Launch of NewMusicBox

<FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>Spread the word. . .

FIRST ISSUE OF NewMusicBox IS ONLINE

May 1, 1999

The debut issue of NewMusicBox, the Web magazine of the American
Music Center, is now online at <underline><color><param>0000,8000,0000</param>http://www.newmusicbox.org</underline></color>. Read a

roundtable discussion with Bang On A Can-directors David Lang, Julia

Wolfe and Michael Gordon. Tell us how new music can attract a larger

audience in an interactive forum. Travel with Ken Smith through a

�hyper-history� of composer-led new music from the pioneering days of
the Copland-Sessions Concerts to profiles of 22 of today's leading
groups across the United States. Read why conductor George Steel,
Chamber Music America Executive Director Dean Stein and others go to
concerts and respond to them in an interactive forum. Listen to 15
RealAudio samples including an exclusive excerpt from Melinda
Wagner�s 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning Concerto for Flute and Richard
Adams' musical setting of the testimony of Monica Lewinsky! Search
though detailed listings of more than 50 CDs and 250 live performances
featuring the music of American composers. And more!

Frank J. Oteri
Editor and Publisher
NewMusicBox
The Web Magazine of the American Music Center
http://www.newmusicbox.org

AMERICAN MUSIC CENTER
30 West 26th Street (Suite 1001)
New York NY 10010-2011 USA
Tel: (212) 366-5260 x15
Fax: (212) 366-5265
e-mail: frank@amc.net
website: http://www.amc.net

THE AMERICAN MUSIC CENTER
Building a national community for new American music

[Frank J. Oteri wrote:]
> The debut issue of NewMusicBox, the Web magazine of the American
> Music Center, is now online at http://www.newmusicbox.org. Read a
> roundtable discussion with Bang On A Can-directors David Lang, Julia
> Wolfe and Michael Gordon. Tell us how new music can attract a larger
> audience in an interactive forum.

I tried bringing up that site several times. It takes a mind-numbing
FIVE MINUTES to download all the tiny pictures at 28.8K. I would call
this a textbook example of how NOT to design a web site, one of the
"best" (i.e. WORST) I have ever seen!

I then followed the link to the site designer, SomePig.com. Again,
the page is some pig! It has a cute little spider that moves up and
down on a web, but so what??? I would urge you to fire these guys and
get a web page designer who is not completely out of touch with the real
world!!!

Good luck!

JdL

I cannot allow John A. deLaubenfels' flames about our new Web
site (http://www.newmusicbox.org) go unchecked.

We just launched the site on May 1 and have already had a lot of
positive feedback. SomePig Design has done a tremendous job in
making a seemingly impossible plethora of information so easy to
navigate and fun to use.

I'm sorry that some people have had problems getting into the site
and we are slowly working out all the bugs. Please have patience.

There have been some problems with our splashpage on some
browsers. You can bypass this page by entering:

http://www.newmusicbox.org/home.html

Today's splashpage features a picture of Ivor Darreg because today
is his birthday, so do try to get in before bypassing.

I want to re-iterate that all constructive feedback is more than
welcome, but flames are ultimately counterproductive. We really
are trying to make this a useful site for the entire new music
community.

Thank you,

Frank J. Oteri
Editor
NewMusicBox

Frank J. Oteri
Editor and Publisher
NewMusicBox
The Web Magazine of the American Music Center
http://www.newmusicbox.org

AMERICAN MUSIC CENTER
30 West 26th Street (Suite 1001)
New York NY 10010-2011 USA
Tel: (212) 366-5260 x15
Fax: (212) 366-5265
e-mail: frank@amc.net
website: http://www.amc.net

THE AMERICAN MUSIC CENTER
Building a national community for new American music

I tried:

http://www.newmusicbox.org

and got Java script errors under both Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Then I tried:

http://www.newmusicbox.org/home.html

and neither Compuserve nor my local server could find the address, again,
under both browsers.

I concur with John A. deLaubenfels's general remarks about keeping web
sites simple. If you are going to do a lot of complicated programming, then
please offer an alternative, simplified, site for the wide majority of
users whose computer and time resources are limited. Keep in mind that in
many countries, local telephone access is not unlimited after paying a
basic fee as it is in the US, thus bandwidth costs to the user are
reflected in both provider and telephone bills.

I'm sorry if Mr. Frank J. Oteri considers my post (td163) to be a
"flame". I did clearly express frustration at not being able to bring
up Mr. Oteri's web page in a timely manner. Perhaps I could and should
have muted that frustration somewhat; if I have unfairly upset Mr.
Oteri, I apologize.

Like Daniel Wolf (td164) I am completely unable to bring the page up in
an older version of Internet Explorer v. 3.02(4.70.1300): a "Microsoft
JScript runtime error" stops it dead. Mr. Oteri, is this of any
interest to you?

The good news is that, on my Windows 98 machine, the page DOES now come
up, and in a reasonably timely manner. Perhaps the problem really came
down to announcing something what wasn't quite ready yet!

JdL