U-turn / Media
August 16, 2006
Blog down, blog up
Due to servermigration my blog has been down for a while. Rather frustrating, because there were some things I wanted to post about. But, as you can see, I am up and running again.
Posted by Renske at 13:32 UTC | permanent link
March 22, 2006
New Radio
1934 Radio
(Photo: Renske Vrolijk)We've bought a new radio. It is a very cool vintage 1934 model (see picture) and I am very proud of it.
We had high hopes for a real old one, but these are hard to get, so we settled with a replica.
When I told my manager (he is the manager for NCRV's radio-department ) at the office, he told me he owns a 1928 original Philips radio, one of the first radio receivers ever produced.
On the other hand, wouldn't it be cool to have an Internet-radio, working with a wifi connection, but with the looks of the early 1920s and 1930s models.
Posted by Renske at 15:09 UTC | permanent link
October 24, 2005
Culture - Dutch treat
My last post was about the proposed termination of transmitting classical music on public radio in the Netherlands through the FM band. Not a happy story. And although I thought otherwise, it is still under investigation. (You can post your protest here).
In recent history Holland cultural life has been rich and strongly subsidized. At this very moment classical and contemporary music is under heavy pressure, and as one of the broadcasting senior managers said it last week:"under pressure solid things become fluid".
Summarizing:
- Three mayor broadcasting organizations closed down their classical music departments.
- The national daily AD (Algemeen Dagblad) doesn't write about classical music anymore.
- The main broadcasting organization NPS will (if plans are carried out) be liquidated in 2008. This is the number one organization spending time on classical/contemporary music and arts.
- Radio4 - national Dutch classical music channel will only transmit through cable and not FM frequency.
- The mayor fund for supporting Dutch composers Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst will be terminated by January first 2007.
- Donemus - the Dutch publisher for new music almost went bankrupt two years ago and is still at risk.
On the upside of things is that Italian media are in a far worse state than Dutch countreparts with media-tycoon Berlusconi as prime-minister. I read in a recent article that people are trying to escape the emptiness of television and that they rediscovering the theatres again. So may be, their is still hope.
Posted by Renske at 11:16 UTC | permanent link
July 6, 2005
Cutting edge from Ireland
Contemporary music composers usually don't have the hippest image, but the way the Irish Contemporary Music Center is serving them is about to change that.
Since last week Apple's iTunes is capable of serving podcasts, making it easier than ever for the general audience to listen to audioblogs (or downloadable radioprograms). Browsing through the list of padcasts in iTunes I came a across the podcast by the CMC containing an interview with the composer of the month Donnacha Dennehy. Visiting the CMC's website I discovered they also have some video fragments of this interview.
Although the recording quality of the interview can be improved, the CMC made me discover a small part of Irish culture on my iPod while I was commuting to my Dutch office.
For this I want to make the CMC a great compliment!
Posted by Renske at 14:19 UTC | permanent link