Traditional big recording companies are in a tough way these days. They’re getting tougher on consumers who illegally copy their music. But they’re also going after government to make tougher laws. Trouble is, they’re becoming so broke, finding a solution they can afford becomes tougher and tougher…
Tag: 07.14.03
First-Time Literary Lottery
“For thousands of would-be novelists the dream of living the New York writer’s life will never die, even if it nearly kills them to pursue it. But that doesn’t mean the nature of that pursuit is in any way constant. And as always, the goal of carving out a life of letters in the city—shared by thousands of Sarah Lawrence graduates, Starbucks baristas, and drop-out tax attorneys alike—is inextricably linked to the chilly realities of the publishing business. But rarely have the realities of the marketplace changed so jarringly as they have over the past five years. While the major publishing conglomerates continue to cut back on “midlist” authors, they’re increasingly willing to lavish astronomical sums on unknowns. So many, in fact, that since the late nineties, half a million dollars is de rigueur for a first novelist who’s perceived to have hot prospects.”
Opera Goes Back To Its Patron Roots
In Europe, where recent arts tradition has the state responsible for funding most of the cost of highculture, a shift is taking place. “Opera, the most expensive of art forms, is increasingly turning the clock back a couple of centuries and looking to individuals for patronage. Corporate sponsorship is becoming elusive and is likely to remain so at least until the next boom economy. At Covent Garden, about half the annual contributions from well-wishers now come from private patrons…”
The Atlantic In LA
The Atlantic Magazine is moving its literary operations out of Boston to LA. “Since taking over as the Atlantic Monthly’s literary editor three years ago, 39-year-old Yale- and Oxford-trained historian Benjamin Schwarz has reshaped the venerable magazine’s book section into the shrewdest, best-written and most surprising cultural report currently on offer between slick covers. Now, Schwarz plans to break with 146 years of tradition and move the Atlantic’s literary editorship from Boston, where the magazine was founded and will continue to publish, to set up shop in Los Angeles.”
Dead Poets’ Society
British poet laureate Andrew Motion, who is responsible for writing eulogies in the circumstances of a royal death, has “helped produce a guide to penning funeral speeches. It is estimated that funeral speeches by friends or relatives, are given at just 10% of all services.”
Because It’s An Easy Read, It’s An Easy Write?
“Barely a week goes by without some sneering reference to chick-lit which has become all but a term of abuse. Why this should be is not clear – simple envy, perhaps, at our huge sales and concomitantly large advances. Or the belief that because these books are easy to read, they’re easy to write. They’re not. But I think there is something much deeper at work: a snobbish distaste for popular writing full stop.”
Kennedy – Is It All Affectation?
Violinist Nigel Kennedy still swears up a storm, even if his punker affectations have been worn off. “Many critics have forgiven me and think I’m a good boy now because I’m middle of the road compared to people like Vanessa Mae and Bond – at least I didn’t put drum’n’bass behind Vivaldi”.
I Pledge Allegiance…(A Little Too Often Maybe?)
Don’t look for an end anytime soon to the interminable pledge drives on PBS. PBS president Pat Mitchell says it’s reality: “We know we are creating issues with pledge in terms of interrupting the schedule, and that some of our most loyal viewers don’t appreciate the programming that is often seen during pledge periods,” she said. But honestly – put yourself in the shoes of the station manager who is looking at a budget that has only 17 to 19 percent of guaranteed income each year. Period. That’s all that comes in from the government. The rest of it, you have to raise somehow.”
Why Music? Scientists Want To Know
Why is music – pleasurable to be sure, but hardly essential to life – so ubiquitous to every culture? “Archaeologists have found evidence of musical activity dating back at least 50,000 years. Even babies as well as some animals, such as birds, whales and monkeys, have a built-in sense of tone and rhythm, according to a set of six papers on the origin and function of music in the July edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience. ‘Every culture we’ve ever looked at has music of some sort. But why that is so is a puzzle’.”
Benny Carter, 95
Jazz axophonist Benny Carter died over the weekend. “Carter’s career was remarkable for both its length and its consistently high musical achievement, from his first recordings in the 1920’s to his youthful-sounding improvisations in the 1990’s. His pure-toned, impeccably phrased performances made him one of the two pre-eminent alto saxophonists in jazz, with Johnny Hodges, from the late 1920’s until the arrival of Charlie Parker in the mid-1940’s. He was also an accomplished soloist on trumpet and clarinet, and on occasion he played piano, trombone and both tenor and baritone saxophones. He helped to lay the foundation for the swing era of the late 1930’s and early 40’s”