“Although Imax has reigned supreme as the biggest, clearest, most spectacular cinema format available, it is in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs. Like the prehistoric reptiles its movies so often feature, Imax’s size is its chief asset and its chief liability.”
Tag: 01.06.03
Nathan And Matthew Notch Broadway Box Office Record
With Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick back in their accustomed roles, The Producers racked up a Broadway box office record of $1.6 million last week.
Subway Rap – Finding A Publisher On The A Train
Heru Ptah, 23, didn’t have a publisher for his book, so he took to the New York subway, selling copies at $10 a pop. Then MTV Books bought the book and sold another 25,000…
England’s Historic Structures in Danger
English Heritage has released a report that concludes that the country’s “historic environment is ‘a massively underexploited asset, which is under attack from all sides.’ Threats include ‘a skills crisis, incongruous development, half a century of unsympathetic agricultural policy, inappropriate tax regimes, climate change and natural erosion, and of course, a lack of funds’.”
Is The Art Museum-Building Boom Done?
“During the 1990s stock market bubble, every major arts institution planned to build or renovate. Some projects were completed (Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art), some started long ago remain on track (Museum of Modern Art in NY, Nelson Atkins in Kansas City), while others have scaled back (the Metropolitan), and still others appear to have stalled (Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Whitney Museum, Jewish Museum in San Francisco).”
Miami Art Show – City Of The Future?
The first Art Basel Miami was a big success. Though “visitor sophistication may not have been high” and expenses were more than expected, there were plenty of sales. So much as to prompt the following speculation: “If Art Chicago is clearly doomed in the next decade, the real fight is now between the Armory Show of New York and Art Basel Miami Beach. Which of these cities, both packed with very different pleasures, will prove more lastingly tempting?”
In Munich – A Museum That Puts Art Above Building
In an era when museum buildings are asked to be works of art themselves (and the art inside can seem like an afterthought), Munich’s new Pinakothek der Moderne is a white rextangle in which art is the star…
Studying The Arts To Death
In the 80s and 90s, culture advocates have authored more and more studies to measure the “impact” of the arts on society. What does the money buy? How many does it employ? What kinds of social “goods” are being achieved? “There is now a mass of primary data claiming to measure the impact of cultural policy.” But “the rise of statistics has paralleled an extension of government control over the arts, and the tendency to value culture for its ‘impact’ rather than its intrinsic value.” Surely this can’t be good for the service of art…
Updating The Contemporary In Adult Contemporary
Adult Contemporary radio – those endless loops of Elton and Phil Collins and Micahel Bolton and… a 2001 survey of Canadian radio revealed that 23 percent of all listening time on the radio was devoted to this format. But those familiar songs that have been played over and over again for the past decade – “just when it seemed these radio-friendly legacies would never go away – all right, 16 or 17 years after it seemed they wouldn’t go away – it seems like now they just might…”
Movies By Day, Stage By Night
“The transition from theatre to film and TV is an art that stage actors in Canada, and particularly Toronto, are becoming more adept at handling. As film and TV production work increases and the economic forecast for creating theatre gets less promising, seeking work opportunities outside theatre is no longer thought of as selling out. Actors dropping out of a play to do a film is becoming the unwritten law of the Toronto theatre jungle.”