Blog

I-CRAVE-LAWSUIT GETS ITS WISH

Canadian internet startup iCraveTV.com has been rebroadcasting American network channels available in Toronto over the internet. Though the picture is jerky, the site has attracted millions of visitors in a few short months. Now an indignant Hollywood has served up a big fat lawsuit. – CBC 01/21/00  

  • Previously: I-CRAVE-LAWSUIT.COM: Toronto man rebroadcasts every TV station available in Toronto over the internet on Icravetv.com, and networks have a fit. “It’s all perfectly legal,” he claims. – Wired 12/17/99

SUNDANCING

This year’s Sundance Film Festival gets underway. Nearly 1,700 films were submitted for consideration this year. “Clearly a growing number of people out there want to be filmmakers. And many of them will be found this coming week, wearing parkas and frazzled looks, on the icy, traffic-choked streets of Park City.” – New York Times 01/20/00 

  • Taking stock of the independent film world – and what happened to last year’s crop of ’99 Sundance films (end of story). – Chicago Tribune 01/20/00

  • Handicapping this year’s field. – San Francisco Chronicle 01/20/00

  • Star for a week: Getting your film into Sundance is swell, but for most the after is… – National Post 01/20/00

    • “Be careful what you wish for” – a cautionary tale from one of last year’s chosen. – Indiewire.com 01/18/00

BACK TO FRONT

Okay, so it’s a new “Golden Age” of American Opera. But before everyone gets too excited, consider a disturbing trend. Some recent new operas have been invented backwards – with someone other than the composer controlling the composition. A disturbing trend, writes Josh Kosman, and one that makes for unsatisfying opera. – San Francisco Chronicle

CYBERGRASS VS. GENDER BIAS

The Vienna Philharmonic is one of the world’s great orchestras. Also one of the few to retain a distinctive sound that is theirs alone. Trouble is, they don’t believe in women musicians in their midst. The international campaign taking on the VPO’s sexist discrimination has been fertilized on the internet in a real cyber-grass roots effort that has exerted considerable pressure on the orchestra to change its ways. (be sure to take the musical gender test part way through the story). – MSNBC

MUSIC’S WTO

An international consortium of 150 recording companies meets in Seattle this week to discuss how to make money from music over the internet. “[The record companies] have made it clear,” says Kevin Unangst, group product manager for Microsoft’s streaming media division, “that to bring their content online for digital distribution, they need copyright protection.” – Seattle Weekly

CONDUCTING NEWBIE

The Detroit Symphony’s appointment of Itzhak Perlman as principal guest conductor is a bit of a stretch. Perlman as conductor is so new, he admits that much of what it takes to be a conductor is still a mystery to him. “A jaundiced eye might look upon this whole venture as pure marketing — had the DSO not recently rid itself entirely of a cumulative deficit that once hit $8 million, or if classical subscriptions were not on a steady climb.” – Detroit News

  • Previously: MAESTRO PERLMAN: Star violinist Itzhak Perlman will become principal guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony beginning with the 2001-2002 season. – Detroit News 01/19/00

OVERBUILDING?

A dozen major arts buildings are scheduled to open around Britain this year – £400 million-worth of new museums, including the new Tate Modern – built with lottery funds. But most of them are behind schedule and half are over budget. And when they do open there are fears there might not be audiences to support them. – BBC

  • Tate Modern being carved out of a derelict former power station in a rundown part of London for $223 million. Expected to open in May and rank alongside New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Paris’s Pompidou Centre as one of the great modern art museums. – Chicago Tribune