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Art Basel Miami: Has Art Basel Lost its Cool?

Staring at the big, sparkly Tom Friedman painting, "Glitterbattle," in the Gagosian booth, the woman in the red flowered house dress, yellow socks, and black sneakers, was inspired. So was her companion, dressed in khaki shorts, an ...READ»

Art Basel Miami: Gagosian to Fairgoers: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The Gagosian Gallery, the big Kahuna of the Art Basel Miami, has a new policy on labels identifying the work on view in its booth. There are none. "We don't like to label our artists," said one gallery staffer when asked about the ...READ»

Entertainment: Madonna's Moves Herald the Future of Music Distribution

Material Girl Madonna appears to be thinking not just like an artist, but also like a businesswoman. The 49-year-old singer has signed a groundbreaking record deal with concert promoter LiveNation, citing her decision to adopt a more ...READ»

Open Source: The Future of Film?

Digital Rights Management is a hot issue nowadays. Labels, artists and producers complain that they're losing money and being denied adequate copyright protection. This has spurred the development of security measures in an attempt ...READ»

Caught by a Queen

I have gotten some interesting comments on a post I wrote last week about internet safety. One parent urged other parents to try posing as a "hottie" online to see how their child responds. While another young adult found this to be ...READ»

MyMaps Dashes Startup Dreams

Last week, Google launched its latest feature, Google MyMaps. This handy upgrade of its already useful Map feature allows anyone with a Google account to create maps that are personal to him or her. The feature lets its creator add ...READ»

Rock the Vote on American Idol

So here's a disclaimer: I'm not an American Idol fan. I actually believe American Idol brings out the worst in America and the worst Americans. But all this fuss about Sanjaya Malakar and whether he should or should not win the ...READ»

The Wisdom (and Wit) of Crowds

On the heels of our recent music industry panel (watch video highlights here) with Musictoday and John Legend, I attended the Digital Music Forum here in New York to hear more about how the industry is coping. There were some ...READ»

Oscar Takes on a Green Sheen

With awards season in full-swing and the Oscars set to take center stage on Sunday, all eyes will be on the Red Carpet or now -- more appropriately -- the Green Carpet. With the world up in arms about climate change and everyone from ...READ»

The Future of Music

What will the music business look like in a decade? How can a recording artist use the Web to connect with and build a fan base? Do viral marketing campaigns work as well for established recording artists as they do for up-and-coming ...READ»

Commissioning a Symphony

This news is a bit old at this point, but I just learned about it, and it might still merit mention. While companies such as Symantec are experimenting with the idea of adverbands, another company -- Nike -- is foregoing promoting ...READ»

Feed the Models: A Manifesto

For the past 20 years, emaciated models have fueled the fashion industry as the standard for sex appeal and style. It all started with Twiggy in the 1960's, a skinny little pixie of an icon whose cute nonexistant thighs inspired my ...READ»

Apocalypto: Gibson's Saving Grace

There was an article in the New York Times this morning about Mel Gibson's Mayan epic, Apocalypto. The writer, Sharon Waxman, discussed some early praise for the film, alongside Hollywood criticism for the actor/director/producer's ...READ»

Paris Hilton Launches New Business Venture

Does anyone remember the old SNL skit advertising "Bad Idea" jeans? This hilarious parody of Levis ads portrayed the wearers of "Bad Idea" jeans making horrible decisions. People sporting "Bad Idea" jeans would say things like, "Now ...READ»

Not Everyone Loves MySpace

At a time when most music artists are embracing MySpace as an extension of their marketing plan, Jay-Z wasn't too delighted that MySpace served its site members a sneak preview of his entire new album last week. Kingdom Come, the ...READ»

Playstation 3 Prompts Real-Life Violence

Last night as I made my way across Manhattan in the rain, I had to push my way through 1,500 angry wet customers standing outside the Sony Plaza store on Madison Avenue. Some of them, I'm told, had been there for days, waiting for a ...READ»

Apple Takes Flight

In its most recent move to saturate the music market, Apple has partnered with seven of the major world airlines to make iPods an integral part of in-flight entertainment. Beginning in mid-2007, Air France, Continental Airlines, ...READ»

Apple's World Power in Question

Apple’s dominance in the music world has prompted this week’s heated negotiations with a number of European governments and consumer rights organizations. The negotiations have taken Apple executives to Paris, where government ...READ»

Brand Tom Cruise for Sale

Whether Paramount Pictures cut off Tom Cruise as a result of his recent conduct--bouncing up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch, attacking Brooke Shields for taking prescription drugs, publicly speaking out against psychiatry, ...READ»

Chappelle's Show: The Repo'ed Episodes

Last night marked the last of three “Lost Episodes” of Chappelle’s Show material filmed before Dave Chappelle’s abrupt departure during production of the show in 2005. And airing the footage may prove to be a big mistake for ...READ»