The curator of a Copenhagen museum has been charged with stealing more than 100 items from the museum. “He allegedly stole the items while working at the Danish Museum of Art and Design between 1999 and 2002. Small ‘pocket-sized’ porcelain, glass and metal items were taken, a museum spokeswoman said.”
Blog
Movie Solution – Different Movie Theatres For Different Patrons?
Movie execs continue to struggle with how to goose up the movie box office. “The managing director of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Michele Garra, said Hollywood’s focus on “event” movies was limiting the diversity of releases. There was also a trend to “derivative material” that included sequels, remakes, movies made from old television series and comic book adaptations that turned some film-goers off even if they attracted others.”
In Edinburgh – Not Enough Talent For Burlesque
The Edinburgh Fringe is full of burlesque shows this year. “One of the problems in Edinburgh is that, with so many burlesque shows, there are simply not enough good artists to go round. Too many performers seem to think that if they have had years of practice taking their clothes off every night before bed, they won’t find it so hard to take them off in front of lots of people and get paid for it. You only have to spend a couple of grisly hours down at the Cave of the Golden Calf at the Royal Scots Club to see that burlesque is an art form in which the talentless feel they can really make their mark.”
A Major Blow To Newspaper Arts Sections
“Every major movie studio is rethinking its reliably humongous display ad buys in those papers because those newsosaur readers are, to quote one mogul, “older and elitist” compared to younger, low-brow filmgoers — so it makes no sense to waste the dough. Wait, it gets worse: I’ve learned that at least two Hollywood movie studios have decided to drastically cut their newspaper display ads as soon as possible. This news couldn’t occur at a worse time for the LAT and NYT, which both receive the lion’s share of those very showy $100,000-plus full-page after full-page movie display ads.”
Ruin’ Smuin
Robert Gottlieb attends a Michael Smuin Dance performance and feels his evening has been stolen from him. “Just as depressing as these two works is the company itself—joylessness incarnate. The boys are stiff. The girls are dull. No one can really tap. The dancers’ energy doesn’t spring from the music; it’s tacked on, to make its showbizzy points. Everything is indicated, sold—it’s not just the music that’s canned, it’s the dancing, too. Why do audiences eat it up? Pure nostalgia? Some questions are better left unanswered.”
Music – Nature Or Nurture?
Is our attraction to certain kinds of sounds and music something we get from the culture around us or is it an innate physical response, there when we’re born? A new study hopes to pin down some answers.
Glass: Public Radio All Dressed Up, No Place To Go
Why is their so little innovation in America’s public radio? Ira Glass thinks he knows: “This is exactly the problem in public broadcasting in general and public radio right now. You’ve got people, you’ve got innovative ideas, you’ve got programming executives who know what should be done next — and, literally, there’s no machinery to fund innovation. And so that’s why you get one new show every four or five years.”
“Hollywood” Movies Increasingly Being Made Elsewhere
“California finds itself competing with almost every state in the union. Thanks to an array of tax incentives offered from Rhode Island to New Mexico, screenwriters are recasting their plots to accommodate new locales, producers are learning new math to stretch budgets and Hollywood has settled into a multiple-time-zone way of life. Hollywood remains the place where most movies are conceived and financed. And the economic and emotional effect of so-called runaway production has been blunted by a fresh wave of television shows made in town — TV production has surged 64% since 2000, as local movie filming fell 8%. But there’s no masking the fact that moviemaking has turned into part of the national economy.”
The Cliburn’s Competition Within The Competition
For years the Van Cliburn Piano Competition commissioned a work for the competition. This year “five composers’ works were sent to all the competitors who had to select one for performance in the semifinal round—should they be lucky and skilled enough to get that far. The composer performed by the most semifinalists would be the winner. Sebastian Currier took home the top prize of $5,000, while each of the other composers who had a work played in the semifinals received $2,500.”
NYC Arts Figure In ’05 Elections
Will the arts be an factor in New York City elections this year? “Surely, few public officials lack an understanding of culture’s central place in New York City. It is more likely that these officials sense that the arts do not need a high level of government attention in the face of what they see as more pressing concerns. Arts advocates view it differently, some worrying that the city’s cultural prominence is already eroding. They believe City Hall needs a comprehensive arts policy, a concrete strategy to maintain the city’s position as cultural capital and to take it further.”