The BBC says this is the biggest thing to hit TV since color. “After installing the iPlayer on a PC, viewers will be able to download almost any programme from the previous seven days at will and store it on the computer for up to 30 days, after which it will be automatically deleted.”
Tag: 06.28.07
A Culture Capital For Different Reasons
Algiers has been named cultural capital of the Arab world. “The Arab League imported the concept from Europe but Algiers is not Graz. Europe’s cultural capitals hope for visitors – is Algiers ready for tourists? Their goals: first, to tempt the frightened people back into theatres and concerts and second, to show the world to which they once turned their backs that ‘they are people like everyone else’.”
Coleman, Hill Lead Winners Of Jazz Journalists’ Awards
“Ornette Coleman and the late Andrew Hill were the two big winners of the 2007 Awards of the Jazz Journalists’ Association (JJA), an organization comprising 400 journalists, editors, broadcasters, and photographers working internationally.”
The Love Of Writing, Not The Contract, Is The Point
“Getting published by a mainstream company is great, but in all honesty, how many of us can really afford to give up the day job, even when we’ve signed that contract? Such a long, heartbreaking haul for what? The joy of writing should be just that – the writing,” children’s author Beth Webb argues. “Define your audience and publish yourself.”
Film To Stage And Back Again: It Isn’t Pretty
“There’s a new recycling process evident in the arts: the decent film which spawns a lousy musical now spawns an ever more dreadful movie,” Shane Danielsen opines, citing “The Producers,” “Hairspray” and “Grey Gardens” as evidence of the trend. “All this is a little like watching a dog consume its own vomit.”
Beverly Sills Hospitalized, “Gravely Ill”
“Beverly Sills, the opera diva who won over fans worldwide with her sparkling voice and charming personality and later became a powerhouse in the New York arts world, is gravely ill with cancer, The Associated Press has learned. … The Met would neither confirm nor deny news of her illness, but people close to the situation said Sills was at a Manhattan hospital, with her daughter at her side.”
Provenance Of Albertina’s Posters Is Investigated
A collection of 3,600 posters assembled by a Viennese businessman could become the focus of “one of the largest spoliation claims in Western Europe in over 50 years, in terms of the number of objects the museum could lose.” Vienna’s Albertina museum may have obtained the collection, which includes works by Mucha and Klimt, through a “forced sale” by the collector’s nephew as he fled the Nazis.
Purnell In, Jowell Out As UK Culture Secretary
“James Purnell is to be the new secretary of state for culture, media and sport. Mr Purnell, who once worked for the BBC and spent a year after the last election as a junior minister in the culture department, has been given the post by new prime minister Gordon Brown. Outgoing culture secretary Tessa Jowell has retained responsibility for planning the 2012 Olympics and will remain in the cabinet.”
In A Cuban Prison, A PEN Award Winner Deteriorates
A seriously ailing Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, 37, has been held since April 2003 in a maximum-security Cuban prison, serving a 25-year sentence for writing articles critical of the state. “In April, PEN announced that Hernandez Gonzalez would receive its 21st annual PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. The $10,000 award honors ‘international literary figures who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression.'”
Stratford Star William Hutt Dies At 87
“A man who could command a stage in any country and who chose to make his career in Canada, William Hutt was a formidable presence at The Stratford Festival since its founding in 1953, appearing in myriad roles from Prospero, Lear and Falstaff to Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. … The stage was his home, and no stages were more familiar to him than those at Stratford where he performed in 130 productions over 39 seasons.”