“Critics want TV to be art, and are willing to settle for entertainment. TV watchers are after entertainment, but yearn secretly for psychotherapy. The networks give us all of the above, and pray that some of it sticks.”
Tag: 10.30.06
“Utopia” By The Numbers
Tom Stoppard’s epic three-evening play about nineteenth-century Russian intellectuals is a big undertaking…
The New Online TV (Beyond YouTube)
Companies are rushing to build online TV services. “These companies are building flexible online networks that can host content, serve up ads and dish out interactive features. These new Internet TV platforms are designed to host full-fledged channels that content creators can control.”
Are Textbook Publishers Working Against Students?
A new report “accuses publishers of undermining the used book market and unnecessarily inflating prices. Studies show that the cost of textbooks is rising faster than the rate of inflation, and the price issue has gained traction with at least one lawmaker this year.”
The Spelling Challenge (Celebs Writers Vie)
A group of famous writers show up to participate in a charity spelling bee. How’d they do? Well, it’s good writers have spell-checkers…
Brits Import American Play-Development Scheme. Whoops.
“Over the last 10 years a new play development culture – based on American models – has taken root in British theatres and it is now so firmly embedded that it has become an industry in itself. … Access is important, but what’s the point of providing access to schemes to develop plays but not to the stages themselves? It’s like teaching people to swim but then denying them access to swimming pools. There is something cockeyed about a theatre culture that has put so many structures in place to develop plays and so few to stage them.”
Mamet Goes On The Offensive
David Mamet has written a scathing “rant against assimilation.” It may “shock those devotees who have either discounted or ignored the political implications of Mamet’s Jewish turn. As in his recent mocking response to Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic ravings, Mamet has of late become a self-styled defender of the faith, accusing all defamers of Israel of being racists in their flagrant anti-Semitism.”
Outsider Artist Mose Tolliver, 82
The self-taught artist known internationally as Mose T helped the world discover what was then called “folk art” in the 1982 show “Black Folk Art in America: 1930-1980” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. The Montgomery artist was the last living artist from the exhibition.
Where Twyla Went Wrong
Twyla Tharp’s new Bob Dylan show has been getting slammed by critics. “When a serious artist produces a dud, a lot of energy can be spent trying to figure out why, but sometimes the reason is just that the artist took on the wrong subject, and later realized this, and couldn’t back out, and ended up having to fake something.”
Comedy Central Make YouTube Take Down Shows
YouTube is removing videos of Comedy Central shows after the network decided to assert its copyright. “The situation is tricky for a network like Comedy Central, part of Viacom. Its audience is young and technologically sophisticated, and Comedy Central stars in the past have used YouTube and clip services to interact with their audience.”