In today’s lowbrow world, face-to-face conversations about serious literature can be hard to come by. But then, that’s what the Internet is for, and a new generation of lit-blogs has sprung up, to the delight of obsessive readers everywhere. “It’s infinitely appealing for a person who loves to read and aims to write to slip through the wardrobe into a parallel world where other people actually care about books; where Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem aren’t just boldface names but animated superheroes forced to face the wrath of supervixen Candace Bushnell.”
Month: April 2005
Ontario Book Awards Announced
“All That Matters, the latest novel from Toronto-based writer Wayson Choy, is among the winners of the 18th annual Trillium Book Awards.” The Ontario-based awards ceremony took place on Wednesday, and other winners included Antonio D’Alfonso in the French language category, and Maureen Scott Harris for her poetry collection, Drowning Lessons.
Movie Filtering Technology Legalized
A bill giving legal protection to companies which “sanitize” Hollywood movies by removing nudity, profanity, and innuendo was signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. “The legislation, called the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, creates an exemption in copyright laws to make sure companies selling filtering technology won’t get sued out of existence.”
New Law Threatens Jail Time For File-Swapping
“People who ‘pirate’ music and movies on the internet in the US face up to three years in jail under a new law signed by President Bush on Wednesday. The bill targets file-sharers who put copies of new songs and films online before their commercial release. It also introduces tough new penalties for anyone caught in a cinema filming a movie with a video camera.”
France’s Other Great Living Composer
When you start your career as a French composer in the mid-twentieth century by openly dismissing Pierre Boulez and writing works that don’t contain a hint of serialism, you’re probably asking for a good swift kick from the establishment. Henri Dutilleux absorbed plenty of them, but somehow, he and his music refused to go away. “His oeuvre vies with that of Boulez to be the most accomplished body of French music in recent years, and yet is relatively neglected because of the 70-year-old [sic] Boulez’s greater clangour. But, like Elliott Carter, the 96-year-old US composer, Dutilleux is one of the indomitable forces of music, carrying on writing after all these years.”
Boulez The Mellow? Think Again.
It’s almost impossible to write a profile of the suddenly-new-again Pierre Boulez without mentioning how the onetime enfant terrible of music has mellowed over the years. But while Boulez may no longer blast his contemporaries and openly dismiss composers whom the rest of the world loves, his opinions haven’t really changed all that much. For instance, Boulez still insists that Stravinsky’s neoclassic period is “totally artificial,” and that the composer didn’t really do anything interesting from the beginning of his neoclassicism to the day he “discovered” twelve-tone music.
Philly’s Very Own Italian Opera Conductor (No, Not That One)
Opera Company of Philadelphia may not exactly be La Scala, but that hasn’t stopped the company’s new young music director from thinking big. When Italian conductor Corrado Rovaris agreed to take the reins at OCP, he shook things up immediately, and has won praise for his willingness to push for what he believes are the highest artistic standards, and the free rein to achieve them. The effect has been immediate. “Many substantial opera companies rely only on visiting conductors and go for years without a music director to consistently build orchestral standards. It’s opera: Singers are the attraction… Besides raising musical standards, [Rovaris] is attracting singers whom the company couldn’t normally afford.”
Rock Away – American Radio Drops Rock Music
Rock music is falling off American radio airwaves. “In the last four months, radio executives have switched the formats of four modern-rock, or alternative, stations in big media markets, including WHFS in Washington-Baltimore area, WPLY in Philadelphia and the year-old KRQI in Seattle. Earlier this month WXRK in New York discarded most newer songs in favor of a playlist laden with rock stars from the 80’s and 90’s. Music executives say the lack of true stars today is partly the reason.”
Playwright To Critic: Get A Clue!
Playwright David Eldridge attacks critic Michael Billington’s complaint that contemporary plays are lacking in imagination and too tied to a 90-minute formula. “For the most part Billington’s thesis is shot through with an ignorance of the modern playwriting culture that is breathtaking for someone who goes to the theatre as much as he does, and belies a backward-looking agenda that bears as little relevance to a 21st-century theatre as John Major’s whimsical fantasy of re-creating the 1950s with warm beer and cricket on the village green.”
Bollywood’s Legit Financing In Peril
Bollywood, home to the world’s biggest movie industry has long had a shady connection to organized crime. But four years ago “top conglomerates run by India’s wealthiest families plunged into film financing when the Indian government declared Bollywood a bona fide industry. A series of flops and millions of lost dollars later, however, and the more respectable investors are running scared, leaving Bollywood’s hopes of putting its murky past behind in tatters.”