When the Royal Ballet’s Alina Cojocaru stepped into a role at the last minute two years ago, she came back a star. Now she’s the “darling of choreographers, critics and audiences here. She was quickly promoted from the corps to principal dancer, and the Royal Ballet gave her so many major roles that she has hardly had time off.”
Tag: 05.04.03
Musicians Alarmed Over Media Consolidation
“Musicians of all stripes are starting to recognize that the galloping consolidation of American media – especially in radio, where most Americans were first introduced to their favorite songs – has reduced the ability of recording artists to take the risks that reshape our consciousness, to explore new ideas and new sounds and, ultimately, to be heard.” And musicians are alarmed by proposeals for even more deregulation They’ve sent a letter to the FCC to protest. The “letter from some of the best-known musicians in the U.S. is the latest sign of the broad opposition that rule changes being considered by the FCC – which would allow one company to own newspapers, television and radio in the same town, and which would allow more consolidation of media ownership on the local and national levels.”
Cutting Edge – Too Much Interactivity Doesn’t Serve Art
“These days, any film for which a studio’s marketing department has sufficiently high commercial expectations is issued on DVD in a ‘special’ or ‘limited’ or ‘collector’s’ edition that makes an Arden Shakespeare look skimpy by comparison. The contemporary desire for interactivity in the experience of art derives, obviously, from the heady sense of control over information to which we’ve become accustomed as users of computers. The problem with applying that model to works of art is that in order to get anything out of them, you have to accept that the artist, not you, is in control of this particular package of ‘information.’ And that’s the paradox of movies on DVD: the digital format tries to make interactive what is certainly the least interactive, most controlling art form in human history.”
Policing Piracy – Movie Studios Turn Up The Security
Warner Bros. is so anxious about piracy with “Matrix Reloaded” that security is fierce. “Reporters attending a preview of ‘Reloaded’ on Thursday night at Warner’s Burbank studios were subjected to the kind of high security normally seen at airports, not movie theatres. Journalists were required to present government-issued photo I.D., either a driver’s licence or passport, to the super-serious Warner guards, who ominously resembled evil Agent Smith from the movie. As the scribes entered the theatre, they were told to empty their pockets, so as to prevent anyone from smuggling in a miniature digital video camera.”
Where Will Federal Arts Money Go If State Arts Agencies Disappear?
Forty percent of the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts – $116.5 million this fiscal year – goes directly to state arts agencies, which then pass most of it on to local arts groups and projects. But what happens if states eliminate their arts agencies? “By law we cannot write a check if there is no agency to write a check to,” says NEA chief Dana Gioia.
Shocked® And Awed® We Are
Americans rush to lock up the rights to anything. “So it’s only natural that, by last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had received 26 applications for the use of ‘shock and awe’ for everything from hot sauces to bath toys.”
Wanted: Actors Who Can’t Dance
When producers of “The Full Monty” went out looking for a cast, they purposely went looking for actors who couldn’t dance. But wouldn’t it have been easier to teach real dancers to fake like they couldn’t really dance? No. “You have to go back to a time when you couldn’t dance, when your leg wasn’t straight, your arms were not always in the right position. Some dancers can’t do that. It’s like asking somebody who’s learned how to walk, ‘Don’t walk.’ It’s difficult.”
See Our Collection..No Wait, we Can’t Show you These…
The Tate Museum put up a website Friday that it claimed would “let internet users around the world see the entire permanent collection from its London gallery plus loaned exhibits. But just hours after it was launched with a fanfare by comedian Michael Palin, almost four out of 10 pictures were replaced with a message saying they were unavailable for copyright reasons.”
Leonardo Online
“Using digital technology, the Louvre Museum is making [Leonardo] da Vinci accessible as never before, photographing 12 of his notebooks – which have not been exhibited together for 50 years – so visitors can flip through them with the click of a mouse. The effect is breathtaking – like touring the great genius’s mind. Normally kept in a Bank of France vault, each yellowing sheet testifies to the insatiable curiosity of the artist, architect, engineer, inventor, theorist, scientist and musician some describe as the ultimate embodiment of a universal man.”
Harry Scores Biggest Advance Sales in History
It’s long and it’s expensive, but the new Harry Potter book, due to be released in a few weeks, has racked up bigger advance sales than any book in history.