“In the straight theatre, the interval norm has long been 15 minutes, giving those quick off the mark just enough time to swallow a warm, over-priced gin and tonic before nipping to the loo. (My own preference is a brisk walk round the block.) Recently, the National Theatre has extended the standard to 20 minutes, and, given the number of slower, older people in today’s audiences, perhaps that is the optimum. However, the more puritanical breeds of theatre director don’t like reality impinging on their creations at all.”
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Plans For UK’s First Black Theatre Fail
Britain was to have its first black theatre, due to open in 2007. But plans for the theatre have collapsed as the Arts Council pulled the plug on the proposed resident company, Talawa. “The council has lost faith in the company, after bitter internal disputes and a string of resignations, and in the business plans for the new theatre.”
NY Mayor Gives $55 Million To Arts
The city of New York’s biggest arts supporter? Gotta be Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “In each of his first two years in office, the gift was $10 million; his largesse for 2004 increased by 50%, to $15 million. This year — with his re-election efforts about to kick into high gear — Bloomberg’s gift, announced July 5, rose to $20 million, meaning that a total of 406 grants will be awarded, a substantial increase from last year’s 302. With his latest gift, Bloomberg has now donated $55 million in four years to the Carnegie Corporation, nearly matching the $70 million he spent on his first mayoral campaign.”
ABT Trumps Its Lincoln Center Rivals
How did American Ballet Theatre get to be a more interesting company than New York City Ballet? It’s an astonishing reversal — who could have dreamed it,” wonders Robert Gottlieb. “This has been an A.B.T. season that’s given us Ashton’s Sylvia as well as the best squad of ballet boys in the world — and Diana Vishneva. Perhaps even more important, the company is helping — or, at least, allowing — some of its dancers to grow before our eyes, unlike the situation at City Ballet, where talented kids roar in from the school and stagnate … if they don’t fall apart.”
Internet – A Basic City Service? Guess Who Argues No
“In hundreds of American communities, public officials have concluded that the Internet is an essential service. They see that their residents are either offered prices that are too high or are not offered services at all. They are aware that while our nation stumbles in high-speed-Internet adoption, other countries make sure consumers can get connected at lower prices.” But telecom companies are mounting campaigns to block city service. “They argue that taxpayer-funded competition makes the marketplace unfair (ironic, since those firms owe their dominance to government-granted monopolies). Then they claim that cities are too unsophisticated to pull off such projects (so why are they worried?).”
Rise Of The Video Bloggers
Now that podcasting has gone mainstream, the next big thing is video-blogging, of vlogs. “Anyone can create media and have a distribution outlet for it that bypasses television and mainstream media. It’s like slightly curated cable-access. Many of the vlogs have a home-grown, experimental feel. People capture moments in their everyday lives. Some post cooking lessons, short films or videos of local festivals or family events like graduations.”
European Movie Business Also Takes A Dive
“German ticket sales are down 20% compared to the first six months of last year, with Italy and Spain registering double figure declines. But the UK’s cinemas are showing only a small decrease, trade paper Hollywood Reporter said. Some European cinemas say adopting US practices, including summer blockbuster releases, have led to a decline.”
Today’s Stars Tomorrow – Who Will Be Remembered?
It’s difficult to predict what stars or what movies will live long after they’re made. But David Ansen takes a ruthless look at today’s A-List stars – “Who, in the end, promises to leave the most lasting legacy? When I toted up my speculative lists, the answer came as a surprise. He hadn’t even come to mind when I started playing this game. Nor does he comfortably fit into any of the standard categories, being the most unconventional of romantic leads, uncategorizable as either boy or man, and enough of a chameleon to morph from the most wigged-out roles in indie movies to the most mainstream Hollywood action fodder.”
Company Sues Internet History Keeper Over Copyright (Huh?)
“The Internet Archive was created in 1996 as the institutional memory of the online world, storing snapshots of ever-changing Web sites and collecting other multimedia artifacts.” It’s a great historical record and archive for future historians produced as a non-profit service. But now a company is suing the Internet Archive, saying “the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive’s database, was unauthorized and illegal.”
Freedom Of Speech Vs. Respect For Religion?
“Last month a judge in the northern Italian city of Bergamo said that the 76-year-old author Orianna Fallaci should answer to claims of abusing Islam in her book The Strength of Reason. Since then, her cause has become a rallying point for mainly rightwing intellectuals and politicians in Italy and the US, where Ms Fallaci lives.”