“British customers will be able to buy films from Apple’s iTunes website, in a move that is expected breathe new life into the digital download market. From today, Britons will be able to download new release films from iTunes for £10.99 – about £1 more expensive than buying a DVD version on Amazon.”
Month: June 2008
The Outsourcing Of British Film
“Trace the whereabouts of Britain’s most celebrated film-makers and it is striking how few of them have been working at home. Of course, producers don’t just look for the perfect locations for their movies. They want tax breaks, easy funding, affordable labour and the best studio facilities. But is Britain providing them with the conditions they need to make their movies?”
Seeing Art In All The Faces
“Portraiture is all around us, at every stage in our lives… And yet in spite of its ubiquity, many take it for granted, or even treat it as the poor relation of other forms of painting.” How many of us can even say that we really know how to look at, and judge, a portrait?
A Rebuttal From The Classical Jungle
Oboist and Mozart In The Jungle author Blair Tindall says that concern over drinking and drug use among classical musicians is overblown, and that the use of beta blockers does not equate to the sort of recreational drug use rampant in the pop world.
Orange Prize To UK’s Tremain
“Rose Tremain is one of Britain’s most celebrated authors and yet her latest novel, the recipient of rave reviews, was not even longlisted for the Man Booker prize. So… it was a case of patience rewarded when she won the £30,000 Orange Broadband prize for fiction with The Road Home.”
Scotland Yard Seizes Millions In Cash, Art
A British law enforcement raid on thousands of safe deposit boxes has yielded several important works of Renaissance art, part of a much larger trove of cash and valuables said to be tied to organized crime.
Charges In Brazen UK Home Invasion/Art Theft
“A man has been charged over the theft of a collection of Lowry paintings worth up to £1m from an art collector’s home in Greater Manchester. Ivan Aird was tied up and his wife and two-year-old daughter threatened during the robbery in Cheadle Hulme last May.”
Fund For Slain Cellist Causes Controversy In Georgia
“The Augusta Symphony launched a fund nearly two weeks ago to memorialize slain cellist David Reader, who was killed in the early morning of May 11 on East Boundary Street. But the announcement of the fund… caused a bitter and mean-spirited debate on crime and punishment on one local message board.”
Europe Warming Up To American-Style Fundraising
“The very notion of hitting up private companies and rich people for money, of setting up boards of trustees and answering to them, the way American cultural organizations do, appalled” many in Europe’s cultural sphere only a few years ago. But times are changing, and as government subsidies dwindle, arts groups across Europe are clamoring for private funds.
Osaka Orchestra Turns To Public After Gov’t Cuts
“The Century Orchestra Osaka has announced plans for a new supporters’ club to raise funds to help the ensemble survive a financial crisis brought on by the withdrawal of subsidies from the Osaka prefectural government. With an annual membership fee of just 1,000 yen… it is hoped the club will attract enough members to ease the financial strain threatening the orchestra’s existence.”