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A Protest Against Copyrighted History

Across the US Tuesday, activists screened the documentary “Eyes on the Prize, in defiance of the copyright law. The program, “which debuted on PBS in 1987, can no longer be broadcast on television and has never been released on DVD due to a tangle of licensing issues. When the film was first made, each piece of newsreel footage, photograph and song used in the 14-part series had to be licensed from its copyright holder. Due to limited funding, the filmmakers could only afford to buy rights to the material for a certain number of years, and now those rights have expired.”

China’s Building Boom Culture

China is on a building binge of cultural facilities. “Beijing alone is planning to add at least 32 new museums by 2008. Already underway is a $220 million expansion of the National Museum of China that will double the exhibition spaces, and, in a move that reflects a new emphasis on visitor services and earned income generation, complement them with a museum shop, café and cinema. And museums are not all. The new National Grand Theater, a $325 million performing arts complex designed by French architect Paul Andreu has broken ground and when complete will boast a 2,416-seat opera hall, a 2,017 seat concert hall, theatre and gleaming new patron spaces as well.”

Where’s The Dance Audience?

How do you build a new audience for dance? “Creating an environment where experimentation can flourish requires rethinking dance appreciation from the bottom up. It requires expanded school field trips and in-class curriculum where dance is seen as an integral part of world history, public television broadcasts and dance in other free media, lecture-demonstrations, explanatory pre-concert talks, sophisticated program notes and a return to serious, in-depth arts criticism that recognizes that the arts deliver the news the culture tells about itself — whether that work is presented for one ephemeral night or enjoys a lucrative, year-long run.”

Lazar Berman, 74

Lazar Berman, a big bear of a Russian pianist who was greeted with wild acclaim when he was allowed to travel to the West in 1976, has died at his home in Italy. “A pianist with a bearlike build, a shock of sandy hair and a disarming smile, Mr. Berman had a gentle manner that seemed at odds with his often-muscular approach to the piano. His repertory, though, was broader than his reputation would suggest.”

Live Music While You Hold

A UK company is experimenting with the music its customers hear while on hold on the telephone. It is presenting live music while you wait, with a string quartet. “The exercise reflects the increasing exploitation of the time customers spend on hold as a marketing opportunity – whether by subtly expressing corporate values via the choice of music, or taking advantage of a captive audience to “advise” customers about services or offers.”

Rock And Roll Museum Sues Website

Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is suing two journalists and a radio company executive from putting up a website called the Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The trio “misappropriated Rock Hall’s substantial intellectual property rights as well as the goodwill associated therewith. Unless restrained … by the court, such conduct will, permit defendants to gain an unfair advantage over Rock Hall.’ It said the Cleveland museum has suffered irreparable harm and was seeking damages in excess of $100,000.”

A Bell With Two Sides

“On PBS, movie soundtracks, and any number of crossover discs for Sony Classical, violinist Joshua Bell is the boyish, 37-year-old violinist with a matinee-idol following and glamorous girlfriends such as Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth. In concert, he’s a classical violinist in the Jascha Heifetz mold, delivering objective, insightful tours of the great classical masterpieces with one of the cleanest violin techniques in the business.”