Two movie studios are each claiming ownership of a film. “Two competing studios were each claiming to have bought the independent film “Thank You for Smoking,” a political satire by the first-time director Jason Reitman, financed by the first-time producer David Sacks.”
Tag: 09.13.05
Louisiana – Trying To Hang On To The Movies
Keeping or attracting film production in Louisiana is a difficult but important task. “Film production has become a crucial source of income for Louisiana, which in 2002 adopted among the most aggressive tax incentives in the country. An estimated 20 movies will be shot in the state this year, with a direct economic benefit estimated at $125 million.”
High-Tech Looters Pillage Mediterranean Shipwrecks
Ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean are being looted of their treasures. “Traffickers have caught on to the fact that there are more than 12,000 shipwrecks in Greek waters. Many of the submerged gems date back to the Golden Age of the fifth century BC. Armed with archeological service maps acquired on the black market, burgeoning numbers of international smugglers have made it their mission to locate the wrecks, authorities say.”
China’s Internet Pop Stars
Young internet pop stars are blooming in China, where they record their music with just a laptop, headphones and a lip-mike. Xiang Xiang is the 21-year-old at the top of the charts. Her Song of Pig has notched up a billion downloads from admirers in China, Singapore and Malaysia, but the downloads are all free. Why free? “It’s purely a kind of communication. I get feedback and suggestions or comments on my work and then I can make changes.”
Jazz Greats Honored By NEA
“Singer Tony Bennett, keyboardist Chick Corea and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard are among those named Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts and awarded $25,000 fellowships. The other recipients are percussionist Ray Barretto, composer Bob Brookmeyer, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and New Orleans-born manager John Levy, honored as a jazz advocate.”
Get Ready For The Insta-New Orleans Books
They’re on the way, with authors and publishers hard at work…
Dumbing Down The Classics?
Publishers realize there are plenty of books out there that everyone knows but few have read. Is it because they’re too hard? So publishers are putting out “new editions of some of the great, often unread, works with a fresh emphasis on ‘accessibility’. Some may call it dumbing down. The books will be, well, simpler. One of the first to receive the treatment is Tolstoy’s War and Peace, republished this month by Penguin in a new, reader-friendly translation.”
RIBA Head: Architecture Shows Are Crap
London needs a place to stage architecture exhibitions. The head of the Royal Institute of British Architects Trust says that “most architecture exhibitions are crap. In my opinion, yes they are. The content isn’t crap but the way it engages is appalling because it’s the wrong medium. I’ve seen many architecture exhibitions where the subject matter should be in a book or on a website or in a journal or on television, but it’s not an exhibition.”
Kidnapping As Art (Really?)
Journalist Morgan Fowler has homself “kidnapped” by a performance artist, who beats on him. “Lying on the floor I had felt genuinely degraded, afraid of the next punch, ashamed that I’d submitted to it at all. Yet something like determination kept me submitting to this for a full 40 minutes. Even after a cab home and a shower I found myself oddly reluctant to talk about what had happened. The game had been a little more involving than I had envisaged. I had quite a few bruises.” Is this really art?
Portrait Of The Orchestra Musician In The UK
“According to the survey, orchestral musicians earn an average of £28,579 per year – of which £25,126 comes from their orchestral contract. (According to the Office of National Statistics, the UK average salary last year was £22,060.) The pay scale is fairly flat across the sector, with 71 per cent of respondents earning between £20,000 and £30,000. 14 per cent earned below that, and 15 per cent above. Over the last three years, musicians’ average earnings have risen at slightly below the rate of inflation.”