Scared that the US government might draft rules about what constitutes obscene content, 350 broadcasters meet to discuss alternatives. One idea? An industry code that broadcasters could follow. “I believe the industry could come together and craft a new code, perfectly able to pass court muster, and one that would serve the needs of businesses as well as those of concerned families.”
Month: April 2004
Will Digital Save The Arthouse Film?
“A New York-based company is trying to take art-house movies to small cities around the country by relying on digital projection. The company, Emerging Pictures, has sent computer hard drives to theaters in five cities to coincide with the opening on April 1 of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C. The hard drives, which can be connected to inexpensive digital projectors, contain 10 digital films from the documentary festival.”
States Look At New Regulation Of Non-Profits
“The battle to force not-for-profits, including arts groups, to strengthen their fiscal accountability has moved from Congress, where it raged during 2003, to the states, where three attorneys general are pushing tough, charity-regulating legislation.”
Authors Auction Naming Rights For Book Characters
For a fundraiser, leading British authors auctioned off the rights to name characters in their books. “Successful bidders at the third charity auction for victims of torture included a man who paid £1,000 to see his mother’s name appear in the next novel by the Irish writer Maeve Binchy. Another secured a role in books by two authors, bidding £950 for the children’s writer Philip Pullman and £240 for Sue Townsend, the creator of Adrian Mole.”
The Kidnapped Sculpture – “Don’t Go Breaking My Art!”
Last week a sculpture was “kidnapped” off a London street. “The kidnappers, who call themselves AK47, have headlined their ransom note: “Don’t go breaking my art” – believed to be a cryptic reference to the Elton John/Kiki Dee No 1 hit from 1976. They state: “We are AK47. We have captured Rodin’s Drinker – a conceptual statue by art terrorist Banksy. Is it art or is it kidnap?” A second series of images shows the kidnap taking place. The sculpture has a strip of gaffer tape across his eyes and mouth. It is loaded on to a van and transported to what looks like a warehouse. The final picture is blurred, but it seems to show a hand holding a gun to the statue.”
Singing Lucien Freud’s Praises
“Few artists attain the same respect in their lifetime as is given to the 81-year-old Lucien Freud. Respect not just from fellow artists or lovers of contemporary art, but from museums around the world who treat this violent, deliberately ugly and ungainly portrayer of the naked human body as a titan, securely established in the great tradition of Chardin, Manet and Degas, rather than a contemporary whose reputation has yet to be tried by time.”
Violins – Some Wood, Some Strings, Some Sound
We have a romanticized image of the violin-maker. The reality tends to be much more clinical. “Violins are made of spruce, maple and ebony. So anyone with carpentry experience could actually go out and buy a do-it-yourself book and build one. But without an idea of sound, it would be hit or miss.”
Cautious Recording Companies = Dull Music?
EMI is laying off workers, and recording companies are slashing their expenses. So is that really a bad thing? “The real risk with major record companies being in a position where they have to be cautious with their money is that they’ll play safe, and the way to play safe is to play pop. That’s the thing that many people overlook when they see the downloading as simply stealing music from rich companies. If those companies aren’t able to invest in long-term artists, they will just continue to churn out manufactured pop bands.”
Recording Industry – The Big Gouge?
The recording industry says suing downloaders has helped reduce piracy. And new legal download stores are thriving. “None of these actions has done anything to change the public’s view of the music industry as one that gouges its customers. One reason that the illegal sharing of music files online is still so widespread is that music-lovers know how little of the price of a compact disc goes on its manufacture, or to the artist. Musicians, too, are becoming fed up.”
The Way Bad Book That Sold Millions
A newspaper editor had an idea. “In 1966, appalled by the best sellers of Jacqueline Susann and others, he challenged his colleagues at Newsday, where he was a distinguished editor and writer, to perpetrate a book so mindlessly crass it could not fail. ‘There will be an unremitting emphasis on sex. Also, true excellence in writing will be quickly blue-penciled into oblivion’.” The book went on to sell millions of copies, crack the New York Times bestseller list and earn its authors $1.25 million.