“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.”
Tag: 09.19.05
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.”
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.”
The Strike That Wouldn’t End
The musicians of l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal have now been on strike for 18 weeks, the second-longest work stoppage by a North American orchestra in 40 years, and there doesn’t appear to have been a single measure of progress towards reconciliation. So what’s taking so long? Unfortunately, the OSM strike is just the most visible battle of a continent-wide war between two mindsets in the classical music industry: that which claims that the market is saturated, and only a significant scaling back of ambitions can put things right; and that which insists that the only crisis in the orchestra world is a crisis of leadership in the boardroom, and holds fast to the notion that top orchestras can still pay top dollar and be financially viable. Both sides in Montreal are firmly dug in, and there’s no end in sight.