The UK government has agreed to reconsider new visa requirements for foreign artists performing in Britain. “Campaigners had been fearful that organisations such as orchestras or touring theatre companies would no longer be able to apply as a group to enter the UK but rather each individual would have to attend in person at a British consulate in their own country. As well as the significant extra cost and bureaucracy this would create, it was also feared that if one person was refused a visa an entire tour might be scrapped.”
Month: March 2006
Muti After La Scala
It’s been a year since Riccardo Muti left La Scala. “The fevered reports that appeared in some European newspapers during the time of troubles, to the effect that Mr. Muti, tyrant that he evidently was, would never find gainful employ again, were always laughable. ‘Immediately, everybody jumped on me, so I have worked more at saying no than saying yes. Actually, when I left La Scala, I received a great demonstration of friendship and admiration throughout the world’.”
The Brokeback Mashups
Online parodies of “Brokeback Mountain” are proliferating. “If they’re well made, the parodies can presumably serve as a calling card for those who sign their work; some of them are viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Generally, though, the “Brokeback” spoofs are nothing but labors of love, or gay panic, or both.”
Report: In A Multi-Channel Universe, We Pick Only A Few
The average American home now gets 96 TV channels. A new study reports that “though they may have plenty on, the average person watches only 15 of them.”
A Vancouver Olympics (By Design?)
Vancouver hosts the next winter Olympics. So what will its Olympic architecture be? “Turin served the world divine chocolate and a legacy of architecture by geniuses: a university complex by Norman Foster, the redeveloped Lingotto factory complex by Renzo Piano, the Palasport stadium by Arata Isozaki. For its part, Vancouver will host some fine moments in city building, such as the Olympic Village, but the city is inviting the world to “come play with us” in buildings beaten up by the rising cost demands of an overheated construction industry. Expect a lot of metal cladding and concrete block.”
Download Your Feelings Online
Music fans are uploading playlists they’ve created to music services and tagging them thematically. It’s “a phenomenon that some researchers predict will dramatically change the online music business before the decade is out. IMixes are the online cousins of amateur cassette-tape and CD mixes created over the years by countless music collectors as soundtracks for parties and road trips. Many of the playlists focus on a theme — and many of those on a personal one, whether the subject is a lost love, a class reunion, a nasty breakup, duty in Iraq or a new romance.”
Hollywood Guilds Want More For Downloads
Hollywood unions are “criticizing the Walt Disney Co.-owned network for deciding to pay residuals on TV episode sales to video iPod users under the same payment formula for DVD sales. That interpretation has angered guild leaders, who contend that Hollywood talent is getting shortchanged by an antiquated formula.”
Downloaded TV – The Hot New Thing
Although still far behind music, television shows represent the fastest-growing type of files downloaded online. As Internet speeds increase and software improves, almost anyone can get high-quality bootlegs of such popular shows as “Desperate Housewives,” “24” and “The O.C.” — minus the commercials that make “free” TV free. TV producers are worried.
Yahoo! Dials Back TV Plans
Yahoo! says it is scaling back plans to produce TV shows for the internet. Instead, the company will concentrate on user-created content. “I now get excited about user-generated content the way I used to get excited about thinking about what television shows would work.”
When Byron Janis Met Georges Sand’s Granddaughter
Aurore was the granddaughter of Georges Sand. She “was brought up by her grandmother until age 11, when Sand died. After her death, she told me that she decided to completely dedicate her life to her grandmother’s memory. ‘Chopin was an ingrate!’ she told me. ‘My grandmother ran the house solely for him, disrupting all our lives, and yet when he left, there was never any communication from him, not even a letter’.”