One consequence of the massive social changes wrought by the oil boom is the rapid disappearance of Qatar’s rich storytelling tradition. Recently, “a group of students and professors has begun to record and transcribe folklore and oral histories told by Qatari elders.”
Tag: 03.28.11
Chinese Search Giant Baidu Under Fire for Online Library
“Days after a judge shot down rival Google’s plans to create a digital library of the world’s books over copyright concerns, Chinese search giant Baidu has come under fire for its own library project.”
Warner Bros. And Facebook Step Up Stream-On-Demand Movie Service
“Facebook’s challenge to Netflix, the dominant player in digital film distribution, has been turned up a notch with Warner Bros’s announcement that five more films will be added to its stream-for-hire service on the social networking site.”
YouTube Symphony Streamed To 33 Million Viewers
“During the three-and-a-half hour Grand Finale–and as people in different timezones awoke to re-broadcasts–the event was streamed 33 million times around the world to 189 countries. This included 2.8 million mobile live-streams–making it one of our biggest ever streaming events to date, on mobile and desktop.”
Arts Council England Walloped By MPs’ Report
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Culture found that ACE “spend[s] far too much on itself,” called one of the council’s projects a “gross waste of public money” and a “failure of leadership,” said large institutions are overfunded at the expense of smaller ones, and told the council to sell art from its collection.
John Steane, Critic And Opera Expert, 82
“His career straddled the entire second half of the 20th century … But he was no less well informed about the practitioners of the first half of the century, and there were few who could write about the grand tradition with the deeply pondered knowledge, wit and eloquence he brought to bear.”
V&A Announces New Expansion Plan (Less Intrusive Than The Old One)
“Seven years after abandoning Daniel Libeskind’s provocative Spiral extension plan, the V&A has announced a fresh proposal: a ‘new public space’ for London above a huge underground gallery for temporary exhibitions.” The design by British architect Amanda Levete is expected to cost £35 million.
Are Mean-Spirited Sitcoms Finally Going Out Of Fashion?
“If Two and a Half Men does die, let’s hope a TV trend goes with it: the half-hour of meanness. That’s Two and a Half Men in a nutshell: a family show in which the central family value is contempt. … Perhaps it’s little surprise that viewers are also embracing a new trend in TV comedy: the sitcom about people who are nice to each other.”
How Much Did Natalie Portman’s Black Swan Dance Double Get Paid?
Sarah Lane “said via email a few minutes ago that she earned ‘$4000 per week before taxes so after taxes it was about $2000 plus a little overtime.’ She worked on the film for six weeks and two days.” Black Swan has so far earned more than $281 million worldwide.
K-Mozart Classical Radio To Return To Los Angeles
“Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters said Monday that after more than three years of struggling to attract listeners to a talk and then a ‘retro music’ format at KGIL-AM (1260), it would return the station to its previous incarnation as classical outlet KMZT beginning April 4.”