The writers’ strike represents a rare and potentially industry-changing opportunity for writers with an entrepreneurial bent. “This is all everybody is talking about on the line. They’re not talking about healthcare. They’re going, ‘Wow, is there a different way to get our movies and TV shows made?'”
Author: sbergman
Can Amazon Rejuvenate The e-Book?
Amazon has rolled out a new $399 e-book that it hopes will do for the electronic book industry what the iPod did for downloadable music. The Kindle comes with wireless capability, weighs just over half a pound, and can store over 200 standard-length books.
Smithsonian Reviewing Corporate Gifts Policy
“The Smithsonian Board of Regents is reviewing the way it handles corporate donations after the American Petroleum Institute withdrew a $5 million gift last week. The Smithsonian solicited the gift for its Ocean Initiative, but regents questioned whether it was appropriate to accept money for a marine science enterprise from a group supported by hundreds of oil companies.”
Hirst Spends $33m On Bacon
“Damien Hirst may have lost his title as the most expensive living artist at auction to Jeff Koons in New York last week, but he can still claim to be not only the richest artist in the world but also the one who spends the most on art. Bidding anonymously by telephone last Wednesday, he splashed out $33 million at Sotheby’s on a 14in by 12in self-portrait by Francis Bacon.”
UCLA Scores $30m From Herb Alpert
“In what UCLA is calling the largest single gift to music education in the western United States, the Herb Alpert Foundation has given the university a $30-million endowment pledge to establish the cross-disciplinary UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.”
Writers Using New Media To Attack Old Guard
The striking TV writers are taking full advantage of the online resources available to them, putting creative and sometimes hilarious videos explaining their position on YouTube and other sites. “It’s very interesting to see how the writers have used that entity that doesn’t pay them – the Internet – to do an end run around the very media firms they work for. It’s certainly a nice bit of irony.”
ART Narrows Field In Director Search
“Harvard University’s search committee to name the next artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre has told two well-known candidates that they won’t get the job, [and] a third potential candidate… said yesterday that he had been approached for the position but turned the ART down.”
Fall Auctions Go Out With A Whimper
The fall auction season in New York came to a close last night with a “lackluster finale” at Phillips, de Pury & Company’s Chelsea location. “Lower-priced works by the youngest and hippest artists fared well, while more established names with far higher prices sold often barely or not at all.”
Writers Strike Hitting Other Industry Employees Hard
“With the strike deep into Week 2, thousands of union writers are unemployed until further notice, and dozens of assistants, food stylists, electricians, makeup artists, landscapers and thousands of other ‘below the line’ workers in the industry are finding that their work is drying up, too, punching a psychic wound through large swaths of Los Angeles.”
Largest Digital Orchestra Yet Has Its Debut
“Technology’s relentless advance has finally invaded the timeless world of the cello, bassoon and other orchestral instruments, with the debut of the largest digital orchestra in the world. Fifty music students at York University staged a hi-tech twist on the traditional symphony last night by sitting on a concert hall floor and playing nothing but laptop computers.”