Free culture!

Thursday, July 13. 2006

Through SPON I found a EFF’s “Frequently Awkward Questions for the Entertainment Industry”. The contain a few interesting issues concerning the work of RIAA and MPAA. I was immediately reminded to Lawrence Lessig’s book “Free Culture” which discusses how cultural progress is being stopped by the media industries revenue interests... The book is worth reading and shows some interesting historical facts, how the lobbying industry achieved to keep there copyrights by influencing the government.

Did I mention, that the book is available for free download?

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EDS performing Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters

Tuesday, July 11. 2006

Like last semester the English Dramatic Society is performing a quite interesting play. Anyone interested to join me visiting one of the shows?


Dear friends of the EDS,

The World Cup has kept Germany in football fever for the last four weeks and now that it's all over some of you might well be asking yourselves just how you are going to fill those empty evenings. Well, at least for one evening we can offer you an evening of theatrical and musical entertainment with the next EDS production, the stage adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters.

Many of you (and we are sure there will be a few Pratchett fans out there) will have read the book and know the (original) story from the Discworld series - a spinoff of Macbeth - the tale of witch Granny Weatherwax and her fellow coven members who must save the kingdom from the evil Duke. With just a few changes here and there (to make it funnier?) and added musical interludes Wyrd Sisters offers somethings for everyone.

The performance dates are Tuesday - Saturday, 25th - 29th July, at 19.00 each evening, with tickets (EUR 8 and EUR 6) available now to reserve online (on our newly launched website - http://www.english-dramatic-society.de) and to buy from Wednesday (12th July) from our usual points of sale. Please see the website for more details.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to one (or more) of our performances later this month and thank you as ever for your continued support.

Yours,
The English Dramatic Society, Erlangen
Cast and Crew of Wyrd Sisters

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Horizons2020 – A thought provoking look at the future

Tuesday, April 4. 2006

Often big companies are trying to see a little bit of the future, to enhance their capabilities to deal with possible changes. Siemens tried to do this lately by asking tns infratest to do a study how our life could look like in 2020. The study is available in both English and German. There are two possible Horizons covered in that study. The first one “Equality, Freedom, Modesty” has a rather strong government, and the economy and society is highly regulated in Europe. The second Horizon shows a less regulated picture of the future “Energy, Networking, Risk”. If you are up for some visions go for this study and get a little thinking.

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EDS is performing again: F.I.G.A.R.O.

Monday, January 23. 2006

Like every semester the English Dramatic Society in Erlangen is performing. Here you can read the invitation and the plot:

Dear friends of the EDS,

It's been a while since we wrote to you, and indeed some of you have already written to ask us whether there will be a play this semester (yes, of course!), when the next show is (in two weeks' time) and what it's going to be.

We are now pleased to officially announce that the EDS will once again be performing the entertaining musical comedy (after Beaumarchais, written and directed by Damian H. Quinn)  "F.I.G.A.R.O.", which some of you may well remember from February 1999 when one of our largest ever audiences filled the Experimentiertheater on a total of 8 evenings.

Whether or not you saw the show seven years ago, we promise you agreat show and look forward to welcoming you to one of our performances in February. If you did see the play last time though, you might just recognise a couple of old faces and will maybe remember some of the songs, and even the worse of the jokes. But don't w! orry, there many new faces, some new songs, and of course a few new jokes as well.

There will be performances every evening from 6th - 11th February, starting at 7 pm, as ever in the Experimentiertheater, Bismarckstr. 1 in Erlangen. Tickets, priced at 8 Euros and 6 Euros, are available now for reservation online via our website at http://www.english-dramatic-society.de.

If you prefer, you can also purchase your tickets from the English department library, room C602, Bismarckstr. 1, or the Kartenvorverkaufsstelle located in the Grande Galerie, Nürnbergerstrasse, Erlangen (from Tuesday, 24th januiary onwards), or from the Abendkasse on the evening of the performance.

Below a brief summary of the plot to whet your appetites. We look forward to seeing you in the Experimentiertheater in two weeks'  time.

The cast and crew of FIGARO
English Dramatic Society, Erlangen
23rd January 2006

A brief s! ummary of the plot:

The plot follows the lines of the! original Beaumarchais... more or less... but the setting is America. Figaro, a humble barber from the provinces, has risen from obscurity to become prospective candidate for state governor. Senator Almaviva invites Figaro to his country residence for the weekend. Here, after celebrating the Senator’s birthday and his wedding anniversary, the party will confirm Figaro’s endorsement as candidate for governor.
We discover that the object of Figaro’s affections, his right hand woman, Miss Suzanne Lincoln, while reciprocating Figaro’s affections is disinclined  to marry him.
At the reception at the Senator’s residence, the Senator himself falls for Miss Lincoln’s not inconsiderable charms and orders his right hand woman, Jodie, to organise compromising pictures of Figaro which he then offers to give to Miss Lincoln in exchange for sexual favours.
From then on intrigue follows upon intrigue as Figaro and Suzanne, with the he! lp of the Senator’s long suffering wife, the Contessa, and pursued by the ever present scandal-hungry press corps, attempt either to recover the incriminating material or to acquire material which would incriminate the Senator and thus provide them with something to trade.

I'm really interested in seeing this play - probably someone needs a distraction from learning. Anyone interested in joining me is invited to contact me.

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