Editor David Remnick “promises that by year’s end, the 81-year-old New Yorker, which didn’t regularly run full-page photographs until 1992, will dramatically upgrade its Web presence. More video, more audio, more flash media, more reader interaction. The publication is about to hire its first Web editor this month, and Remnick understands new media well enough not to drop Web-only 15,000-word anvils on the site.”
Tag: 05.26.06
TV’s Sci-Fi Moment Passes
In the wake of “Lost”s success on TV last year, numerous science fiction shows got on the tube this season. Most of them flopped.
Smithsonian Reveals Details Of Showtime Deal
The Smithsonian made its contract with Showtime public Thursday. It is locked into its exclusive TV contract with Showtime network for 30 years. Critics have blasted the deal, saying it excludes other filmmakers.
The Writing Machine
Author James Patterson was “raised in upstate New York, the son of an insurance salesman. At 19, he took a job as a night shift psychiatric aide in a Massachusetts mental hospital, a move that would set off a series of what he calls “accidents” that eventually created the phenomenon of Patterson the master marketer, the man who can write no flop. Patterson has published 35 books, 18 of which hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of bestsellers. He’s sold 100 million copies, grossing $1 billion in sales.”
The Piano Man’s Cuban Connection
For 13 years, Benjamin Treuhaft has been taking pianos to Cuba – 237 of them so far. “Treuhaft keeps returning to survey donated instruments and tune and restore others, striking an insistent chord against the U.S. trade embargo. After nearly 20 trips to the island — some without U.S. approval — the jocular former hippie who sports a bandanna on his head and likes to tune pianos while barefoot is now a personality in some Cuban music circles.”
Toronto Film Fest Gets $25 Million For New Home
The Canadian government has agreed to put $25 million into a new home for the Toronto International Film Festival. “The building will have five theatres, a film reference library, a gallery, exhibition space and an education centre. It also includes Festival Tower, a condominium project. The total cost of the project is estimated at $196 million and $132 million has been raised to date.”
LA Opera Postpones Big Premiere
For the first time in its 20 year history, Los Angeles Opera is postponing a premiere – the hotly-anticipated “Grendel” – because of of computer problems with the set. “The $2.8-million show, a co-production with New York’s Lincoln Center and an undertaking that L.A. Opera general director Plácido Domingo has called the company’s most ambitious to date, will still go on. But the official premiere has been pushed back until June 8, at a cost to the company of more than $300,000.”
Defending Simon Rattle
Lots of press this week about Simon Rattle not living up to his promise at the Berlin Philharmonic. But Martin Campbell-White, Rattle’s agent, dismissed the German coverage: “This is one man mounting a campaign against Rattle … there is huge togetherness between Simon and the orchestra, and this episode has actually served to reaffirm their faith in him.”
Brooklyn Swings
In the past few years, Brooklyn has emerged as a hot scene for jazz. “The rise of that scene — which, like its borough, is an assemblage of enclaves — has been one of the most significant developments for jazz in New York in recent years.”
Why We Love Lists?
What is it about lists? People seem addicted to them. “For lists today, no matter how titillating, are like pornography: Once the guilt sets in, you can’t escape feeling dirty for having lingered over them. It wasn’t always thus.”