KDFC reports that an all female opera company is being formed in the U.K. Opera Femina may allow men in once the company is more established, but their goal is to provide opportunities for talented women in a male-dominated business. In the Bay Area we have the Women’s Philharmonic which not only features female musicians, but also features works by women composers. You may not know that there were female relatives of famous composers who were just as musically talented. Fanny Mendelssohn, older sister of Felix, tried to be a devoted housewife, but suffered when she wasn’t composing and eventually went against her family’s wishes and published her works. Clara Schumann devoted herself to promoting her husband, Robert’s, music, although she was trained and talented herself. A quote from her diary: “I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea, women must not desire to compose – there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?”

The Matrix sequel (project code name “Burly Man”) began filming this week, and they started in Oakland, across the bay and up north from me. Neato keeno (Keanu?)! Of course I had to do ‘net research to see if anyone saw anything interesting. The Matrix Online has some eyewitness accounts, including photos of a prop phone booth and AI labeled cars (If you are the type who wants to know as little as possible about a movie before you see it, you should avoid all these links. At this point I don’t know how to identify a spoiler). A few local papers did writeups about the location shooting. The Merc mentions that extras may be needed though the publicist wouldn’t confirm it. The Chronicle had an early report about the Oakland location, and a cute little blurb (third item down) about Keanu Reeves becoming a regular customer at the Nob Hill Cafe because they served him a meal after hours when he was shooting “Sweet November”. A really rumor-ridden site has all sorts of dirt, if you like that sort of thing, about legal issues, Marcus Chong, cameras being confiscated, etc. Movie Headlines has a large collection of scoopage, including a report from Variety that the impending strike caused the shooting to begin with twelve weeks in Oakland instead of Australia. After the strike (which everyone is treating as a done deal), they’ll commence down under.

Sigh. Mindspring is getting dragged to court by Gucci (yes, the luxury fashion logo people) because a site Mindspring hosted was using the Gucci logo without permission. There’s a section of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that should protect ISPs from such issues. But another section limits the protection they may have for intellectual property violations, which is what the logo use falls under (trademark infringement). Mindspring may prevail in court, but the fact remains that ISPs could get named as accessories in all sorts of future litigation. Perhaps I should start using my telephone to transmit trademarked sounds.

This Wired News story describes the automated storage and retrieval system at Sonoma State University’s library that stores books and periodicals in random locations on metal racks. “Randomness is what makes the system so effective.” How neat is that?! Because the books are not stored in a specific location, it is more efficient than having an ordered system. Of course if the computer loses its memory, they are up the creek without a Dewey Decimal in sight. I hope they do regular backups.

A 112 year old clipping service is still going strong. The SF Chronicle’s Rob Morse finds that not much has changed since 1888 when Mark Twain encouraged a nephew to start a clipping service so Twain could sell more of the clipping scrapbooks he had invented. Readers scan and mark newspapers, looking for various names and topics. Cutters slash out the articles and labels are attached. I suppose they must have extra copies for when different articles of interest appear on both sides of a page. Reading papers for clippings was a job that was glamorized for me when I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Francie takes a job at a clipping service and a paper lands on her desk one day with the six inch headline “WAR”.

As reported in a New Scientist “special report”, the British company Co-operwrite has created a rocker switch mechanism called nScribe for entering text into a handheld device. You manipulate one rocking button in the shapes of the letters you want while the vertical and horizontal strokes are shown on the screen. It sounds somewhat like using a gamepad to simulate stylus strokes (of box letters). They claim it is faster, cheaper and more intuitive. Manufacturers can eliminate the cost of a touchscreen and users don’t need to peck at tiny keys or train in handwriting recognition. The big advantage I see is the ability to do input with one hand, just like how you can dial your cell phone with one hand. Perhaps this will create even more dangerous drivers on the road. Augh!

My favorite Oscar 2001 photos: two shots of Yo Yo Ma arriving with his cello. Here’s one. Here’s two. Was it the Montagnana cello or the Davidoff Stradivarius? (Further research reveals that he uses the Strad for baroque pieces, so I’ll guess it was the other one. Same research reveals that he also owns two new cellos one by Moes and Moes and another by Mario Miralles. And that the Motagnana is named Petunia.)

If you have any interest in the publishing world, you may want to read New York Magazine’s profile of Ann Godoff, president of Random House. She rose up from the publishing ranks and has created huge successes, even after Bertelsmann purchased them in 1998. Writers compliment her treatment of them: “She’s a publisher, fairy godmother, and shrink, like a mix between a sergeant major and the teacher at school who really believes in you.” But she declined to be interviewed herself, preferring to remain actual size, rather than become one of those larger than life publishing celebrities. (p.s. GirlHacker’s Random Log is in no way affiliated with Random House. But they are welcome to pay me to publish this. Or anything else.)

I’m a sucker for a sappy musical and ABC is airing a new version of South Pacific tonight. With Glenn Close as Nellie Forbush, you won’t be seeing the short-shorts of Mitzi Gaynor’s potrayal, but Ms. Close does sing adequately. The NY Times review says that Harry Connick Jr. “seems right at home in the show’s woozy romanticism”. Prejudice underpins the plot of this late 1940’s musical and it’s a very good thing that many viewers (I hope) will find trouble relating to the discomfort the main characters feel towards interracial relationships. West Side Story (and, therefore, Romeo & Juliet) has, for me, a more universally recognizable rift that can apply to all sorts of socially mismatched relationships. Ideally, both musicals will become completely historical and hard to relate to for the next generations.

After realizing that cafes were setting up wireless networks, I had been wondering if the following were possible. An SFGate article exposes the “wireless underground” of San Francisco’s wireless networks. The claim, verified by a founder of the Bay Area Wireless User Group, is that you can gain wireless Internet access (and often access to private networks) almost anywhere in downtown San Francisco. Many companies and individuals setting up 802.11b networks so they can work without a wire are not paying attention to security. This is a great twist, though perhaps not as voyeuristic, to listening in on wireless phone conversations. And I bet you can pick up plenty of signals driving all over the Silicon Valley (depending on population density). Some people have intentionally publicized their wireless access as a favor to others, which is a wonderful community gesture. And some people are wondering if wireless access will become a public utility. I’m thinking wireless access at the mall may buy me some extra shopping time with the hubby-to-be.