Should media companies be allowed to own newspapers, radio and TV stations in the same market? In America, the Federal Communications Commission is considering the idea. In radio, relaxing limits on how many stations one company can own has resulted in mass consolidation of the industry. Critics are concerned: “I don’t think it exaggerates a bit to say that fundamental components of democracy are at stake when the airwaves belong to the public. This is about how we discuss issues and how we disseminate them.”
Tag: 03.06.03
A little Healthy Competition
The Kennedy Center’s International Ballet Festival presents the rare chance to see major companies daning side by side. “This first week of the festival, featuring the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and ABT performing at the Eisenhower Theater through Sunday, is not to be missed. The evening is buoyed by healthy competition; each company is trying to outdo the others with its best dancers and signature choreography. Does the festival offer a true representation of the performance styles that distinguish these troupes? Not exactly.”
Will Bollywood Conquer All?
Bollywood is not just an Indian, but a global, phenomenon. ‘Our films have reached half the world. The Middle East, all of Africa, all of Russia, the Far East, and the Indian diaspora everywhere — the half of the world that Hollywood has not yet recognized.’ The typical Indian commercial movie today is probably handsomer than it has been at any time since the 1950s, the so-called Golden Age of Bollywood — or, more precisely, the Expressionist Chiaroscuro heyday of noir-inflected auteur directors like Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt.” Now Bollywood is making its move on America.
Will Piracy End TV As We Know It?
Hollywood TV and movie execs told Congress Thursday that “without copy protection the threat of extensive piracy will force the industry to move its best programming to pay services such as cable and satellite TV. ‘Over-the-air television as we know it today will be a thing of the past’.”
Will Broadway Workers Cross Musicians’ Picket Lines If There’s A Strike?
If Broadway musicians go out on strike tomorrow, producers are planning to have synthetic music ready to go. But will the actors and others employed on Broadway cross picket lines? Actors Equity has called an emergency meeting for Friday to consider the matter. “The Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG), representing 13 Broadway unions, on Wednesday issued a statement of support for Local 802 following an emergency meeting. The coalition represents all aspects of the Broadway theatre, from actors, musicians, playwrights, directors and choreographers, to set, costume and lighting designers, stagehands, ushers and ticket-takers, box office personnel, wardrobe, hairstylists, porters, press agents and company managers.”
Scottish Parliament – An Extraordinary Building Shouldn’t Be All About Money
Scotland’s new parliament building has been awash in controversy – almost all of it about the enormous cost. But this is missing the point, writes Duncan Macmillan. “We seem unable to lift our eyes from the cost of the building itself to see what we are getting for our money. But sheathed in scaffolding and polythene sheeting, our parliament is a chrysalis. In a month or two a marvellous butterfly is going to emerge to astonish us all. Or maybe not a butterfly. Really, it is a flower.”
Air Force Memorial Will Tower Over Washington
“The Washington skyline is due for an exhilarating lift in three years or so, when a spectacular memorial honoring men and women of the U.S. Air Force rises on a hill just west of the Pentagon. Unveiled yesterday, the memorial design by architect James Ingo Freed appropriately is a soaring thing, an airy triumvirate of stainless steel pylons ascending in gentle arcs into the Virginia sky. The highest of the spires will ascend 270 feet above a granite-paved plateau on a promontory overlooking the Pentagon and monumental Washington. A second arc comes in at 230 feet, and the third tops off at just above 200.”
Long Lines And Crushing Crowds – Welcome To The Art Museum!
A heavily promoted ‘blockbuster’ exhibit of the work of Degas at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is drawing huge numbers of visitors, and that may be a problem. “On those most popular days for museum attendance, Degas devotees holding timed tickets have reported waits of up to an hour to see the critically lauded show, devoted to the great impressionist painter’s lyric images of ballet dancers. And once inside, it was tough for the packed-in art lovers to see the art.” Part of the crowd-control problem can be attributed to a series of crippling snowstorms in the area which prevented many ticketholders from making it to the museum during the exhibit’s first two weekends.
Everybody Loves Salon. So Why Is It Broke?
Salon.com is one of the original online publishing success stories. It has high-profile writers, scads of devoted readers, and a surfeit of great story ideas. So why is it constantly on the verge of going out of business? “The company ended its first quarter of 2003 with only $169,000 in cash. It stopped paying rent for its swanky San Francisco headquarters in December, and the landlord was demanding $200,000 immediately.” The problem may just be that the world that Salon created – where two-way communication supercedes the ‘old media’ model of “I write, you read” – has become so diverse and successful that Salon itself no longer has much of a core purpose.
Wasn’t Anyone Paying Attention?
Last year, Minneapolis unveiled plans for a dramatic new downtown library designed by architect Cesar Pelli. The city then moved all the books and staff out of the current library into a temporary facility, and started demolishing the old building to make way for the new one. And then, someone pointed out that the city has no money to be building libraries. Columnist Doug Grow feels that there is something just slightly wrong with that sequence of events.