Comics legend Stan Lee (“Spider Man” Fantastic Four”) has a prescription for fading comics. Take ’em to the web with a new way of making them: “simple online animated shorts Lee calls “webisodes.” Designed to accommodate slower modems, they will run between 3 and 5 minutes–complete with bone-crunching, cape-swishing sound–and take between 1 1/2 and 3 minutes to download at 28.8K.” – Time
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PORTRAIT OF WAR
During the First World War, Canadian artists painted war scenes, though not in the heroic European tradition. These are canvases to discourage the proposition of war. The canvases, packed away for decades, are now to be seen again. – Maclean’s
- The war “when Canada became a nation.” – National Post (Canada)
MOZART MYTH
Contrary to popular legend, Mozart was not the victim of foul play, says a professor of medicine. It was a case of severe rheumatic fever. – Singapore Straits Times
ONLINE ORCHESTRA
Dallas Symphony hits the internet with its first online concert broadcast. The potential audience was enormous – was anyone listening? – Dallas Morning News
ALL ABE ALL THE TIME
Chicago bookstore wins “Niche-Of-The-Year” award by making a go of selling only books and memorabilia related to Abraham Lincoln. – Publishers Weekly
WRIGHTEOUS OBSESSION
Pop-paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould seems to bring out the worst in science writer Robert Wright. For the last decade Wright has been writing inexplicably hostile reviews of Gould’s work – even his supporters detect an element of obsessive stalking. Until last December, when the New Yorker published the latest of Wright’s diatribes against the incredibly successful public intellectual, Gould has remained silent. Is Gould’s refusal to respond to Wright’s provocations the sign of a savvy alpha male or a passive-aggressive bully? – New York Magazine
MOUSE FEARS
IN BLACK AND WHITE
“The secret imperative behind most of Hollywood’s black and white star pairings remains: Look but don’t touch. We’ve all been trained by years of movie-going to know that at some point in thrillers or romantic comedies – after the growing rapport, the looks that linger just a second longer than necessary – the male and female leads will get together. Except, that is, when the leading couple is interracial.” – Salon 02/14/00
ONLINE OBJECTION
Jack Valenti is president of the Motion Picture Association of America, and has shown with two lawsuits in the past few weeks that he’s serious about grabbing control of copyright protection on the web. The high-profile suits threaten to curtail some of the freedoms that coders and Net entrepreneurs have been taking for granted. – Salon 02/14/00
NBC VS. SF AFFILIATE
Bay Area tycoon buys KRON-TV, the local NBC affiliate, for a record price – $823 million. NBC, a spurned bidder for the station, demands new conditions for remaining network affiliate on new owner. New owner to NBC: Drop dead. We’ll go it alone. – San Francisco Chronicle 02/14/00