Simon & Schuster exec Rob Weisbach has been named to run Miramax Books. “Plans call for Disney to take over Miramax Books’ catalog and to keep the imprint going after the Weinsteins give up control on Sept. 30, 2007, the companies announced Wednesday.”
Month: April 2005
UK Government Committee: Art World Needs Code Of Conduct
“Artists, art dealers, galleries and auction houses should have a set of rules to ensure all deals are fair, a committee of MPs has recommended. And public money should not be given to artists or art institutions unless they sign up, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee said.”
If They Call It Art, Is It Still Stripping?
Idaho law prohibits nude dancing unless it’s part of a performance with “serious artistic merit.” So an adult club “tried to beat the ordinance by distributing pencils and sketch pads to patrons during special twice-weekly ‘art nights,’ when the dancers performed nude.” Police didn’t buy the scheme and raided the place this week…
Alberta At Bottom In Arts Spending
A new study says that Alberta ranks last in Canadian provinces in spending on the arts. “Data from 2002-2003 — the most recent year available “– show the arts in this province receive 160-dollars per person. The national average is 236-dollars.”
The New Intellectuals?
“While universities continue to play an important role in intellectual culture, increasingly they are no longer the only game in town. With the rise of the knowledge economy and the spread of decentralizing technology, the academy is ceding authority and attention to businesses, nonprofits, foundations, media outlets, and Internet communities. Even more significant, in my mind, the academy may be losing something else: its hold over many of its most promising young academics, who appear more and more willing to take their services elsewhere — and who may comprise an embryonic cohort of new “postacademic intellectuals” in the making.”
Being Nice To The Big Bookers
Any theatre producer will tell you that the key to great sales is getting those people who book big groups to buy the tickets. Though The Lion King is a big world-wide hit, Australian producers are taking no chances as the show comes Down Under. Disney Australia chartered a plane and invited 216 big bookers from Victoria to come along. The hope is they’ll go back home and sell the show.
And The Scan Says: I Trust You
Scientists say they can use a brain scanner to tell whether one person trusts another person. “The results suggest that a brain region called the caudate nucleus lights up when it receives or computes data to make decisions based on trust.”
FCC Chairman To Cable Nets: Clean Up Programming
Kevin Martin, new chairman of the FCC, used the opportunity of his first major speech to tell cable TV execs to clean up their programming. “I think what you’re seeing is an environment in which consumers and parents are increasingly concerned. I think this is an opportunity for the cable industry to try to address it, not just speak to me but to speak to the consumers and parents.”
Remembering Saul Bellow
“The center of his fictional universe was Chicago, where he grew up and spent most of his life, and which he made into the first city of American letters. Many of his works are set there, and almost all of them have a Midwestern earthiness and brashness. Like their creator, Mr. Bellow’s heroes were all head and all body both. They tended to be dreamers, questers or bookish intellectuals, but they lived in a lovingly depicted world of cranks, con men, fast-talking salesmen and wheeler-dealers.”
Are Discs Dead?
“Over the past decade, consumers have purchased well over 10 billion CDs and DVDs. And if you believe the electronics makers, optical discs are now entering their golden age. In the coming months, you’re going to hear a lot about two new disc technologies, Blu-ray and HD-DVD, and the powerful coalitions that aim to bring them to market.” But guess what? Neither format is going to be a hit. Why? It’s all online, baby…