“Every time a name was called you thought: Oh. Him/her again. How are these things voted on? If these Emmys opened with actors reflecting on their first Emmys, it was dominated by series producers and costars reflecting on the Emmys they’d won yet again. For the most part the more interesting new faces of TV were glimpsed more than seen, which contributed to the overall feel of a rote Emmys, an Emmys that could be happening any old year.”
Blog
Writers, Directors Ask Unions: Where’s Our Money?
Movie writers and directors charge that their respective unions aren’t doing enough to get them foreign payments due them. “Unlike television residuals, which producers and studios have been obligated to pay since the 1950’s, foreign levies stem from VCR, DVD and Internet technology. While American viewers can tape programs from their television sets free of charge, in other nations people pay taxes like one on blank videocassettes and DVD’s, or assessments on cassette rentals so the copyright holders can be compensated. It is this revenue into which the three Hollywood guilds began tapping as early as 1990, on behalf of members and also of others who had a stake in films but did not belong to the unions.”
Career Choice – Singing The Blues
Being a singer is not a good career choice these days. “The expansion of higher education conflicts exponentially with the contraction of the classical music business, leaving more aspirants chasing fewer opportunities and smaller budgets. Fees have barely shifted in the past decade, and what might look quite good on paper – £500-£1,000 per performance – is pitiful when you’ve deducted all the expenses, including 15 per cent agent’s commission. And even if you do make it big, time is short: if you manage 20 years, you’re doing better than most.”
Find A Book, Leave A Book
Bookcrossing is founded on the idea of registering a book, then leaving it somewhere in public for someone else to find and read. The group now has 400,000 participants in 120 countries. “The founders of BookCrossing.com compare their online book club to a virus, one that has reached far-flung places carried by members who heed the philosophy: if you love a book, set it free. One selling point is that it costs nothing to join. Members include literature buffs determined to share their passion or thin out their shelves and travelers who simply love a good book — although here the books do most of the traveling.”
Hollywood Tries To Get A Grip On Tech
Hollywood movie studios, more and more at the mercy of technology, have decided to join forces and build a lab to explore technology on their own. “The lab is modeled after CableLabs, which since 1988 has spearheaded pivotal innovations in the cable television industry – hastening the adoption of fiber optics, cable modems, telephony and digital video. Hollywood’s version will begin with a more modest mandate, said Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. It will focus principally on piracy prevention, though it will be given some flexibility to expand its mission later, he said.”
Another Resignation At La Scala
One of the theatre’s biggest sponsors has quit the company’s governing board. “His resignation follows a decision to hand over the running of the new theatre, the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, to the local authority, the commune of Milan.”
Are We Growing Numb To Music?
“We live in a world with too much music. And the din is only increasing. Stop and listen for a moment. Hear that tune on the radio in the cubicle next to you? Hear that jingle on the TV ad? Or the Kanye West ringtone on your cell phone, clashing with the music being played by the band in the corner of the bar? Maybe you don’t hear any of that because you’ve got your iPod earbuds in, or your home stereo cranked. Music is everywhere these days. And with the proliferation of ever-smaller electronic devices packed with ever more music, the supposed nirvana of having any song available at the push of a button seems ever closer.” Are we losing our ability to really listen?
Florida Concert Group Merges With Miami PAC
The new Miami Performing Arts Center (anxious to sign up tenants) has signed up (read: merged) with the Concert Association of Florida. “Most obviously, the partnership strengthens the Miami Performing Arts Center’s status as the dominant cultural force in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, even before the center opens in fall of 2006. In addition to its signing of the Cleveland Orchestra as resident ensemble for 10 years, presenting Florida Grand Opera performances and bringing Drucker’s events under its authority make the Miami Performing Arts Center the most powerful presenter of classical music in the region.”
French Fiction On The Decline
Has the quality of French writing declined? “This month, 633 titles will be published in French, in a ritual known as la rentrée littéraire, a publishing blitz that the reading public finds increasingly bewildering. This year’s list is double the length of that six years ago, and many titles end up unsold in the stockroom. Some hard questions are now being raised. How many of these novels are really worth reading? And why are so few of these authors known outside France? Even francophiles in the English-speaking world find it hard to list many contemporary French novelists.”
LA County Museum To Sell Off Major Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is selling off 42 works, including paintings by Amedeo Modigliani, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Max Beckmann, sculptures by Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, and works on paper by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Edgar Degas. “The idea, said LACMA Deputy Director Nancy Thomas, is to prune redundant and unrepresentative items and spend the income on works that will fill in gaps — especially modern works that could shine when the museum expands, reorganizes and rehangs its collection in 2007.”