ITP

   
Artist: ITP

   Genre(s): 
Trance: Psychedelic
   

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Discography:


   
 Lose Your Illusion

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 10

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Bono, Bob Geldof plead for African aid

U Totem

   
Artist: U Totem

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

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Discography:


   
 U Totem

   Year: 1992   
Tracks: 7

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U Totem was formed by members of 2 bands: drummer/composer David Kerman's 5UU's and bassist/composer James Grigsby's Motor Totemist Guild. These two groups were active in the Los Angeles area start in the early 1980s. The groups recorded their have albums before collaborating on the LPs Elements and Shapuno Zoo. In 1989 Kerman and Grigsby were invited to perform at the 2nd International Art Rock Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. They enlisted Motor Totemist Guild vocalist/flautist Emily Hay and 5UU's keyboardist Sanjay Kumar for the performance, and U Totem was officially born. Eric Johnson (bassoon/soprano sax) united for the recording on the band's self-titled debut saucer, and guitar player Steve Cade joined for the transcription of Strange Attractors.


U Totem's rock candy medicine has many influences, including Renaissance concerted music, twelve-tone serial music and Indonesian gamelan. The stripe has performed with Laotian and Cambodian musicians and appeared with such diverse artists as The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, and Michael Nyman.

Jeffrey Korchik

SAG and AMPTP need to stop messing with the system

Jeffrey Korchek, vp legal and business affairs at Mattel, worked for many years at Universal Pictures as executive vp business and legal affairs. He is an adjunct professor in the Peter Stark program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.



You would think that SAG members and the studios and networks grouped in the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers would have learned something from the writers strike and the lack of a directors strike. Or maybe they just learned the wrong thing, with AMPTP members finding cost savings in the strike and the actors seeing capitulation in the directors' settlement.


In either case, don't you wish both sides would just stop messing with the system before it's too late?


The equation of entertainment is really pretty simple, and it produces unique assets: motion pictures and TV shows that can be sold again and again, in movie theaters, home video, cable, airplanes, ships at sea and so on. Every so often a new delivery technology comes along -- the iPod, Internet video -- and the content owner gets to sell that same asset all over again. No other industry gets to do that, not cars, not detergents, not clothes.


Amazingly, it all starts with an idea in somebody's head. Intellectual property. It takes many people to develop, produce and distribute movies and TV shows, and the good and bad part about the business is that it's collaborative in the extreme. Actors, writers, directors, producers and studio executives -- everybody contributes. And, notwithstanding what we read, no one person is singularly responsible for success or failure.


To make the equation work, all those involved in the process just need to keep making movies and TV shows. Some will be successful, some not, but over time you build a library that generates a continuous revenue stream. And if everything works and the timing is right, little $10 million movies like "American Pie" become billion-dollar assets after sequels, direct-to-video productions and everything else.


Although it might seem that the way in which movies and shows are developed, produced and distributed is complex (we know the personalities involved are), the basic idea is not complicated. I promise you that no one is sitting around at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory saying, "Come on, it's not the movie business."


That's why it was dumb for the WGA to strike and dumb for the AMPTP to let it happen. Because really, it wasn't so much about working conditions or creative rights, it was about money. And if it's just about money, somewhere in all the posturing there's the basis for a deal.


Moreover, what greater good was achieved for the majority of members, because isn't that the point of a labor union? Instead, everybody lost to the collective total of hundreds of millions of dollars -- and for those WGA members who work, no increase in the residual formula will ever bring that back. Everybody knows that the studios and networks have the edge with their libraries, and even though we might wish it dead, reality TV keeps growing, which only further reduces jobs for writers and actors.


SAG should pay attention to the balance of power: As Indiana Jones says, "You don't bring a knife to a gunfight."


Sometimes there's a fundamental disconnect in the movie and TV biz: It's a long-term business limited by short-term thinking. What's needed now is responsible management of the economic system so that everyone can keep working. There's enough decent content being produced for a lot of people to make a really nice living and, in moderate to major success, to make a really, really nice living. But to cause or allow a work stoppage that prevents the content from being produced wreaks havoc on an already shaky economy.


Everybody says Hollywood is like high school, but it's actually like a bad day in high school. Call it Unpleasantville. And if the first law of Hollywood is "nobody knows anything," the second is "nobody really likes anyone." Perhaps the answer is that every high school needs a principal, and rules, and that's what's missing.


As a first step, so it doesn't start looking like the decline of Rome, the industry needs a sustained period of labor peace. A Pax Studiana. A three-year labor agreement is not long enough. The whole labor negotiation process has become contentious and distracting and costly. The inefficiencies of preparing for a strike are too great a strain on the business as a whole, resulting in bid-up prices for talent, rushed productions, sustained periods without production, layoffs and a devastating effect on the local economy.


In the old days, there was enough money swashing around so that the networks, studios and unions could have a fight, make up and get back to work without doing much damage. Today, nobody has that luxury.

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• Rob Burger
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BBC announces Grange Hill will end

The BBC has announced that its school drama 'Grange Hill' is to end after 30 years.
At a launch for new and recurring dramas for CBBC today, it was announced the upcoming series of 'Grange Hill' would be the last.
Announcing the end of 'Grange Hill', Anne Gilchrist, Controller, CBBC, said: "Part of CBBC's reputation for reflecting contemporary Britain back to UK children has been built upon Phil Redmond's ['Grange Hill' creator] brilliantly realised idea and of course it's sad to say goodbye to such a much loved institution. The lives of children have changed a great deal since 'Grange Hill' began and we owe it to our audience to reflect this."
She continued: "We're actively seeking out new and exciting ways of bringing social realism to the CBBC audience through drama and other genres. Yesterday we announced two 'Newsround' Specials tackling divorce and knife crime and we will continue to make programmes about the ups and downs of contemporary Britain."
Jon East, Head of CBBC Drama, said: "For 30 years, Grange Hill has become a byword for realistic and contemporary children's drama. It's now time to apply what we've learned over the years to some of the new ideas we're exploring."

Gary Dourdan ‘embarrassed’ by arrest

CSI star Gary Dourdan is “embarrassed” by his recent arrest for alleged drug possession.
The actor was apprehended by police after he was found asleep in his incorrectly parked car early on Monday morning (28Apr08) in Palm Springs, California. Cops searched his vehicle, before arresting him on suspicion of possessing heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy and prescription drugs.
Dourdan posted $5,000 bail and was released following the incident.
He tells People.com, “Obviously I am embarrassed to find myself in this situation, and I am profoundly grateful to everyone for their support. I have complete confidence in and respect for the justice system and will cooperate fully with any investigation.”

Woodstock Villa Music Review

Sanjay Gupta and rocking music go together. There may have been a stray exception or two but time and again Gupta has proved that he has it in him when it comes to the choice of some contemporary/urban music which cuts boundaries. Dus Kahaniyaan, Zinda, Musafir, Kaante - the list just goes on. No wonder, one looks forward to what's in store while picking up the album of Woodstock Villa. So what if the film has a different director (Hansal Mehta), it's the trust in Gupta's White Feather Films banner that makes one hopeful. Thankfully, Gupta and his team do not break the trust here! Aanchal Datta Bhatia had made a stunning impression with her double bill in Dus Kahaniyaan in the form of title track and Janiye. Now she returns to the thick of things with Anu Malik composed Dhoka. With some imaginative lyrics by

Sebastian Tellier

   
Artist: Sebastian Tellier

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   

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Discography:


   
 Universe

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 14

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