Apple is negotiating with movie studios to sell movies over iTunes. But there’s a hitch over what the price should be. “As with the recording studios, who have been pressuring Apple to offer different pricing for different songs, the studios want to charge more for their most popular products. But Apple chief executive Steve Jobs wants a flat price of $9.99 per movie.”
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Hungarian State Opera Director Fired
Hungarian minister of culture István Hiller has fired Árpád Jutocsa Hegyi, the controversial general director of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, Italy’s ANSA news agency reports.
What Should Scotland’s National Anthem Be?
“The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has launched an online poll asking users of its website to vote for one of five choices. The contenders are Highland Cathedral, Flower of Scotland, Scots Wha Hae, Scotland the brave and A man’s a man. The anthem debate has been stoked by different sports playing different songs before Scotland matches.”
Trade Association: Chinese Pirates Cost Movie Industry Big Bucks
A movie association group says pirates in Chine cost the movie industry $2.3 billion in revenue last year. “China’s film industry lost about $1.5 billion in revenue to piracy last year, while the major U.S. studios lost $565 million, according to data released on Monday by the Motion Picture Association.”
Beautiful Fences Make Good Neighbors?
So some Americans are determined to build a fence between Mexico and the US. But what should that fence look like? “Maybe some form of backyard diplomacy is in order — Mexico is no enemy — and there are obvious suspects for the job: professional designers, whose duty it is to come up with welcome solutions that defy ugly problems; to create appeal where there might be none.”
In New York – Artists Are Playing The Gallery Field
“Defections seem to be contagious in Chelsea these days. Long-settled artists are suddenly playing the field, ditching their dealers in favor of galleries with bigger spaces, better locations, stronger connections to museums and collectors and — perhaps most important — a star-studded roster of artists. The difference today, many dealers say, is that it’s the successful artists — whose work commands dizzying sums— who are defecting.”
The Theatre That Ate (Or Energized?) Minnesota…
Minnesota’s Guthrie Theatre has always been a giant on the local theatre scene. But what impact will the theatre’s huge new building have on the Twin Cities? “Will the new Guthrie, with an invigorated regional and national profile, create a rising tide that will help lift all theaters in the area? Or, with its increased need for audience and financial support, will it become the Theater That Ate the Twin Cities?”
Kushner’s Operatic “Angels” More Literally As An Opera
“The rush of time drives ‘Angels in America’ — first as Tony Kushner’s gargantuan Broadway play about AIDS, politics and morality, and now in an operatic setting by Peter Eotvos. Written for the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and produced for an American audience by Opera Unlimited at the Calderwood Pavilion here on Friday night, “Angels” as opera thrives on characters who — in their varying pettiness, nobility, cowardice, heart and sheer size of personality — were operatic before there was music to make them so.”
Daniel Barenboim Takes Leave Of Chicago
“For all that Mr. Barenboim has changed the orchestra’s character, it is not always apparent to one who has not heard a lot of the Chicago Symphony in recent years what, precisely, the new character is. While the sound retains weight and solidity, it tends more to invite listeners in rather than overwhelm them. Perhaps it is a matter not so much of a new personality as of a new versatility.”
Amateur Video Maker Scores TV Deal
An amateur 20-year-old who posted homemade videos to YouTube was signed to a network production deal last week. “Major TV studios have also started trolling YouTube and similar destinations for the next generation of acting and directing talent. In the process, the Web is offering the kind of instant connection to Hollywood that countless denizens of public-access talk shows have craved and seldom received.”