Movie box office is down about 6 percent this year. But that doesn’t mean the movie business is down overall. “Yes, in an age of hundreds of cable channels, video games and other distractions, the domestic box office so far this year is down about 6 percent from the same time period in 2004, and off from 2003 and 2002 levels. But the money flowing into the coffers of movie studios is greater than ever.”
Blog
Spain’s Architectural Revolution
“Powered by a democratic awakening after decades of Fascist rule and by the dividends of European Union membership, Spain is clearly outpacing its European siblings in the breadth and daring of its new architecture.”
What Basel Miami Is All About
“If Venice is about the artists, and discreet Basel about dealers and collectors, brash Miami is about money. It is money that you can not only taste in the air; you can hear it discussed, and see it being spent all day long. The effect is strangely distorting. Twenty-four hours in, and you feel a touch under-dressed. Forty-eight hours in, and you wonder WHY you don’t own any Chanel couture. Thirty-six hours in, and you no longer turn clammy when you’re told the price of things. ‘It’s $68,000,’ the bald guy in the Prada suit will tell you. “Hmm, not bad,” you think, aware that the woman with the stretched face to your left has just written a cheque for six times as much.”
Italy – Where Opera Rules? (Maybe)
“I’m not saying that a visit to the opera in Italy is a visit to a world of lost content in which opera is woven into the whole fabric of Italian vernacular life. It isn’t. I love the true story of Verdi and a visitor driving a horse and carriage along a lane near Busseto one afternoon and encountering a party of farm workers who doff their caps and spontaneously break into a chorus from I Lombardi. But it’s not like that now. Modern Italy, like Bertolucci’s Novecento, starts with the death of Verdi. We must stop ourselves sentimentalising about it. And yet you can’t be in Milan for long on the opening day of the Scala season without realising something peculiar to Italy is occurring.”
Audubon: A String Quartet’s Ugly Story
“The feud pits the cellist, violist and second violinist against the first violinist, whom they ousted from the quartet in early 2000. He sued and won a $611,000 judgment, sending the other three to bankruptcy court. Now, after nearly six years of legal battling, what may be the last chapter is playing out in a Virginia courthouse. A bankruptcy trustee is seeking to liquidate the assets of the violist and the cellist, a married couple.”
New Jersey – Too many Performing Arts Centers?
Some say there aren’t enough audiences and artists to support the 45 arts centers already in operation in New Jersey. Still others point to the competitive fund-raising climate and worry if there are enough donors and dollars to support both the new and existing venues. people think the arts are this great economic engine for your community, and they can be. But can they all be?”
An Impending Jobs Crisis?
“Today, America’s work force is divided into three parts: about 25 percent are the ‘smart people’ who are educated and also have special career skills; another 25 percent are the ‘walking dead,’ victims of mergers or technological change and [who] need to acquire new skills in order to change jobs or even careers… and up to 50 percent are the ‘techno-peasants,’ poorly educated adults with few if any special career skills.”
BBC At Home (Live And In Person)
The BBC is organizing musicians to come into people’s houses an play music for them. “Musicians from the BBC’s five orchestras, as well as others including Northern Sinfonia and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, will be setting up in front rooms. Radio 3 listeners were invited to nominate friends or family members for their own personalised performance, given by anything from a solo performer to a quartet.”
How MySpace Is Transforming The Arts Marketing Experience
“MySpace pulls it all together. It’s where, for free, you can make your own Web page and direct people to it. Start your own blog. There’s instant messaging and music downloads. It’s spam-free for the moment, packed with music and comedy, growing by 4 million people a month and easy to use. It’s that huge audience, primarily teens and young adults, that’s pushing the latest revolution in the music industry. More than 550,000 musicians have MySpace pages, with the ability to get heard, play gigs and make a living without radio, TV or even having a CD in stores. Previously unknown bands, comedians and other entertainers now take their case directly to fans.”
Latino Dancers Come To US Companies
Latinos have begun to shine in ballet and are taking U.S. stages by surprise…