, an American cellist and composer now living in Amsterdam, has a different idea. Over the course of several decades, she’s become expert at playing with two bows at once – one in the normal position atop the strings and the other between the strings and the body of the cello – so that the number of string combinations available to her increases instantly.”
Violence For The Movies Vs. Violence For The Stage
“For most of us, the consumption of violent entertainment is more than a scientific, moral or aesthetic choice. It’s also dictated by our nervous systems, our life experiences — and by the medium. Plays rife with carnage just can’t fake us out so well.”
Elliott Carter At 99
“Carter skeptics might ask why this friendliness to the wide world of music isn’t more reflected in what he writes. His defenders would ask if skeptics have even heard enough Carter music to say that; most cities don’t.”
What’s Ailing (Successful) British Theatre
“We have a revivified RSC, a National prepared to take extraordinary and bold risks, a fitfully intelligent raft of musicals and a collection of new companies, including Kneehigh and the scintillating Punchdrunk, prepared to reinvent what they think theatre should be capable of with each new show. So, why is it that a trip to the theatre these days so often leaves the feeling of a meal half eaten, of being served an appetiser rather than a main course?”
A New Voice Inside Boston Ballet
Heather Myers is a second soloist in Boston Ballet. But she’s getting a big break, an opportunity to choreograph for her company. “She’s done very mature works for the workshops and Boston Ballet II. I wanted to give her the opportunity. . . . We need new choreographic voices.”
British Dance Awaits A Messiah
Although no one will actually admit it, the British ballet establishment suffers from a Messiah complex. It longs for a Great Choreographer to step forth and take command, as Ashton and MacMillan did. It wants Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix. It wants The One, and the classically trained Christopher Wheeldon looks like the current best bet.
Of Powerpoint I Sing
If you’ve never heard of PowerPoint Karaoke, that probably means you’re neither German nor a hardcore techie. The phenomenon has been spreading geek to geek and conference to conference since it was invented by a German artists’ group in 2005.
Finding The Needles In YouTube’s Haystack
There’s plenty of great user-generated video content available on YouTube. But there’s a lot more useless garbage. And finding a way to highlight the best (and make money from it) without damaging the populist feel of the site is a challenge to which no one has yet risen.