Viacom president Mel Karmazin has laid down the law to the top execs of 180 Infinity radio stations around America that Viacom owns. Karmazin is said to have told the execs on a conference call that there is a new “zero-tolerance” policy on obscenity over the air: “If you don’t comply, you’ll be fired for cause. This company won’t be a poster child for indecency.”
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In RoadTrip: Osmo Loosens Up
Sam Bergman on tour in Europe with the Minnesota Orchestra: “It rarely occurs to musicians that conductors must feel the same pressures that we do, and in considerably greater measure. But if the expectations were high for this orchestra on this tour, they were stratospheric for Osmo, who is being asked to prove his reputation on a global stage with an American orchestra, in the very first year of his tenure with us. Now, Osmo is not the type of conductor who buckles in the face of pressure, and he’s been more or less rock solid on the podium throughout the trip. But where his demeanor in the early rehearsals was fairly stern and even a bit domineering, we now see him cracking jokes and trading quips with the musicians during the evening touch-ups.”
Magazines Suffer Big Sales Drop
Magazine newstand sales are down substantially in the past year. In the last six months, “according to official figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, out of the 472 magazines it tracks, 319 reported newsstand declines and their combined newsstand sales fell 5.9 percent (3.3 million copies), not counting new titles reporting sales for the first time.”
When Roddy Dissed James…
Last month Irish writer Roddy Doyle dismissed James Joyce’s Ulysses as overlong and over-rated. “Not everyone leaped on Mr. Doyle, however, or leaped to Joyce’s defense. A number of writers in more serious papers defended Mr. Doyle’s right to bash an icon, and some Irish newspaper writers even conceded that they had always found Joyce rather a hard slog.” As an admirer of both James and Doyle, John Rockwell is conflicted…
Death of The Pop Album
For decades, the pop music album has been considered a work of art in its own right, at its best mixing songs into a coherent and interesting whole. But more and more critics are suggesting that the album as an artform is dead. “To say the least, the idea of what constitutes a proper album is unravelling, and the artists, as always, are causing a lot of that change themselves.”
Barenboim To Quit Chicago Symphony
Conductor Daniel Barenboim has told Chicago Symphony officials he’ll leave the orchestra after 17 years as music director. “Barenboim, 61, cited the toll of travel between Chicago and his home base in Berlin and the increasing “non-artistic” demands being made on music directors of U.S. orchestras to expand audiences as key factors in his decision.”
Surveying the WTC Memorial Proposals
Maybe you didn’t like the proposal chosen for the World Trade Center monument. Well, take a look at the proposals that didn’t make it: “All 5,201 of the entries that the jury sifted through went on display at www.wtcsitememorial.org yesterday. Visitors to the site who signed on to second-guess the jury — “How could they have overlooked that?” — probably left with a new respect for the jurors’ devotion and patience in going through the entire lot without pay. Visitors may also have left with a sense that the world cared, no matter how clumsy or inartful the expression.”
Why Barenboim Is Leaving
Why is Barenboim leaving the Chicago Symphony? One official suggested that “there have been ongoing conflicts with the administration and trustees regarding the ‘non-artistic’ side of his directorship, including questions about his taking a firmer hand in fundraising, community outreach and maintaining a more regular community presence.”
Nudity, Bad. Violence? Why Not?
Hey, this is America, where it’s pretty much required that you be outraged by a little flash of near-nudity on TV. And religion – that’s a charged subject too – another something to get uptight about. But gunning down somebody, killing people, maiming them, torture… violence.. well, that’s entertainment!
Comedy Nation – It’s The UK
The comedy industry in Britain has grown enormously in the past decade with more than 150 new clubs opening. Now “with its top stars eyeing America and other overseas markets and its audiences more numerous and knowledgeable than ever before, live comedy can truly claim to be one of Britain’s fastest-growing forms of entertainment.”