A North Korean orchestra has traveled to South Korea to perform a joint concert with a Seoul orchestra for the cooperative performance since the country was divided in two. – Korea Times
Tag: 08.21.00
THE UPSIDE OF PIRACY
As the recording industry continues to mount legal challenges to Napster’s file-sharing technology, the publishing industry is assessing its own content – both its vulnerability, and its marketability. “It appears audio book publishers are poised to deliver the first insights. The MP3 format provides for a real variety of content – abridged, unabridged, something that’s 20 minutes long, something that’s six hours long.” – Publishers Weekly
ANOTHER WAY
Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s Books intends to cut out the middlemen between writer and reader. It’s traditional hardback publishing, not e-books, although the writer doesn’t get an advance, he gets “whatever remains after printing costs and incidentals, not to mention foreign sales, film sales, etc. Eggers isn’t taking a dime.” – Inside.com
DOWNLOADERS COVER FREELOADERS
Frightened about being cut off from Stephen King’s latest online novel (that requires a $1 download fee), devoted fans have been sending extra cash to cover all the delinquent readers. King himself is surprised by the acts of generosity: “Publicly, I have always expressed a great deal of confidence in human nature, but in private I have wondered if anybody would ever pay for anything on the Net.” – Salon (AP)
NOT THE WRITE POLICY
The government of Scotland announced its long-awaited cultural strategy. “Aimed at providing a blueprint for the future of Scotland’s culture, key promises included an additional £7 million for the arts over the next three years, a feasibility study for a national theatre, support for a film studio and an audit of the nation’s museums and galleries.” But why no mention of Scottish writers? – The Scotsman
JUDGING WORK
“Readers and writers of the past – not just the geniuses, either; the intelligent, alert ones who kept current as we all like to think we do – remind us how culture and taste change. And why. What aesthetic, social and intellectual needs do beliefs serve in their time? Which ones serve us now, and why?” – New York Times
HELPED BY HARRY
Phenomenal sales of the Harry Potter books have made JK Rowling Britain’s highest paid woman last year, earning her £:20.5 million. – The Age (Melbourne)
HARLEQUIN’S HEROINE
Pierced, intellectual, and independent, Harlequin Romance’s editor-in-chief Isabel Swift may not seem like your stereotypical romance novel editor. But she may be just the woman to envision a new future for the world’s largest publisher of romance fiction. “She wants to drag Harlequin into the 20th Century, if not the 21st, and she has a plan for getting there. If she succeeds, the Harlequin brand could return to its old, formidable self – like a wilted heroine flowering in the arms of her baron.” – New York Magazine
BRINGING BECKETT TO THE SCREEN
An interview with Michael Colgan, artistic director of Dublin’s Gate Theatre and the producer behind The Beckett Film Project – an ambitious enterprise involving some of the world’s most famous filmmakers to create movies of all 19 of Beckett’s dramas. – CBC
SMALL FILMS, BIG BOX OFFICE
Low-budget “art house” movies from around the world have developed an overwhelmingly devoted (and high-paying) audience in Tokyo’s teenagers – a niche market that can single-handedly make or break a film’s worldwide gross. “To illustrate the power of the Japanese mini-theaters, take a look at ‘The Virgin Suicides.’ As of the end of July, the box office for the U.S. movie in overseas markets was about $1.5 million. The breakdown works out to $1 million for a run at a theater in Tokyo and $500,000 from every other cinema in the world where it is being shown.” – Yahoo! News (Reuters)