“The vlogger’s book Girl Online has become the fastest selling debut novel since records began. She tweeted she was “blown away” after more than 78,000 copies were picked up in its first week. That’s more than Harry Potter author JK Rowling and EL James, who wrote 50 Shades of Grey, achieved with their debuts.”
Tag: 12.03.04
Why Copyright Matters
America’s major entertainment unions and associations are taking a hard line on copyright infringement. “The question is not whether the technology is good or bad — it simply is. The question is how we create a model which allows consumers the widest access and choices while ensuring that individual artists can sustain a career and continue to create. It is easy to attack the ‘establishment’ and the litigation-based solutions they are employing to try and deal with piracy. What is harder is to reconcile the fact that free access has a direct link to loss of income for individual actors and recording artists which, in turn, can result in everything from the loss of health and retirement benefits to the inability to continue to support a family or pursue a chosen career. “
Fox Appeals Record FCC Fines
Fox TV appeals record $1.18 million FCC fines for “indecency” on one of its shows. “Fox said the show was not indecent, and it argues that over-the-air broadcasters are now treated as “second-class citizens” by a Federal Communications Commission that unfairly holds them but not their rivals to decency standards.”
Powell: FCC Has To Step In On Broadcast Indecency Complaints
FCC Chairman Michael Powell says chill. Take a breath. “We are not the federal Bureau of Indecency. We do not watch or listen to programs hoping to catch purveyors of dirty broadcasts. Instead, we rely on public complaints to point out potentially indecent shows. In recent years, complaints about television and radio broadcasts have skyrocketed, and the F.C.C. has stepped up its enforcement in response.”
Europe’s Operatic Trinity
Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito and Anna Viebrock are not household names, even among opera fanatics. But inside the European industry, they are known as “the trinity,” a team of directors driven by a passion for the operatic form and a willingness to collaborate to achieve greater results. “Together, the three have made a trademark of obsessively researched direction in rigorously conceived modern translations. Their symbiosis extends to a kind of collective innocence, an intense, shared excitement about the task in hand.”
Dancer Of A Generation, Icon Of An Art Form
“Lilian Alicia Marks, who died on December 1 on the night after her 94th birthday, made her debut as a dancer at the age of 10… Markova was one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. She had a delicate physique, a tungsten technique masked by a gentle appearance, and a flawless musical understanding. Everything she did had to appear effortless, which she achieved by an implacable will and total concentration.”
Art As Web Real Estate
Buy one of artist Stephen Rumney’s works and you get the image, a virtual image and a web address. His ‘online art installations form part of his Domain Art exhibition. As well as the online image, the buyer becomes the legal owner of its integrated website address and an art gallery installation of the image.”
Did Levers Move Rocks To Stonehenge?
How did the giant stones get moved to Stonehenge? A new theory suggests levers. “They have tested his ‘stone-rowing’ theory which involves a 45-tonne stone being levered on a track of logs. It’s akin to rowing a boat, weights can be picked up with levers using body mass and balance.”
In Praise Of No Big Ideas
Is a Big Idea likely to dominate classical music in the next few years? Nope, says Kenneth LeFave. There are plenty of reasons why. “Styles tend to only separate men, because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely?”
Internet2 – Long Distance Music
The New World Symphony experiments with Internet2, uniting musicians thousands of miles apart. “On Wednesday night, the New World Symphony had experimented with a violin class by a New World fellow via Internet2 with a student in Beijing 8,075 miles away. Then Thursday morning, New World upped the ante with the rehearsal of Turnage’s piece, conducted by Stefan Asbury in Miami Beach. Internet2, which allows high-definition images and CD-quality sound, put composer and musicians in the same virtual space. With satellite technology, the delay is between 30 seconds and a minute. With Internet2, the delay is 100 milliseconds.”