In 2001 and 2002, the FCC received only a few hundred “indecency” complaints. Then last year the number soared to 240,000. Growing concern by the public? Hardly. “According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.”
Blog
Ah, The Writing Life (What Life?)
“There are many pitfalls in a literary career, including convincing folks you have one. Writers, like Pavlov’s dogs, actually do learn, and after jettisoning all that romantic baggage that books are about what’s between the pages, they see with clear eyes the genius of the marketplace. The book business has never been more about moving units, though hawking novels, even the big ones, can be much harder than selling wet dog turds.”
West End Theatres Need Major Cash Refurbishment
London’s West End theatres need major investment if they’re to remain viable, says a new report. “The theatres need £250m to fund a major refurbishment programme to bring them into line for the 21st Century. Half of the money needed over the next 15 years would come from the theatres themselves but the rest may have to come from the public purse.”
LA City Audit Reveals Missing Art
An audit of artwork owned by city agencies in Los Angeles suggests that hundreds of pieces of art are missing. “The city has maintained its own art collection since at least the 1920s. There was a person who was supposed to be the curator of this collection, and he allowed city entities to borrow pieces to decorate city buildings. The problem was that over the years, the artwork that had been checked out was not really followed up on.”
Festive La Scala Opens With Pageantry
“The holiday offered downtown Christmas shoppers a look at the theatre’s newly painted facade, decorated for the occasion with red roses and green foliage. The 18th-century theatre was commissioned in 1773 by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, then ruler of Milan. Large video screens were set up in Milan’s elegant passageway, the Galleria, opposite La Scala, inside the city’s San Vittore prison, and other places around town.”
Di Stefano Still Unconscious After Attack
Eighty-three-year-old Giuseppe Di Stefano is still unconscious in hospital in Kenya, but doctors are hoping for his recovery after the tenor was attacked near his home last week. “Unidentified assailants attacked Di Stefano and his wife last Tuesday at their villa in Diani, located about 435 kilometres southeast of Nairobi. He was struck in the head as he tried to defend his wife from the attackers, who were attempting to steal her necklace.”
The Complexity Of Scala’s Opening
“Socially, the occasion was not quite as illustrious as the theatre authorities had hoped. They had invited the Queen and presidents George Bush and Jacques Chirac, among others. Instead they got King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, and the president of Switzerland.”
Branding Dali In Philly
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is hosting the first SWalvador Dali retrospective in the US since 1941. “The exhibition will comprise 200 works, including some of Dalí’s famous surrealist canvases. It will showcase the artist’s works as a painter, sculptor, writer, designer of ballets, filmmaker, theorist and publicist. If you don’t know Salvador Dalí, you will. Philadelphia will have Dalí banners, Dalí bus-wraps, Dalí window displays, a Dalí trolley, and lots else Dalí. The plan is to spread the excitement and economic impact citywide, creating an event people can participate in – and spend dollars on – even if they never set foot in the show.”
Romania’s New Contemporary Art Museum In Controversial Palace
Romania has a new National Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s located in an enormous palace that former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had built but never occupied. “At 270 by 244 metres the building is the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon). Construction began in 1984, but the massive structure was never completed. To clear land for it, Ceausescu bulldozed 7,000 homes and 26 churches in southern Bucharest and relocated over 70,000 people to the outskirts of the city.”
Huxtable: MoMA Gets It Right
Ada Louise Huxtable has had a life-long relationship with the Museum of Modern Art, following its various incarnations on 53rd St. And the latest version? it’s “a suavely sophisticated, exquisitely executed, elegantly understated building that doubles the museum’s size. Mr. Taniguchi’s style–where less is so much more than trendy minimalism, with every carefully reasoned detail honed as close to perfection as possible–is the right architecture for the Modern. It is also the right building for New York.”