The US Federal Communications Commission is considering further deregulating ownership of media. Will companies be able to own radio and TV and print media in the same market? Perhaps. What about diversity? Well…maybe a formula for each market that would determine the maximum oncentration of ownership…but maybe that’s too complicated and there shouldn’t be limits?
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European Movie Box Office Down This Winter
Movie box office in the UK was down 21 percent in February from a year ago. “In France, audiences were down 9% for the first quarter, while Germany showed a 7.4% drop in admissions on last year.” Analysts say that last winter there were big blockbusters selling tickets, but breakout hits are missing so far this year.
Has Conceptualism Hit A Dead End?
Battles over the legitimacy of conceptual art occupied a good part of the 20th Century. In the 21st Century those concluding that art has taken a wrong turn with conceptualism are a growing chorus. “The world of fine art now appears exclusively concerned with semiotics, ?the crisis in representation? and other academic matters. Visiting a gallery in the hope of being made to stare in wonder is, according to the prevailing critical theory, ‘sentimental’ and ‘naïve’. Beauty, it would seem, is merely something to be analysed in a cloud of righteous deconstruction. However, the rapidity with which conceptual art evaporates from our consciousness undermines such grandiose pretensions. Once the tribal rituals of endorsement or derision have passed, the oeuvres of our more prominent artists actually evoke very little sense of meaning or avant-garde unease.”
Disney Rethinking Digital Content Strategy?
Disney CEO Michael Eisner signals a shift in Disney’s emphasis on policing copyright infractions. “Last year the company was a leading proponent of a bill, which didn’t become law, that would have forced electronics makers to prevent consumers from making unauthorized copies of films and songs. In the future, Eisner said, movie studios will need to be more flexible about the way they distribute movies. He suggested that in place of the current sequence of studio releases – from theaters to video to pay per view to television – studios would need to offer faster distribution, directly to consumers. ‘If we don’t provide consumers with our product in a timely manner, pirates will’.”
Pritzker Winner’s Sense Of Building As Art
The Sydney Opera House is so perfect for its site, so right as a national symbol, it seems like it was inevitable. But before architect Joern Utzon’s masterpiece was built, the design was the subject of national controversy. Certainly the opera house was the compelling reason Utzon won this year’s Pritzker Prize, but the judges noted that Utzon’s career demonstrates a succession of buildings infused with “a sense of architecture as art, and natural instinct for organic structures related to site conditions.”
Seeking Solace At The Museum
In New York, record crowds are turning out at blockbuster art exhibits, but not for the usual reasons. “The popularity of shows here ranging from Da Vinci to Manet – an unusual confluence of big-name artists even for New York – is partly a commentary on New Yorkers’ magnetic attraction to anything with buzz. But in a city beset by budget cuts, rising homelessness, and a steady stream of war news, it’s also about something more. To the crowds waiting in lines that spill out onto the streets here, these timeless masters offer timely beauty and insight to a world desperately in need of it.”
London Tower – A Fight For The Soul Of A City
The proposed London Bridge Tower skyscraper soars 1000 feet tall; it would be the tallest building in Europe. But London – which historically hasn’t allowed giant buildings, is debating the wisdom of such a building. It’s not just an argument about architecture but a fight over how development is determined. And it looks – at least for the moment – as though developers have the upper hand. “Until we have world peace, socialism triumphant and pigs with wings, we have chosen, in Britain especially, to have private capital gamble with our space. It’s property developers who give us most of our architecture.”
John Adams: Mixed Feelings About Pulitzer Win
Composer John Adams is happy to have won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for music. But “every year I continue to be disappointed that the Pulitzer has stayed stylistically within such a narrow bandwidth of mainly academic music. It doesn’t carry much prestige amongst the composers that I know. I hope that over the years, the people who administer the prize will accept that American music is a far more universal art form than the past history would suggest.”
Scrambling To Assess Saatchi
With the opening of Charles Saatchi’s new gallery, critics are scrambling to pass judgment on his contributions to the art world. His name is “synonymous with the artists who became known as the Brit pack, who rose to fame in the early 1990s. This was the era when British contemporary art became world famous, when the Turner Prize was cooler than the Brits. Fashions change however. Although art is still hip, it has moved on. ‘It was a really defining time. Lots of precedents were set then; some good, some bad. It was an important time, but it?s definitely a thing of the past’.”
Why Pulitzer Doesn’t Mean Much In Music
The Pulitzers are prestigious. But not in the music category, says John Adams, this year’s winner. “I am astonished to receive the Pulitzer Prize. Among musicians that I know, the Pulitzer has over the years lost much of the prestige it still carries in other fields like literature and journalism. Anyone perusing the list of past winners cannot help noticing that many if not most of the country’s greatest musical minds are conspicuously missing,”