Playwright Harold Pinter, who had canceled going to his Nobel ceremony this week, has been taken to a London hsopital. “Pinter, who was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2002, was born in Hackney, east London.”
Blog
Hollywood Discovers God (Again)
“The story of the current rise of Christianity in Hollywood is a tale of the lion, the nun and the billionaire. The movie industry has become a big time born-again believer after experiencing the power of faith-based marketing.”
Movie Theatres Equip For Blind, Deaf
“Nationwide, more than 150 movie theaters have added special systems to help the deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, according to the nonprofit National Center for Accessible Media. Most of those theaters are in major cities that made the move voluntarily, but states are now putting pressure on theater chains to spread the technology much farther or risk discrimination lawsuits.”
Tallest Building May Be Causing Quakes
The world’s tallest skyscraper – in Taiwan – specially built to withstand earthquakes, may be causing more quakes because of its immense weight. “The pressure of the building’s 700,000 tons on the ground may be leading to increased seismic activity. The tremors could be a direct result of the loading of the mega-structure.”
Texting Your Concert
Artists are finding ways to communicate with their fans in concerts with text messages. “Fans attending these concerts were invited to text messages to a pre-set code that let them post messages to large screens near the stage, as well as compete in trivia contests for the chance to win better seats or VIP backstage passes and to buy concert merchandise.”
Is Aboriginal Art Any Good?
“Aboriginal art generates exponential profit for all those who touch it – even, though perhaps not proportionately, for the people who make it. The rules are now very strict: Aboriginal artists retain all their intellectual and moral rights in the work after it has been rolled up and tucked into a backpack or bolted to the wall of a banking hall, in perpetuity. Amid the frenzied buying and selling, with important Aboriginal art objects changing hands as often as several times a year, there is still a pervasive anxiety that Aboriginal art might be a con.”
Was Magazine Music Poll Fixed?
Did the popular music magazine NME manipulate the results of its top 50 albums poll? “The allegations, first published by the blog Londonist.com on Wednesday, suggested that an early version of the poll, which is compiled each year by the magazine’s editors and writers, had been radically overhauled prior to publication. It was alleged that artists including Beck and Patrick Wolf had disappeared from the top 50 entirely, while others, among them high-profile names such as Babyshambles, Oasis and Kate Bush, had seen their ratings significantly boosted.”
Latin-American Art Takes On World
“Latin American art, which used to be collected mainly by Latin American buyers, is now reaching a broader audience than ever before. US, European and Southeast Asian collectors make-up 50% of the market today.”
Jazz In Crisis? Maybe Not…
“Perhaps it is an exaggeration to say that jazz is in crisis. It tootles along perfectly respectably, but inevitably lacks the resonance of its pioneering days. The same thing has been happening, for a couple of decades, to pop music too. The early 21st century has other wonders, so we should not worry unduly. An appreciation society is as good a way of saying it as any: this music is a magnificent part of our cultural history. Let us not be ashamed of looking back, and revelling in it.”
Minority Report: TV Networks Doing (A Bit) Better
Minority groups report that American TV networks have “made some strides in increasing ethnic diversity in front of and behind the camera, but still have fallen short in demonstrating an overall commitment to multiculturalism.”