“Years before Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991) gained worldwide acclaim for his children’s books, he honed his craft making cartoons for other young minds: American soldiers. Racy and suggestive, the animated films are enough to shatter one’s innocent appraisal of such Seuss titles as “The Seven Lady Godivas,” “Hop on Pop” and — say it isn’t so — “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!” The short military-training cartoons, along with disturbing propaganda films that Seuss also worked on, were shown to troops during and shortly after World War II.”
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Endangered Species: Famous Music Studios
Legendary music studios are disappearing at an accelerating rate. “A recent roll call includes Cello and Royaltone Studios, both in Los Angeles, and New York’s famed Hit Factory, and that’s just in the past two months. Illegal downloading, which means less revenue for record companies and less money for recording budgets, is partly to blame. A much bigger factor, though, has been the rise of cheap digital recording equipment: A high-quality home studio system can be had for well under $50,000 — about what it would cost to spend three weeks in a high-end studio like the Hit Factory.”
Davies Reports Dead Swan, Gets Visit From Police
Composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies got in trouble with police recently when he reported a dead whooper swan near his property and prepared to eat it. The birds are protected, and even though Davies didn’t kill the swan himself, police still paid a visit. “Naturally, I’ve informed Buckingham Palace. Now I’m just hoping I’ll still be a free man – and not locked up in the Tower of London – at the time of my first big concert as Master of the Queen’s Music.”
Has British Poetry Become Irrelevant?
Has British poetry become “almost irrelevant, because the establishment has closed ranks against fresh ideas and forms?” So says the director of an experiment called Text Festival. “[It] has run out of steam. There’s nowhere for it to go other than becoming a mild entertainment or an anachronism.”
A Look Inside SF’s New deYoung
“Scheduled to open Oct. 15, the beautiful $202 million M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, is about 98 percent finished. The interior of the 144-foot-tall twisting tower, which will contain classrooms and a library, still needs work. And the exterior landscaping has yet to begin. But the main building of the 300,000-square-foot city-owned museum is all but done.”
TV Schedulers Abuse Viewers
The way American TV networks schedule their programs makes many viewers nuts. “Scheduling is one of those gigantic industry blind spots. Those who engage in it like to believe they understand the wishes, motives and tendencies of viewers, but history has proven this to be a grand lie of the mind. The most accepted theories of scheduling have more to do with tried-and- allegedly-true industry beliefs or archaic reasoning than they do with the actual needs of real people.”
Denver Quits Summer Festival
Denver has decided to cancel its 13-year0-old annual summer performing arts festival”The free festival attracted more than 100 performers and thousands of visitors to the Denver Performing Arts Complex over two days each September. But the festival, which costs a minimum of $125,000 to stage, drew fewer than 30,000 last year, said cultural affairs director Denise Montgomery. That figure is down more than 50 percent from the 60,000 who attended in 2002.”
Getty Starts Museum Director Search
The Getty is beginning its search for a new director of the Getty Museum. A ten-member search committee has been formed, and a timetable set…
SXSW Just Keeps Getting Bigger
“In its 19th year, SXSW, which started on Wednesday, has broken attendance records. Four days and nights of panel discussions at the Austin Convention Center and showcase gigs at 60 venues around the city have drawn more than 1,300 bands, 8,000 paid registrants and 1,600 journalists from around the world. That isn’t counting the thousands of people who come just for the parties and the unofficial shows…”
Spamalot An Instant Hit?
Spamalot, the musical, opens on Broadway. “It seems safe to say that such a good time is being had by so many people (including the cast) at the Shubert Theater that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity will find a large and lucrative audience among those who value the virtues of shrewd idiocy, artful tackiness and wide-eyed impiety. That includes most school-age children as well as grown-ups who feel they are never more themselves than when they are in touch with the nerdy, nose-thumbing 12-year-olds who reside within.”