The Edinburgh Fringe Festival turns 50. “Because it is the way it is, in the place that it is, at the time that it is, it has become perhaps our nation’s most important yardstick and proof of her cultural identity and diversity. For three weeks in August, it is a living, breathing, heaving accumulation of creative energy that is unparalleled. Sound dramatic? Maybe. But it’s fact. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. On the one hand it is evil, disillusioning the naïve and pillaging the weak. On the other it is good, rewarding the strong and praising the innovative. Its thirst unquenchable, its attraction undiminishable, its value undeniable.”
Blog
TV Disrupts The Himalayas
“In June 1999, Bhutan became the last nation in the world to turn on television. The Dragon King had lifted a ban on the small screen as part of a radical plan to modernise his country, and those who could afford the £4-a-month subscription signed up in their thousands to a cable service that provided 46 channels of round-the-clock entertainment, much of it from Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV network. Four years on, those same subscribers are beginning to accuse television of smothering their unique culture, of promoting a world that is incompatible with their own, and of threatening to destroy an idyll where time has stood still for half a millennium.”
Tonys – High Entertainment Factor
So TV ratings for last week’s Tony Awards broadcast were down. It was the most entertaining Tony broadcast in years. “The telecast was young and multicultural, traditional and classy – oddly enough, just like the real boundary-defying season. There were shockingly few of those moments that made a person embarrassed to have spent so much of her precious life in the theater. And despite the show’s hilarious preponderence of prescription-drug sponsors, I’m told that ratings actually went up 19 percent in that tyrannically desirable and healthy 18-49 demographic. Ambien, anyone?”
Stolen Oscar Recovered
In March 2000, 55 Oscar statues were stolen in Los Angeles. Though 52 were eventually recovered, three have been on the loose ever since. Now FBI agents on a drug bust in Florida has found one of the golden guys.
Can Hollywood Make Art? Not So You’d Notice At Film Fests
There is a disturbing trend at film festivals such as Cannes, writes Kenneth Turan. Hollywood movies, even first-rate films get discounted just because they’re the product of Hollywood. “Films produced in the maw of the studio system couldn’t possibly be art, and even if they were, they surely didn’t require the kind of help or recognition a major film festival award can provide.” Is this really fair?
Educational TV (It’s Not What You Think)
“Gone are the days when academia and television were from opposite ends of the intellectual spectrum. Instead, TV studies are now enjoying a newfound respectability and prominence in the academic world. The maturing of the medium, recording technology that has allowed previously ephemeral TV work to remain accessible in archival form, and students’ comfort level with video texts rather than written ones have all come together in the last few years to give new impetus to a discipline once derided as not serious enough to merit scholarly study. It’s a rich vein for study, offering a virtually unlimited terrain due to the sheer amount of TV programs on screens, something film doesn’t offer.”
Hung Up On A Spike
“The folks at MTV Networks decided some months back to relaunch their TNN – once the Nashville Network and more recently the National Network – as Spike TV, the first channel build specifically for men. At least that was the plan. But before Spike could unveil its new lineup of shows today, the network was faced with a man-sized problem. On June 5, filmmaker Spike Lee filed an injunction against MTV’s owner, Viacom, saying the public associates the name ‘Spike’ with him.”
The Science Of Funny (Yeah, Right!)
Researchers recently tried to determine the world’s funniest joke. And then they crunched numbers to find what was the funniest time of the year. Sure – maybe the biggest joke of all is the idea that scientists thought they could pin down what funny is. “There may be no more subjective art. One man’s glee might be another man’s unforgivable insult. Men and women often diverge wildly over what makes them laugh. Age, too, creates gulfs. Geography dictates still more patterns of comic appreciation.”
In Defence of Television
It’s so easy to blame TV for all the ills of the world. What dreck! But “contrary to the scolding alarmists who’ve launched withering attacks, blaming TV for everything from youth violence to dulling and lulling the masses into a bloated stupor, television remains the most ubiquitous, educating, egalitarian, affecting and powerful medium the world has ever known.”
New Orleans Finds Its Dancing Shoes
“Call it the original populist movement: dancing for the people and by the people, all different people. Cross-cultural boogieing — that was this city’s first contribution to the national identity.” But somewhere between the Louisiana Purchase and the modern era, New Orleans lost its claim to being one of America’s centers of the arts. Still, the evidence of the Crescent City’s dance roots is everywhere, and the idea of dance as an art of the people, rather than an elite craft, is central to the heritage. “The people of [19th-century] New Orleans were multicultural in a meaningful way, mixing blood and traditions to make new and vital arts. Perhaps that is a model to revitalize dance today.”