“Years ago Alec Guinness was so thrown by a woman in the front row who was watching him through gigantic binoculars that he stepped down from the stage and removed them from her. The result? An usher came to him in the interval to say: ‘The blind woman in the front row apologises if she’s upset you.'”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
With Pop-Up Promos, TV Is Ruining Viewers’ Experience
“Thank you, network people, for those useful, informative announcements that block what I’m watching to tell me what I’m watching, or tell me what I could be watching next, which will then be blocked by reminders of what I could be watching after that.”
North Shore’s Next Chapter: Similar Fare, Tighter Budget
The likely new owner of the North Shore Music Theatre, which sank under the weight of its debts this year, “has made a habit of buying closed or distressed properties and quickly reviving them.” William Hanney said the theatre’s “programming would remain largely the same” but “didn’t give positive reviews to the organization’s business structure.”
Charis Wilson, Edward Weston’s Muse And Wife, Dies At 95
“A free spirit who took up with Weston when she was 20 and he was 48, Charis (pronounced CARE-ess) Wilson posed for a number of his photographs, many of them nudes, but her involvement with his career went far beyond modeling. Wilson edited articles on photography by Weston and traveled extensively with him for his work.”
Inflate The Ticket Price, And — Presto! — Box Office Rises
“‘The Princess and the Frog,’ Disney’s first hand-drawn animated feature in five years,” is opening in limited release with an “experience” that pairs the movie with “games, actresses dressed as Disney princesses, props, costumes and other activities.” With ticket prices in the $30-to-$50 range ($20 per person for groups), the box office is looking rather fat.
Golden Gate Bridge As Sanctioned Climbing Site?
Taking a cue from “the Bridge Climb at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where visitors pay about $200 for a guided trek along catwalks, up and down ladders and along the outer arch of the coat-hanger-shaped bridge,” Golden Gate Bridge officials see a possible source of revenue in an interactive visitor experience. They draw the line, however, at bungee jumping.
On New Nixon In China CD Set, Peter Sellars Is MIA
“After more than two decades, there is a new recording for what is increasingly being understood to be an American classic,” conducted by Marin Alsop. “But where’s Peter? No mention of Sellars is anywhere to be found on the Naxos three-CD set, as if Denver were the new China, where an inconvenient artist might be ‘disappeared’ Soviet-style.”
(Briefly) Reviving The Hand-Cranked One-Reeler
“Back in 1909, projectionists would stand in the middle of a venue and hand crank 10-minute one-reelers. Some moviegoers would even sit near the projector because they liked the intermittent click-click sound of the cranking.” Next week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will re-create that experience.
Borders UK Stops Taking Orders
“Borders, which also has the Books Etc brand, was thought to be in discussions with rivals including Waterstone’s-owner HMV about selling the business, but concern is now growing that the retailer is on the brink of collapsing into administration.”
Google To Put Iraq National Museum Collection Online
“Some 15,000 artefacts and antiquities were stolen from the museum when it was ransacked after 2003 US-led invasion. … The museum, which only re-opened in February, nevertheless still holds countless relics from the Stone Age to the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods.”