“Does political cinema mirror life? How much impact can a movie have on its audience? To what extent is it able to influence the way we think about politics? The relationship between cinema and politics, often troubled, has recently become far too distant.”
Tag: 12.19.05
Seatle’s Northwest Chamber Orchestra Faces Rinvention
Seattle’s Northwest Chamber Orchestra has always survived on the financial edge. But, like most orchestras, in recent years it has seen its expenses rise and its income shrink. So maybe the orchestra needs to rethink its model?
Investigating Fairness In The NYT Book Review
Were New York Times staffers unfairly favored in the Times’ best books list of the year? (six NYT writers’ books made the list). Times public editor Byron Calame investigates: “What’s fair is particularly challenging in the world of the book section. There, reviewers are expected to express their opinions, but readers also have the right to expect that books are assessed based on their merits, not just on a critic’s ideology or personal grudges and preferences. The complications only grow when some of the authors are on the staff of The Times.”
A New $550 Million Museum At The Pyramids
Plans have been announced for a massive new “$550 million Great Egyptian Museum, to be established near the Pyramids near Cairo. It will be among the world’s largest museums, and is by far the biggest to be built from scratch. The venture is expected to attract up to five million visitors a year, slightly more than the British Museum in London, which is the world leader. There will be some 100,000 Egyptian artefacts on show (compared with the British Museum’s 80,000 displayed objects, covering all major cultures).”
Zukerman Taking A Break From Nat’l Arts Centre
Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra has announced that music director Pinchas Zukerman will take a half-season sabbatical from the ensemble, effective with the start of the new year. He was scheduled to conduct five more concerts in the current season, but the NACO will find guest conductors to cover those dates. The centre says it fully expects Zukerman, whose current contract is up at the end of the 2006-07 season, to return in fall 2006, but news of the sabbatical came as a surprise to the orchestra’s musicians.
Kidding Because They Love
Peter and Bobby Farrelly are not exactly known for highbrow comedy. The sibling filmmakers behind the slapstick hits There’s Something About Mary and Dumb & Dumber have always relied on gross-out gags and borderline-offensive jokes to sell tickets, and while their movies frequently garner good reviews from serious critics, they are hardly the stuff of serious art. So you might have expected the folks at the Special Olympics to react with horror upon learning that the Farrelly’s next movie would feature a protagonist who fakes a mental disability in an attempt to steal the gold at the games. Instead, though, officials from the organization saw an opportunity, and the result is a movie that all involved hope treads the line of good taste in the name of humanizing those with disabilities.
How Many 18-Year-Olds Do You Know With Any Money, Anyway?
If you’re not between the ages of 18 and 49, you may as well be dead to the American entertainment industry and its attendant advertisers. The rationale behind this seemingly arbitrary distinction has always been based on issues of disposable income and willingness to spend it, but as an article of faith, the dominance of the young adult crowd seems to be seriously flawed. “It’s almost impossible to get anyone to revisit conventional wisdom, but maybe it’s time advertisers took a deep, relaxing breath and a careful second look. It’s possible they’re coveting a demographic that’s strapped for cash and not watching much television. And ignoring one, with cash, that is.”
Emmy To Recognize “Non-Traditional” Media
The Daytime Emmy Awards have taken the first step in acknowledging the importance of new media forms in the modern entertainment industry, announcing the creation of a new category for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms. “The award will recognize excellence in entertainment programming created specifically for viewing online or via cellphone, Ipod or video-on-demand.”
Is Satellite Radio On The Verge of Stability?
Satellite radio has never suffered from a lack of faith on the part of its investors. “It’s only a matter of time,” we’ve been constantly told, before pay radio becomes the new standard in a media universe clogged with corporate radio conglomerates, 8-minute ad blocks, and shrinking playlists. The predictions may have seemed grandiose, but with XM and Sirius finally snaring some top-of-the-line star personalities (Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, and Bob Dylan) and securing exclusive deals with the four major sports leagues, satellite may be on the verge of fulfilling its promise.
Middle America May Not Hate Gay Cowboys After All
There was never really any question about whether Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, fast becoming known as “the gay cowboy movie,” would be a good film. From the beginning, the critics were nearly unanimous in their approval. But the larger question was obvious: is the wider America of 2005, a country deeply divided along social and political lines and embroiled in a bitter debate over issues of homosexuality, ready to embrace a love story with two men in the lead roles? The early answer, it appears, is yes. In its first weekend in wide release (beyond the notoriously liberal boundaries of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco,) cracked the top ten in national box office receipts, and scored with moviegoers in locales as diverse as St. Louis, Miami, and Plano, Texas.