Month: September 2000

SPERM RACE ANYONE?

The Ars Electronica Festival in Austria likes to be controversial. Organizers “spent the weekend trying to dampen the outcry from local right-wing politicians over a “Sperm Race” exhibit set up in the city’s main square – and also defending the festival from the charge that it was not doing enough to confront the threat posed by Joerg Haider’s right-wing Freedom Party.” – Wired 09/04/00

VIRTUAL FAIR

For decades the Frankfurt Book Fair has been the place where anything of import in the book publishing business gets discussed and largely decided. But this year the fair (and publishers) are setting up e-alternatives. “This 52nd Frankfurt will be confronting a virtual fair that (or so the ads tell us) is replacing face-to-face, buttonholing meetings by clicks. It shouldn’t be necessary for publishers and agents to sit in bars and hotel lobbies till the wee hours, to carry manuscripts back to hotel rooms, to field midnight messages and 6 a.m. wake-up calls. Or will it? – Publishers Weekly

DOES ANYONE CARE?

The BBC’s shift of its national newscast from 9 pm to 10 pm is calculated to get more viewers. “What surprises me about this gloomy, shifty discussion of news programming is how little people consider why it has become, over the course of a decade, such a ratings calamity. With more competition, there will be fewer viewers for any single bulletin, but Britain is the greatest newspaper-reading nation in the world, the home of Radio 5 Live and three indigenous rolling news TV stations. If people are ceasing to watch the best resources news shows of all, maybe there is something wrong with them.” – New Statesman

STILL A LICENSE TO PRINT MONEY

Ratings for the TV networks have been slipping for years, and it looked, even a year or two ago, that network TV might not be profitable again for a long time. That was then…”The networks’ parents don’t break out numbers for the properties, but analysts estimate that earnings in the second quarter were up across the board: NBC raked in $375 million; ABC, $220 million; CBS, $95 million; and Fox, $48 million.” – Inside.com

LOW SEASON

The summer movie season is officially over. “This has been one of the shabbiest movie summers in memory – a stretch as desolate as a beach closed by the Board of Health.” – The Nation

  • HIT ME: “Summer 2000 closed with its sixth straight frame in the red compared with 1999. It still wound up as the No. 2 summer of all time, barely edging 1998, but the lack of dynamic titles and the troubles of exhibitors made it an anxious season for most distributors.” – Variety

OVERBUILDING TO DEATH

The movie theatre business is hemorrhaging money – several are on the verge of collapse, even as the movie business itself is doing just fine. So what’s the problem with theatres?  Overbuilding. “It was a mass suicide. They see their competitors putting up new attractive theaters, so they think that to be competitive they have to do that, too.” – New York Times

STOMACHING GOOD THEATRE

“Theaters talk a great deal about how they want to keep their patrons happy, how they want to attract younger audiences and how they want to stir discussion. But too often they ignore the obvious fact that along with first-rate fare on the stage, a good cup of coffee, a calming glass of wine, some simple but appealing food and a few cafe tables might do the trick, making the theatergoing experience something more than a park-the car, sit-through-the play, run-for-the-garage kind of night.” – Chicago Sun-Times

SING-ALONG SOUND OF MUSIC COMES TO BROADWAY

“Ever had a craving to croon along with Julie Andrews as she celebrates a few of her favourite things? Like to pretend you’re Mother Superior figuring out how to solve a problem like Maria? Wonder what it’s like to be 16, going on 17? Singalong, which has a splashy red-carpet opening Wednesday night at the Ziegfeld Theatre, gives you the chance to find out.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

SHOWING NON-WESTERN ART

For the first time, the Louvre has opened a gallery of African and Asian art. “Some have criticized the exhibit for being merely a political maneuver; others are skeptical that it truly will help the public understand African art. What’s interesting is that the controversy highlights the ambivalence with which the art world regards African and other non-Western art forms.” – Baltimore Sun