Television of the future will be radically different. “You’ll not only be able to watch every film, but also every TV program, news show, documentary, music video, and video blog, and all of it will be playable wherever you go. Great, you think: Thousands of channels, millions of choices, and still nothing worth watching. Nevertheless, “nonlinear TV”—watching the tube on our schedule, not the broadcasters’—is our destiny. The revolution will not be televised, however, until the companies that funnel the content into our homes figure out how to control it. The best advice for now: Study the music industry and do the exact opposite.”
Tag: 10.18.05
Time: 100 Best Books
What are the 100 all-time best novels? Time magazine made a list…
Publishers Sue Google
The Association of American Publishers has filed a lawsuit against Google for its print-digitizing project. “The suit was filed on behalf of McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group (USA), Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons. AAP President Patricia Schroeder said that the publishers viewed legal action as a last resort and had filed suit only when Google refused to agree to making separate permissions requests for each in-copyright book it scans in the libraries of Stanford University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan.”
Ballet’s New Casting Paradigm
Time was when ballet companies cast their roles by type. You look like this? You dance these kinds of roles. But times have changed, and American Ballet Theatre’s new season illustrates a new approach to casting, writes Tobi Tobias.
RSC: Connecting Today With The Bard
“For the Royal Shakespeare Company, revivified under the directorship of Michael Boyd, restoring the link between Shakespeare and contemporary writing is becoming something of a mission…”
Rest Of The World Teams Up To Protect Its Culture From US
“A Franco-Canadian initiative, which has won broad backing as a swipe at US ‘cultural imperialism’, could mean that countries will be able to subsidise domestic film industries and restrict foreign music and content on their radio and television stations in the name of preserving and promoting cultural diversity.”
Dumping The Composer At The Last Minute
Music is added to movies last, and changing it has always been difficult. But the composer of the much-anticipated remake of “King Kong” has been removed just weeks before the film opens. How? “New technology has meant that composers can now be asked to present their score in a demo form on synthesisers before its been properly recorded. They then ask test audiences what they think. It is like judging a film by having the cast shout out the script first. People have been taken off films on the basis of the results. It is not a particularly rational form of decision-making.”
Canada’s Major Lit Prizes Disagree
“Not one of the five novels nominated for the Governor-General’s was on the Giller short list – a fact that attests to the inherent subjectivity of juries and, perhaps, to the breadth and depth of Canada’s literary talent. All of the 42 shortlisted novelists, poets, dramatists, essayists, translators, childrens’ writers and illustrators were announced yesterday in Toronto. A total of 69 books were nominated for this year’s awards, in seven categories in both French and English.”
Chomsky Voted No. 1 Intellectual
Noam Chomsky has been voted the world’s top public intellectual in a poll. “Chomsky, who was underwhelmed by the honour, beat off challenges from Umberto Eco, Richard Dawkins, Vaclav Havel and Christopher Hitchens to win the Prospect/Foreign Policy poll. More than 20,000 voters from around the world took part in selecting the winners from a list of 100. The most striking aspect of the list is the shortage of the young, the female and the French.”
Ba Jin, 101
Chinese writer Ba Jin has died in Shanghai. “Ba, a native of Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan Province, was recognized widely as one of China’s greatest literary masters and an outstanding publisher and editor. Ba went to study in France in 1926 and completed his first novel ‘Destruction’ there. He wrote numerous books, including novels, short stories, and essays, totaling some six million words.”