“The multinational music industry is gushing forth Mozart, calculating that one in four classical CDs has his name on it and the guy has brand recognition. Classic FM has produced a Mozart disc for babies. What we are witnessing is the rebirth of Mozart as McDonalds: everywhere you look, and always the same the world over. This coming weekend will serve up triple Mozart-deckers and Mozart-lite for weight watchers. I’m loving it….”
Blog
Wal-Mart Goes Online For Music
Wal-Mart has launched its own online music service. Dubbed “Wal-Mart Soundcheck”, the service features studio performances and interviews with new and established bands and musicians.
Constantinople’s Ancient Port Discovered
Working on an ambitious train tunnel to connect Asia and Europe, workers stumble on “the original port of Constantinople, a maze of dams, jetties and platforms that once was Byzantium’s hub for trade with the near east.”
Peru Wants Machu Picchu Artifacts For Tourism
“The Peruvian government is threatening to sue Yale University for the return of all the artifacts found at Machu Picchu. There’s no dispute that Peru gave Bingham permission to take the artifacts to Yale for further study. But Peruvian authorities say they have documents specifying that the material had to be returned within 18 months. It has now been more than 90 years. Yale says that Peruvian law in the 1900s “gave Yale title to the artifacts at the time of their excavation and ever since.”
Readers Sue Frey For “Wasted Time”
Some Seattle readers have filed a lawsuit against Doubleday and James Frey because Frey made up some of the details of his memoir. The suit “seeks compensation on behalf of consumers for ‘the lost value of the readers’ time’.”
Lottery Turns Down Liverpool Museum Funding
The UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund has turned down funding for a futuristic museum on Liverpool’s waterfront. The Fund “said it would not be giving the project the £11.4m it asked for, saying the plans were not detailed enough.” Planned exhibits in the building wwould “cover social history and popular culture, and will look at Britain and the world through the eyes of Liverpool.”
The Latest In A New Musical Instrument
“The tenori-on, a prototype from Yamaha’s product design laboratory, produces computer music through a grid of 256 illuminating buttons on a brushed-aluminum tablet. By pressing buttons along rows and columns, users can program melodies like plotting notes on a scale. When the tunes are looped and layered, the machine creates a symphony of synthesis, musical blips and bleeps matched with light patterns that bounce and ripple across the device.”
Critics: “Temple” Was Bay Area’s Best Of 2005
The best play in the Bay Area last year? According to critics, it was Leigh Fondakowski’s “The People’s Temple,” a “documentary theater piece based on the real-life tragedy of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. The play was produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre in association with Z Space Studio.”
Oscar’s Stuntblind
Why is there no Academy Award for stunt performers? Stunts, after all, are integral to many movies, and when so many Oscars are handed out, shouldn’t there at least be one to recognize stunt work?
Dwyer named To Lead Orange County Performing Arts Center
The Orange County Performing Arts center has named Terrence Dwyer as its new director. Dwyer was managing director of La Jolla Playhouse for 12 years before departing in 2004 for Houston’s Alley Theatre. “As president of OCPAC, Dwyer will be in charge of a diversified, $35- to $40-million-a-year operation that dwarfs the regional and off-Broadway theaters he has previously led.”