Peter Sunde: “We all know how evolution works, except one industry that refuses to evolve: the entertainment industry. Instead of looking at evolution as something inevitable, the industry has made it their business to refuse and/or sue change, by any necessary means.”
Month: February 2012
To Write A Convincing Setting, Don’t Think ‘Landscape’
The author of The Descendants: “Setting shouldn’t just consist of describing nature or a landscape, or of saying where something takes place. It is the world of specific people. It’s not enough for it to feel vivid or credible; it should feel necessary.”
Can The Movies Save The Performing Arts?
“More performing arts are finding their way into movie theaters. Ballet and opera, theater and orchestra performances are part of a burgeoning new field that the movie theater industry refers to as ‘alternative content.’ Yet it may be a little too alternative.”
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra President Steps Down
“Sarah Lutman, president and managing director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, will leave the orchestra to start an independent consulting practice, the SPCO announced Friday.”
Not Fade Away: Genius Older Artists Persist In Being Geniuses
David Hockney’s big Royal Academy show, Leonard Cohen’s new hit album, Woody Allen’s big success with Midnight in Paris – turns out that many artists, if they get to live that long, don’t let age wither their talents.
Who Made The Rubik’s Cube, Defining Game Of A Generation?
Erno Rubik, of course. And it all started as foam.
The Dinosaurs And Music: Spotify’s Exec Meets Music Biz Laywers
“The 28-year-old Swedish entrepreneur with a boyish face … addressed a ballroom full of power attorneys in Brooks Brothers and Armani suits — essentially schooling them on the brave new world of digital music. Ek boldly predicted that revenue from streaming services such as Spotify will in two years return as much revenue to the industry as iTunes does today.”
For African American Actors, Little Change On Stage Or Screen
“The black middle and upper classes have long fumed that stage and film have rendered them largely invisible — and are hungry for serious works with rounded characterizations of themselves. This hunger was not satisfied by The Help.“
Superstar Artist Gerhard Richter At 80: Not Slowing Down
Richter “probably numbers among the least eccentric painters in the world. While working, he wears his sleeves crisply rolled up. He applies his paint very deliberately, and he concentrates on the canvas in a keenly focused manner. Indeed, while painting, he looks more like a self-composed surgeon than an artist striving for self-realization.”
Can We Please Just Stop With The Holocaust Movies? (A Response to Agnieszka Holland’s ‘In Darkness’)
“I know the arguments about never forgetting; that making movies or writing books about the Holocaust is a way to keep these memories alive. But books — libraries full of them — have been written. Plenty of good films (bad ones, too) have been made, and this output will endure. Why do we need fresh entries at this point? Is anyone truly going to see In Darkness to learn about war-time atrocities? Or are they driven by some pornographic instinct?”