Do We Still Need Copyright? "A world without copyright is easy to imagine. The level playing field of cultural production - a market accessible for everyone - would once again be restored. A world without copyright would offer the guarantee of a good income to many artists, and would protect the public domain of knowledge and creativity. And members of the public would get what they are entitled to: a surprisingly rich and varied menu of artistic alternatives." International Herald-Tribune 10/08/05
Posted: 10/17/2005 6:45 pm
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Why Most People Don't "Get" Conceptual Art "People who complain about conceptual art always do so on the grounds of craft. Anything that has no painterly or sculptural skill is not art, because anyone could do it. But when people object to individual pieces, it's almost always because of the subject matter. This has been true since the start of the readymade tradition..." The Guardian (UK) 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:58 pm
The Memorial Museum That Ate New York The museum commemorating the World Trade Center and 9/11 has expanded enormously. "The memorial and its museum have quietly become an $800 million enterprise, $500 million of which must be privately raised. That's almost five times the figure for the World War II Memorial in Washington, which honored the sacrifice of 400,000 soldiers and the service of some 16 million men and women. The museum alone is bigger than either the Whitney or the Ellis Island museums." Bloomberg.com 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 5:44 pm
New Orleans Museum Fires Staff The New Orleans Museum of Art, which survived Hurricane Katrina intact, has laid off 70 of its 86 staff. "The city-financed museum, which has been shut since the day before Katrina hit in late August, was instructed by the municipal government to keep only a minimal staff needed to administer the institution in its current closed state." The New York Times 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:18 am
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Checking In With NY City Opera "The composer-critic Deems Taylor called the City Center Opera 'democracy in action, a democracy realizing the work of the individual.' Tickets started at eighty-five cents—nine and a half dollars, in today’s currency—and topped out at $2.20. These days, you have to pay quite a bit more to get through the doors of what LaGuardia dubbed 'the people’s opera company.' Tickets go up to a hundred and twenty dollars, which is more than most orchestra seats for 'Spamalot.' Don’t blame City Opera for falling short of its populist mission..." The New Yorker 10/17/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:48 pm
Montreal Symphony Ends Strike Montreal Symphony musicians have approved a new contract, ending their strike, begun last May. "On Monday, the musicians voted 96 per cent in favour of a tentative agreement reached this weekend. They had been without a contract since Aug. 31, 2003. The new seven-year deal is retroactive and will give the players an 18.23 per cent salary increase over the next seven years, as well as improved premiums and pension benefits. It expires in 2010." CBC 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 5:56 am
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Rest Of The World Teams Up To Protest 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." The Guardian (UK) 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 7:00 pm
150 Countries Sign New Culture Agreement (US Refuses) One hunbdred and fifty countries have signed a new agreement on cultural diversity. "The international agreement — formally the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions — reaffirms the right of sovereign states to 'maintain, adopt and implement' policies that protect and promote cultural expression, and exempt certain cultural products from free-trade agreements." Toronto Star 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:29 am
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Dario Fo, Mayor? Playwright Dario Fo says he'll run for mayor of Milan next year. "Mr Fo, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, wants to run for office in his home city next year. He is known for his left-wing stance in plays such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and The Two-Headed Anomaly." BBC 10/17/05
Posted: 10/17/2005 6:01 pm
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Kennedy Center Swears Off Virtual Orchestra Washington DC's Kennedy Center has signed a new contract with its musicians that says the Center will not use a virtual orchestra for any of its shows. "The debate over virtual orchestras was part of a four-day strike in 2003 by Broadway musicians. Theatrical producers had proposed reducing the number of players, to save money, and bring in a virtual orchestra. That attempt failed but has been tried elsewhere." Washington Post 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:26 am
Introducing The August Wilson Theatre Broadway's Virginia Theatre was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. In a ceremony, Wilson's daughter read the late playwright's words on hearing the theatre was to be named for him: "I have a robust imagination and I have imagined for myself many things," wrote Wilson, author of such plays as "Fences," "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "The Piano Lesson." I have imagined a wife and two beautiful daughters, and I have imagined a sustained career for myself in the theater. But not in my wildest imagination could I have ever imagined this." Backstage (AP) 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:02 am
A Booker Prize For Theatre? Playwrights have difficulty getting attention"The Manchester Royal Exchange theatre is hoping to redress that balance with the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, a national contest to discover and celebrate Britain's best writers for the theatre. Launching next month, the competition has a prize fund of £45,000 and offers the winner a fully staged production in the Royal Exchange's 750-capacity main house theatre. A runner-up play will be staged at the theatre's smaller, 120-seat studio." The Guardian (UK) 10/18/05
Posted: 10/17/2005 6:55 pm
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Rough Seas For Wikipedia? The Wikipedia has enjoyed charmed press and its supporters' claims of a new collaborative world are impressive. But an increasing number of critics are complaining about wiki's quality problems. "In theory, Wikipedia is a beautiful thing - it has to be a beautiful thing if the Web is leading us to a higher consciousness. Only it isn't. An encyclopedia can't just have a small percentage of good entries and be considered a success. I would argue, in fact, that the overall quality of an encyclopedia is best judged by its weakest entries rather than its best. What's the worth of an unreliable reference work?" The Register 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:02 pm
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." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 7:50 am
Canada's Governor General Awards Finalists Finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards have been announced. "The fiction nominees include David Gilmour's A Perfect Night to Go to China, Charlotte Gill's Ladykiller, Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road, Kathy Page's Alphabet and Golda Fried's Nellcott Is My Darling. In addition to the $15,000 cash prize in each category, each laureate will receive a specially crafted copy of his or her winning book. The winning publishers receive $3,000. Non-winning finalists receive $1,000 each." CBC 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 5:59 am
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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." BBC 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 5:55 pm
Unions Want In On Video iPod Cash Five Hollywood unions representing actors, writers and directors have called for negotiations with producers to make sure their members get a cut of revenue generated by the sale of TV shows on Apple's iTunes software. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:40 am
PBS Sprouting Ads Over Critics' Objections "Some critics have howled that, with Sprout, PBS has crossed a line, giving up any claim to being a safe, noncommercial haven. But PBS supporters say the public TV system has to face reality in a time of uncertain federal funding and unprecedented competition. 'Unfortunately, PBS has a really hard path to forge. They used to be the only game in town if you were looking for a channel that was safe for your kids. But commercial offerings are now so vast, that in order to have a level playing field, they have to end up doing some of the same things'." San Francisco Chronicle 10/18/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 6:33 am
New PBS Channel Has Ads PBS has a new channel on the air - it's called PBS Sprout and it's aimed at kids. But it also has advertisements. "Three weeks after its launch, Sprout has only one sponsor, Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers. The ads are aimed at parents and don't interrupt shows -- though the shows last for only 15 minutes. But the mere idea of a PBS-branded product with ads hit like a bombshell in the public television world. And so far, many stations have refused to affiliate with the new service. Out of 177 licensees, only 90 have joined with Sprout for content and marketing arrangements." Boston Globe 10/16/05
Posted: 10/18/2005 5:53 am
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Oakland Ballet Lives Again Last year Oakland Ballet canceled its season and laid off dancers because of financial problems. But this is the company's 40th anniversary, and this weekend was opening night. "Partly to honor the history of the company, and probably to attempt to win back the loyalty of those audience members who had not taken to Karen Brown's more adventurous programming since coming onboard in 2000, the program that ran Friday through Sunday was mostly a greatest hits kind of affair. That made it impossible to guess where the company may be going, or whether it will survive, but it was a good chance to re-examine the strengths of this plucky East Bay organization, as well as its blind spots." San Francisco Chronicle 10/17/05
Posted: 10/17/2005 7:53 am
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