Reaction to a proposal to give tax incentives to movie producers in California has brought a wave of protest. “Critics have pounced on the estimated $50 million outlay since its unveiling last week, claiming that it amounted to ‘corporate welfare’ when basic social services are being cut. ‘Those who will benefit mostly by this are those independent movie producers who really are operating on very very thin margins. Really what this is about is stabilizing the middle-class workforce in California’.”
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A Rarity – Woman Wins Prestigious Comedy Prize
For the first time in 25 years, a woman has won the Perrier Prize for Comedy. “Laura Solon, 26, won the £7,500 prize for her show Kopfrapers Syndrome, in which she plays eight different characters. She was one of five acts shortlisted.”
Don’t Books Need A Jolt Of Contest Popularity?
Some in the book industry are grumbling that the rich Quills Prize is just a reward for popularit. “But worried publishers, and the Quills organizers, say that show biz is just what publishing needs. Book sales have been in the dumps for several years, and with newspaper review space dropping, publishers are desperate to get public attention. The Quills appear after a year in which the National Book Award, funded largely by the publishing industry, drew sneers and grumbles for nominating five poor-selling novels by relatively unknown writers. The Quills idea is that if consumers participate in naming the best books and get to see the winners announced on national television, they’ll have a heightened interest in books.”
Going Out In Style (Some Famous Funerals)
Not just anyone gets a funeral sendoff in a rocketship like Hunter S. Thompson. But “while Thompson’s pyrotechnic pyre last week must be one of the most extravagant and expensive funerals in recent history (price tag: $2.5 million, paid by Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the film version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”), it’s not unusual for people who lived in the limelight to shuffle off this mortal coil in some colorful fashion.”
The Super-CD
SACD’s offer superior sound. “Though the discs engulf the listener with sound from five different channels, delivering depth, dimension and ambience that were barely imagined 20 years ago, they have traveled the world for the last five years like cruise missiles, slightly below the radar but successfully seeking their small, specific targets (or consumers). Some quarters of the often-impatient recording industry appear to be giving up on the technology. Others, less committed to immediate profits, see vast potential and won’t let it go.”
The Soccer Mom Versus Big Recording Companies
“Record companies have filed about 13,300 similar federal lawsuits against Internet users across the country since September 2003. Nearly 3,000 of those lawsuits have been settled. The offending music traders have agreed to pay an average of $4,000 to $5,000 and promised not to illegally download copyrighted songs anymore. None of the cases has gone to trial. That may change. And it may change with a soccer mom who said she would rather pay a lawyer’s fees than give in to what she calls intimidation tactics by the record companies to get her to settle.”
Teachout: MoMA Is Like A Mall (Not In A Good Way)
Terry Teachout has tried to like the new Museum of Modern Art. But he’s decided it won’t happen. “The exaggerated scale of the building swamps the art it contains, and the austere décor is so rigidly uniform in its self-conscious simplicity as to make the museum seem even bigger than it is. As if to compensate—which it doesn’t—most of the galleries are as overstuffed with paintings as they are overcrowded with people, making it impossible to concentrate on any one work with anything remotely approaching ease. And while I’m hardly the first person to remark on the mall-like character of the new MoMA, I found it even more oppressive this time around.”
Lennon Struggles To Hang On
Now that “Lennon” has been critically thrashed after its Broadway opening, what’s next? “The producers of the critically battered jukebox musical — which, around Shubert Alley, is known as “Yoko’s Folly” — are desperately trying to keep the doors open for at least another two months. At that point, according to production sources, they will acquire the international rights to the show, which may be the only hope they have of getting back some of the $10 million they’ve sunk into the production.”
FBI Demands Library Records
The FBI has demanded records from a library in Connecticut under authority of the Patriot Act as part of an investigation. “Because of federal secrecy requirements, the ACLU said it was barred from disclosing the identity of the institution or other details of the FBI’s demand, but court papers indicate the target is a library in the Bridgeport, Conn., area.”
The Sleeper Hit Of 2005?
That would be “March of the Penguins”. “Two months after its quiet launch amidst the big guns of summer, the penguins still roost firmly in the North American Top 10. Playing in more than 2,100 theatres in the U.S. and Canada, a reach usually achieved only by a Michael Moore documentary, the film is closing in on $50 million (U.S.) in domestic tickets sales, ranking it second to Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 as the most successful documentary in history.”