So you’re a good parent who wants your children to experience the wonder of reading exciting books featuring heroic children and supernatural enemies, but you’re also a devout Christian who is convinced that Harry Potter is a witchcraft-dabbling heretic who will cause your offspring to turn away from God? Fear not: a new bestseller written by an Anglican vicar is “deeply imbued with Christian imagery and set on the 18th-century Yorkshire coast in Britain with its rugged cliffs, hidden caves and smuggler’s legends. It is about an evil vicar, Obadiah Demurral, who tries to take over the world but is thwarted by three teenagers and a smuggler.”
Tag: 04.24.04
Milwaukee Art Museum Struggles With Low Attendance, Budget
Three years after the Milwaukee Art Museum opened its acclaimed splashy new expansion designed by Santiago Calatrava, far fewer people than expected are passing through its doors, and that’s creating new financial challenges for the museum.
Gordon: Milwaukee’s Museum’s Man In the Middle
Milwaukee Art Museum director David Gordon has a tough job. “What is clear is that the very traits that made Gordon an attractive choice for director have proven to be trouble, too. He is confident and direct by many accounts but magisterial and abrasive by others. He is considered decisive by some but rash by others.”
The Poets Die Young
Why is it that poets die younger than most other artists? A new study is revealing: “Overall, poets lived an average of 62.2 years, compared with nonfiction writers, who lived the longest at 67.9 years. Playwrights lived an average of 63.4 years; novelists, 66 years. The differences between poetry and prose were pronounced among Americans, where poets lived an average of 66.2 years, and nonfiction writers lived an average of 72.7 years.”
Two London Orchestras Facing Eviction
The massive renovation of London’s Royal Festival Hall is being billed as the city’s last, best chance at gaining a truly world-class classical music facility. But in the short term, the one-year period (beginning summer 2005) when the hall will be completely closed is causing major headaches for the two London orchestras which make their home there. “Viable alternatives are thin on the ground. The only other full-scale classical concert hall in London is the Barbican hall, but that has a busy schedule with its own resident band, the London Symphony Orchestra, and a host of visiting ensembles.”
Baltimore Deficit Grows
“The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra expects to increase its projected deficit for the 2003-2004 season from $1.6 million to $2 million, administrative officials said yesterday. The $400,000 increase would push the orchestra’s accumulated debt to about $3.2 million. Driving the red ink are shortfalls in ticket sales for the BSO’s own concerts and presentations of other performers at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and a shortfall in contributions to the annual fund.”
What’s In A Name? For TiVo, Not A Lot.
In only a few years on the market, TiVo has become one of those brand names, like Scotch tape or Kleenex tissues, that consumers use to refer to an entire industry, regardless of actual brand. But even as its name continues to be the industry gloss for digital video recorders (DVRs), TiVo is in danger of being pushed out of the top spot among DVR producers by a raft of competitors, including cable companies which can package their DVRs with attractive channel packages.
Premium Onion Comes With A Price
Readers of online newspapers are used to their favorite publications suddenly deciding to charge for access to certain stories. But The Onion? The satirical newsweekly launches a new subscription-based site this week, offering readers more content and no ads in exchange for $7 per month. In addition to the standard content that appears in the paper’s print edition, the premium site will allow staffers to be more experimental, and to develop animations, slide shows, and other web-based projects that wouldn’t necessarily work on paper.
Calder Gets A Cleaning
“The National Gallery of Art has removed its overarching signature Calder mobile from the central court of the East Building this week for a top-to-bottom refurbishment. The gallery took down the 76-foot, 920-pound artwork before the building opened on Monday. A crew of 24 people, including engineers, curators and a film crew, started work at 5 a.m. and finished six hours later.”
Are We Cloning Kids or Selling Tickets?
A new wave of marketing-driven web sites masquerading as actual businesses is causing consternation and confusion among consumers, but businesses insist that, with traditional advertising techniques losing their impact, the fake sites are nothing more than a new and savvy method for generating “buzz,” that all-important but difficult to quantify measure of cultural worth. From a fake genetic research company offering to clone your dead children (actually an ad for the new movie Godsend), to a guy in a chicken suit on a webcam who will do whatever you ask him to (brought to you by Burger King), it’s harder than ever to distinguish web reality from marketing fantasy.