The state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation has been doing some polling of its viewers. “The results have been startling. According to the research, the ABC’s adoption of commercial advertising would receive majority support from viewers. One December 2003 focus poll showed that 72 per cent of viewers approve of introducing advertising to the ABC. Of that percentage, 54 per cent stated a strong preference for the ABC to take greater responsibility for generating its own funding.”
Blog
After f/X – The Movies Held Hostage
What’s wrong with movies today? They’ve been kidnapped by special effects, writes Denis Dutton. “Producers are stuck in the upward spiral of an endless special-effects arms race, with demands for bigger explosions, uglier villains, more frenzied, realistic violence, louder noises and ever-expanding battle scenes. A computer-generated crowd, according to the Hollywood rule, must not be smaller than the crowds in last month’s releases.” So what about plot? Character? Acting, anyone?
Back To The ‘Burbs
After a period when the suburbs seemed to have disappeared from American novels, they seem to be coming back, reimagined by a new generation of writers. The books “suggest that there are important stories still to be found in the land of the split-level and the McMansion, the land where many pollsters, as it happens, believe the next election will be won or lost. These novels and others like them may even tell us a few things the pollsters cannot. They’re also a reminder that the American vision of suburbia has been created by novels and stories at least as much as it has been described by them. The suburbs aren’t just a place anymore; they’re a state of mind.”
Today’s Art – What A Peculiar Lot
Where is contemporary art going? Martin Gayford is confused: “Is there a trend in contemporary art? At the moment, it just seems to be getting more and more peculiar. This year’s Turner Prize – won, you may recall, by a transvestite potter – might have seemed slightly outre. But, in comparison with the Beck’s Futures Prize, currently on show at the ICA, the tame old Turner looks positively mainstream.”
Rehang This! (What’s The Point?)
Why do museums think it’s a good idea to rehang the art in its collections? “I cannot believe that public understanding of art is increased by the endless shakings-up of displays, to which museums have become addicted. The curators are doing it for themselves: staging convulsions of taste and knowledge that impress their peers. No one nowadays wants to think their job is dull, but looking after a museum collection was, traditionally, one of the staider professions. Not any more. Now everyone is interested in museology, curating is an art form, history is widely recognised as a fiction and new displays have become as integral to public galleries as couture shows to the fashion industry.”
McEwan Delayed At US Border On Way To Speaking Tour
Writer Ian McEwan – winner of the prestigious Booker Prize and author of the best-selling “Atonement” – was refused entry into the US and delayed for 24 hours at the start of a speaking tour of the US Tuesday. One of Britain’s most popular and acclaimed authors, McEwan “almost missed his appearance before Seattle Arts & Lectures after he was refused entry to the United States by American authorities at the Vancouver, B.C., airport and spent more than 24 hours in enforced limbo.”
Debunking The Myth Of Austin
Why all the kudos for Austin as a music capital? It peaked about seven years ago, writes Lindsey Eck. These days “cops with dB meters lurk like vultures outside of venues and force people unloading equipment to park blocks away, no matter how heavy the drum kit. Alcohol enforcement is particularly heavy, while the State Comptroller has singled out downtown clubs for closure over unpaid taxes (which must be paid in advance of the club taking in revenues). And let’s not even begin to enumerate the ways in which zoning, industrial policy, and development decisions generally have made Austin an impossible place.”
Alistair Cooke – A Creature Of Radio
Alistair Cooke much preferred radio to television “because the pictures were better,” he often said, quoting the remark of 7-year-old boy that he’d heard of. “You are in charge of the picture,” Cooke elaborated. “If you stand up against the Empire State Building on television and tell its history, which is ghoulish and funny, viewers are saying, ‘He looks a little tired,’ or, ‘He’s not as thin as he used to be.’ Whereas if you tell the story on radio, your words create the picture, and that’s what I love. The voice does the whole thing.”
Canadian Judge Rules Downloaders Can Allow Their Music To Be Copied
A Canadian judge has ruled that the recording industry can’t sue people who allow music they own to be copied by others. The judge ruled that “the Canadian Recording Industry Association hadn’t shown copyright infringement by 29 people who had allowed their music files to be uploaded. Making files available in online, shared directories is within the bounds of Canadian copyright law.”
Cooke’s Enduring Charm
“Alistair Cooke’s suave and debonair on-camera persona was not the whole story. He was not English, but American, giving up his British passport in 1941, as bombs rained down during the Blitz. For this act, some in the BBC never forgave him. He loved America passionately, and saw it as an open and optimistic alternative to the grim class-bound world he had left.”