The Sacramento Opera and Sacramento Ballet are asking their city to forvive loans to the companies. “The Sacramento Ballet will appear before the City Council and the county Board of Supervisors with a proposal to be forgiven a dollar for each dollar it pays on a $362,000 loan, without interest. The Sacramento Opera seeks to repay a $76,781 loan from the city in the same manner over five years.”
Tag: 02.10.04
Law – Helping Out The Young Vic
Actor Jude Law lends his support for a £12.5 million makeover of London’s Young Vic Theatre. “I remember being thrilled by the proximity of the actors and the versatility of the space. It was an important part of the dream I had to become an actor.”
Leaving LA (Entertainment Jobs)
A new report details a five year decline in jobs in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. The report predicts 2,500 more jobs will disappear in 2004. “A loss of 2,500 jobs would leave the region’s motion picture and sound employment at 111,100. While that could further fall to 109,600 in 2005, employment for independent artists, writer and performers continues to increase. It should rise 11% to 12,200 in 2004 and to 13,600 the following year, the report said.”
Why Blockbuster Is An Orphan
So Viacom is trying to unload Blockbuster Video after failing to find a buyer. “It’s an ignominious unilateral divorce for a company that served Viacom so well—and has become one of America’s most-recognized brand names. But things have quickly soured for Blockbuster. With remarkable speed, renting videotapes has become passé.”
From Where Do We Get Technology?
Since World War II, the notion that “science is the engine that drives technology” has been dominant. “Before technology could advance, “scientific capital” had to be built up through research. Such a view implied that technology ultimately depended on knowledge of the natural world: Technology was nothing more than applied science. Yet increasingly, the scientists who do the sort of pure research explain natural phenomena by invoking such man-made artifacts as the computer.”
In RoadTrip: The Carnegie Reviews Are Out
Lord of the Rings – Biggest Movie Of All Time
The Lord of the Rings movie will soon become the highest box-office grossing movie of all time. “Peter Jackson’s epic has now made $942.7m (£517.9m) worldwide, and is expected to pass the $1bn mark after it is released in Japan on 14 February. Only Titanic from 1997 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, released in 2001, have taken more money.”
Legal Download Sales Rising To The Top
Sales of downloaded music in the UK are rivaling sales of singles-format CD’s. “More than 150,000 downloads were sold last month, exceeding sales of 12-inch, seven-inch and DVD singles, the Official Charts Company reported. This included a record 50,000 downloads in the week after the 19 January launch of online music service MyCokeMusic. CD singles remain the most popular singles format, however, with 341,461 sold during that week.”
Blockbuster On The Block
Blockbuster Video is being sold by Viacom, and at a greatly reduced price. “Blockbuster’s business has been under pressure from cheap sales of DVDs through major retailers as well as emerging video technologies like video on demand and personal video recorders.”
Newly Restored Baltimore Theatre Makes A Bid For The Big Time
The 1914 Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore is reopening after a $62 million makeover. Organizers of the project are “declaring their intention of making Baltimore once again a force in the world of live theater. The center’s operators envision the new venue becoming an arts stadium of sorts, a live entertainment hub.”