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LA Film Festival
Check out the Trailer for Dear Lemon Lima, which was filmed in Seattle and the region last year!
Webmonkey
Google has set out to rewire the e-mail inbox with a new product called Wave. Wave is a web-based application that marries multiple forms of communication and collaboration, including chat, mail and wikis, into a unified interface. Everything inside Wave happens in real time: You can even see a comment being made as the person is typing it, character-by-character. Google Wave, which was demonstrated Thursday at the Google I/O developer conference taking place here, is now live as a private developer preview. Conference attendees can start playing with it now, and Google has its eye on a public beta launch within a few months. It’s a peculiar model we haven’t seen before, sort of a “chat inside e-mail” approach that has the potential to profoundly alter the way we share information and collaborate with one another.
Hollywood Reporter
Can Hollywood movie studios save the video game business? It seems an unlikely scenario given the studies that suggest moviegoers are increasingly forgoing the latest film releases to spend their time and money playing “Grand Theft Auto.” But with year-over-year game sales down, the industry finds itself on a bit of a losing streak as it descends on the Los Angeles Convention Center next week for the annual E3 video game confab. What could turn things around is the potential growth market of games based on film and television properties.
Seattle Weekly
Here’s some news for hip-hop fans. Or, more specifically, here’s some news for mainstream radio-friendly hip-hop fans. KUBE 93’s Summer Jam 2009 lineup has been announced and it includes Ludacris, Akon, Flo Rida, New Boyz, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, Pitbull, Soulja Boy and The Dream. Tickets for Summer Jam go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m.
PC World
Microsoft’s planning to relaunch its Live search engine under the name “Bing,” a recent report suggests. Bing will debut with a massive ad campaign costing upward of $100 million, the folks at AdvertisingAge claim, putting both the “Live” brand and the “Kumo” codename into Microsoft’s big brand graveyard. But what is “Bing,” anyway? Its definitions vary from “a heap or pile” to “a blackish sweet cherry.” Its Web site, though, has a slightly more colorful palette. Sure, bing.com is coming up mainly blank as of now — but not too long ago, someone else had a thing for Bing.
Hollywood Reporter
Microsoft plans to launch a new version of its Zune portable media player this year in the U.S., incorporating high-definition video, touch-screen technology and WiFi connection. Microsoft said Tuesday that the new Zune, its answer to Apple’s popular iPod digital music player, also will come with an Internet browser and a built-in HD radio receiver that offers higher-quality sound than traditional radio. It did not give a price or a specific date, but said it is due in the fall. The company added new features to Zune’s music service last year, enabling users to download music wirelessly and buy songs they hear on the device’s built-in FM radio.
Seattle Times
Bumbershoot keeps growing. The popular Seattle Music and Arts Festival has added more artists and bands to its already long lineup. Joining such stars as Modest Mouse, Sheryl Crow, Katy Perry and Franz Ferdinand and U.S.E. are lot of local and independent acts, as well as known national names. The newly announced include: Jason Mraz, Truckasauras, The Dusty 45s, Dyme Def, Minus 5, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Grand Hallway, Recess Monkey, Kore Ionz, Anomie Belle, Say Hi, Audrye Sessions, Visqueen, Head Like A Kite, The Knux, Akron/Family, Maximo Park, Wale w/ UCB, OTEP, Mirah, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, 3 Inches of Blood, Telekinesis, AKIMBO, Paul Oscher, Parenthetical Girls, Massy Ferguson, The Lonely Forest, Sleepy Eyes Of Death, PAST LIVES, Macklemore, The Whore Moans, Wallpaper, Point Juncture, WA, D.Black, Spaceman, Kim Field and The Mighty Titans of Tone, Handful of Luvin’, champagne champagne, Romance, Kristen Ward, Dept. of Energy, Hotels, The Not-Its! and Central Services presents The Board of Education! Bumbershoot 2009 goes down Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5-7 at the Seattle Center. The full lineup comes out in July.
Filed under: Music | Tags: improvised music, improvised music project fest, Music, music festivals, UW
Seattle Times
The music students currently at the University of Washington are too young to remember that Jazz Alley, the glamorous, downtown jazz club, first opened on University Way in the University District in 1979 as a small club and bistro that catered mostly to the local music scene. Jazz Alley left the U-District in 1985, leaving a void that has been slow to refill despite the neighborhood’s proximity to the university and the city’s reputation as a hotbed of jazz education. A small nightclub, Lucid, is the only venue on “The Ave” devoted chiefly to the genre, balancing the needs of a lounge and a stage for serious jazz.
Business Week
After years of neglecting the Mac as a platform for games, Apple’s phone, not its computers, offers the most gaming promise. The iPhone’s tech-savvy base of 21 million users is an ideal audience for a new breed of compelling games that should make the device even more compelling. Between the iPhone and the iPod Touch, which can also run the same games, Apple could soon have the best-selling handheld platform on the market. Developers are whipping up some inventive ideas for new iPhone games. Hawkins asked me to imagine playing Batman as a character in a superhero game, then having him follow when I switch to a baseball game, where the Caped Crusader becomes an incredibly skilled second baseman. In a fantasy-adventure game, Batman becomes a monster-killing warrior who is deft with a battle ax. The same thing could happen with items featured in games. A magic wand in one game might become a sword or a laser gun in the next, Hawkins says.
NME
A new band featuring members of Queens Of The Stone Age and Mark Lanegan’s band have formed and are set to release their debut EP in July. Named after a David Bowie B-side, Sweethead features Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens Of The Stone Age) on guitar, Norm Block (Mark Lanegan’s band member) on drums, Eddie Nappi (Lanegan) on bass and vocalist Serrina Sims.
Seattle Office of Film + Music 