“A survey comparing mental health and the number of sexual partners among the general population, artists and schizophrenics found that artists are more likely to share key behavioural traits with schizophrenics, and that they have on average twice as many sexual partners as the rest of the population.”
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Commercial Theatre Sweeps West End Theatre Awards
“From Billy Elliot, winner in the best musical category, to Harriet Walter, winner of best actress for her role as Elizabeth I in Schiller’s play Mary Stuart at the Donmar Warehouse, commercial theatre accounted for 18 nominations and all six of the major category wins at the ceremony at the Savoy Hotel in London.” Non-commercial theatre, and the National Theatre in particular, were shut out.
Who Will Save The Edinburgh Festival?
The Edinburgh Festival is looking for a new director, but the search has been a lazy one so far. “Edinburgh stands out as the last bastion, the one place and time when Scotland can bask in the world’s attention and imagine itself briefly to be Athens. The festival is not what it was, the last couple of years under Brian McMaster featuring fewer world-class orchestras and opera companies and less incisive theatre; but these shortcomings have been masked by the vitality of peripheral festivals for books, film and television and, of course, the anarchic fringe.”
Hollywood’s Downloading Bonanza
Hollywood now only makes 14.2 percent of its revenues from movie ticket sales, while 85.8 percent came from licensing or selling their products for use in the home. With downloading options expanding, the home-market video-on-demand market looks to get even bigger.
FCC Chair: Let Consumers Choose Subscription Channels
FCC chairman Kevin Martin says that “letting consumers choose their subscription television channels would help shield children from inappropriate content and not necessarily lead to higher prices. His view contradicts a study the FCC issued last year that said allowing consumers to pay for only the channels they want could lead to higher charges, a position endorsed by the cable industry.”
Study: Hollywood Business Under Seige
All is not well with the business of Holllywood, according to a new study. “The survey by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. depicts an industry under siege and whose outlook is murky. The entertainment industry employs nearly 250,000 people in the county, according to the report. But studios are beginning to cut jobs in anticipation of a slowdown in DVD revenues that have been so lucrative in recent years, according to the report. Studios also are grappling with softer box-office receipts, movie piracy and uncertainty over which new technology will best deliver entertainment to consumers.”
Experience Music Project Turns to Impressionist Lifeline
In another sign that Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project is an enterprise in search of a mission, EMP has announced it will be staging an Impressionist art show drawn from the artworks in Allen’s personal collection. Allen is said to have a significant collection, but Allen’s “private asset management company” won’t release details of the art that will be shown.
The Perils Of Choice?
“We live in a choice-addled society. The jargon of choice, a second cousin of diversity and multiculturalism, undermines intellectual integrity and coherence. “Choice” and “diversity” are universal passwords that unlock all doors. Who can oppose them without appearing authoritarian? But the jargon of choice and diversity actually corrodes academic freedom, which once referred to the freedom of college instructors to teach what they considered salient, subject to the review of their peers, not outside authorities. Today, it increasingly means the freedom of students to hear what they — or their parents — want.”
Big Basel Miami By The Numbers
How big has the Basel Miami art fair become? “Miami’s fair may do around $110 million this year. New York’s Armory Show said it took in about $45 million in March. London’s Frieze Art Fair reported October sales of $57 million, up 27 percent. Art Cologne closed Nov. 1 after taking in about $85 million. Including New York’s November auctions, collectors of contemporary art this fall may have spent more than $600 million by the time Miami’s fair ends on Dec. 4, based on published figures and fair directors’ estimates.”
The Most Literate City In America?
That would be Seattle, according to a new study. “America’s Most Literate Cities 2005, a ranking based on the culture and resources for reading in the 69 largest U.S. cities, aims to rate cities not on whether their citizens can read, but whether they do.”