The industry wants to show lawmakers how important movies are. “Showing policy wonks what Hollywood is all about is part of the MPAA’s goal of going beyond the movie screenings, celebrity congressional witnesses and star-studded campaign fundraisers to showcase how entertainment makes multibillion-dollar contributions to the economy and the nation’s balance of trade. In doing so, the industry hopes to underscore that Washington needs to strengthen copyright protection and to crack down on global piracy.”
Tag: 02.06.07
Play-A-Day-To-Pay
Suzan-Lori Parks’ play-a-day project is a statement about what theatre is. “You can read along from day to day via the Web site. And they range from tidbits (clever exchanges between a two characters), to surprisingly elaborate 15-minute comedies and tragedies. The subject matter is diverse, but themes recur.”
Why Look At The Art When You Can Shoot It Instead?
Whether museums permit or prohibit photography, “the proliferation of digital cameras is changing the museum experience for visitors and the institutions themselves. Museums are packed with visitors who aren’t just looking at art, but photographing it and taking it home, too. For other visitors, the shutterbugs can be an annoyance. For museums, however, the issue is serious: Does the dissemination of copyrighted artwork have financial and legal ramifications?”
On The Auction Block: Baltimore’s Art Deco Palace
“The Senator Theatre, one of the last of the nation’s once numerous art deco movie palaces and the only one still showing films in Baltimore, is to be sold at a foreclosure auction Feb. 21. … City officials, who have come to the Senator’s aid in the past, say they are unlikely to do so again.”
ICA To Replace Beck’s With New Prize
Though London’s Institute for Contemporary Art has lost funding for the Beck’s Futures prize, “in 2008 the ICA will be launching a new prize for emerging artists which will take a different format, as yet to be disclosed, to Becks Futures. ‘We’re in the process of developing a new prize to match the enormous strength and diversity of work taking place among young artists in Britain today’.”
Bush Budget Increases Cultural Agencies’ Funding
“The federal cultural agencies and museums received solid support yesterday from the White House in the proposed budget for fiscal 2008. … In the president’s proposal, the National Endowment for the Arts is to get $128.4 million,” an increase of $4 million, while the Smithsonian and the National Endowment for the Humanities see larger budgets as well.
A Familiar Dilemma: Tourism Vs. Cultural Preservation
“As Cambodia has settled into peace and opened to the world, the temples of Angkor have in recent years gone from stone to gold for the national government. This year, a deluge of tour operators is expected to cart in nearly 1 million foreign visitors, a sixfold increase since 2000. … The growth has put the Cambodian government in a difficult position, observers say, forcing it to balance the potential to make money against the need for preservation, restoration and study.”
At A Pilgrimage Site, A Grave And A Leaky Roof
At the 800-year-old church where Shakespeare is buried, “the roof leaks, the metal in the windows is corroding and a small invasion force of deathwatch beetles is boring into the ancient timbers.” The fund-raising goal exceeds $8 million. In the meantime, the visitors keep coming….
My Cravings Are Gone, And So Is My Empathy
With a tiny bit of brain damage, a person could give up smoking: You knew it sounded too good to be true, didn’t you? Neuroscientists caution that altering the brain’s insula could wipe out more than addiction. The insula “helps give rise to moral intuition, empathy and the capacity to respond emotionally to music.”
Trading Concert Halls For Bar-Band Circuit — Voluntarily
“As the principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ted Atkatz had reached a pinnacle in his profession. … But in May, Mr. Atkatz pulled a modern-day Don Quixote. He quit his job to devote himself full time to his alternative rock band.”