The many worlds of Cello: Viola Audio Labs, WEGG3 and more… Mark Levinson is the most influential figure in the history of high end audio. Looking for proof? Just look at the jockeying taking place with the human resources, designs and assets of 2000’s big budget, failed Cello retail and manufacturing project.

Taking home the prize for favorite female artist, favorite country artist, and best Country artist, singer Faith Hill was the big winner of the evening at the 2001 American Music Awards. Hill’s husband Tim McGraw picked up the award for favorite make country artist. Produced by Dick Clark and held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the award show was co-hosted by Britanny Spears and hip-hop veteran LL Cool J. Unlike the Grammy’s which are voted on by RIAA members, the American Music Awards are chosen by 20,000 randomly selected record buyers via secret ballots. See the chart below for a complete list of the favorites.

ANTIGONE: RITES OF PASSION (Winstar Home Video) is a 1998 version of the classic Greek tragedy, starring Bertram Ross. No format information is available. THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Criterion/Home Vision Cinema) is a two-disc set that contains both director Luis Bunuel’s 1972 surreal comedy about a strange house party, starring Fernando Rey and Delphine Seyrig, and a 105-minute documentary based on Bunuel’s autobiography. Aspect ratio is 1.66:1; sound format is French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, with English subtitles. Extras include a 1970 25-minute documentary on Bunuel by Arturo Ripstein and Rafael Castenedo. JAZZ (PBS Home Video/Warner Home Video) is the multi-disc home video version, with additional material, of the 18-hour Ken Burns documentary on jazz music, currently airing throughout the month of January on PBS stations throughout the U.S.

AUTUMN IN NEW YORK (MGM/UA), released theatrically earlier this year, is a romantic drama about a middle-aged man involved with a younger woman. Richard Gere and Winona Ryder star under Joan Chen’s direction. Aspect ratio is widescreen anamorphic (exact ratio not specified); sound formats are English Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0. English, Spanish and French subtitles are available.

SoundScan, the music industry standard for calculating album sales has just released their year-end music report for the year 2000. In the era of Napster, MP3 and downloadable music, music sales were up a total of 4% from the year 1999. For the 2000 holiday season (Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve) music sales were up 2.4% from 1999. These statistics do not seem to support the theory that free music file swapping hurts the sales of albums. Notably absent from this year’s top sales list was Napster critic and metal group turned pop rock band Metallica.