HOW TO SILENCE YOUR CRITICS

Even if you are Welsh and have bad TEETH...

WALT SAYS LOCK NEEDS BREAKING

The venerated Wall Street Journal (WSJ) technology columnist Walt Mossberg recently commented (view the clip above) that the unholy alliance between handset makers and the cellphone networks needs to be broken. Absolutely!

The coercive effects on innovation the control by networks has had became much clearer when Apple came out with the iPhone, a palm device that much more than just a cell phone. The iPhone is truly a computer in your pocket with a content delivery system unrivaled in the past by any other hardware designer -- Motorola, Noika, LG, NEC, Samsung, Kyocera, Blackberry, etc. While these manufacturers tried to provide limited multimedia tidbits, primarily in the form of ringtones and wallpaper, they never came close to providing a rich environment that is open to video, music, graphics, web surfing, Google mapping, YouTube, email, and personal photography that iPhone amazingly provides.

By rich environment, Apple has created a cellphone operating eco-system that will allow third-party developers and vallue added retailers to write applications that do not come installed on the iPhone when you purchase it online, at the Apple store or from ATT. In Janaury Apple will release the software deveopers kit (SDK) for the legends of programmers who currently write widgets, plug-ins, full-blown GUI applications and open source projects currently for the Macintosh.

If the consumer can enjoy the freedom of being unchained from the dreaded calling plan a huge transformation of content delivery and mobile computing is awaiting them. New forms of creating and delivering stories as well as practical information will evolve. The irony with iPhone is, as Mossberg asserts, Apple was forced to make "a pact with the devil" ATT and lock iPhone to a restrictive service plan. Attempts by hackers and third-party developers to "unlock" the iPhone have resulted in hostile actions with software upgrades to "brick" iPhones and void the warrantee. But the cat is out of the bag. Law suits will follow. Mossberg puts out a siren call for government to step in and/or for disruptive technology to continue -- basically encouragement from WSJ's tech-guru for hackers to continue with their mission.

And with this new computing device and its power to deliver to the handset a variety of media, it is clear cellphone service providers have stymied technological advancement with their strangehold over the market. The iPhone is the first cellphone with an operating system developed independently from the cellphone netwoks and it is groundbreaking for that reason. But the battle is still not over. Listen to Uncle Walt. Break the lock!

FLIM FLAM MAN @ GUTHRIE THEATER

the true story of my fathers counterfeit life
based on the memoir by Jennifer Vogel 
script by Jez Butterworth 

One frosty winter morning, Jennifer Vogel's father went on the lam. John Vogel, fifty-two, had been arrested for single-handedly counterfeiting nearly $20 million in U.S. currency, the fourth-largest sum ever seized by federal agents. Unwisely, he was released pending trial. At that same time Jennifer had become one of the city's leading investigative journalists in the weekly tabloid press.

Though Jennifer hadn't spoken to him in four years, police suspected he might turn up at her Minneapolis apartment. They parked outside, watching her every move.  A skeptical crime reporter asking questions or a loving daughter seeking answers, she gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the secret life of the man she thought she knew best.

Jennifer Vogel's engaging and relentless account of her outlaw father is being adapted for film by British playwright and film director Jez Butterworth (MOJO, BIRTHDAY GIRL and THE LAST LEGION) and is adapting the James Brown story for producer/director Spike Lee and the Valerie Plame Story. Vogel and Butterworth will be at the Guthrie along with a local cast including Prairie Home Companion's Sue Scott, City Pages 2007 "Best Actress" Tracey Maloney, an amazing young Children Theater talent Raven Maizy Bellefleur, Emmy and Golden Globes nominated Linda Kelsey known for roles on "Lou Grant", "Detective Fictions" writer/director/actor Patrick Coyle and Stephen Pelinski. This ScriptNight staged script reading is produced/directed by Robb Mitchell with Jez Butterworth. 

Vogel, as depicted in the screenplay being developed for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (SKE), was a student at the University of Minnesota and started in her field as a reporter for the Minnesota Daily. She continued her career in Minneapolis as an investigative reporter for City Pages uncovering stories of police corruption and the environmental impact of pesticides on toads. Her memoir was a National PEN Center Finalist in 2005 and the winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Creative Non-fiction the same year. Currently, she has accepted a temporary editors assignment with Mother Jones Magazine in San Francisco but maintains her home in Minneapolis.

ScriptNight is sponsored by Fredrikson & Byron, Minnesota Film and TV Board, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, The Rake Magazine, and the Screenwriters' Workshop in partnership with the Guthrie Dowling Studio.

----------------------------------- 
For Tickets call Guthrie Box Office:  612.377.2224
or on the web: guthrietheater.org  --   $10.00 (one hamilton) 
http://www.guthrietheater.org/whats_happening/events/2007/flim_flam_man