The museum’s attendance numbers have been falling. “The estimated number of visitors to the museum plunged to about five million in 2006 from a six-year high of 9.4 million in 2003, according to the latest attendance report from the museum complex. And the decline has been far sharper than that of the overall Smithsonian, which includes 18 museums and the National Zoo.”
Tag: 02.20.07
Cable Giant To Resume Payments To CanTV Fund
“Shaw Communications Inc. vowed Tuesday to resume making monthly payments to the beleaguered Canadian television Fund although the company continued its volley of criticisms against the production fund… The CTF, a key source of funds for Canadian-made programming, has an annual budget of about $250-million, about $150-million of which comes from the country’s key cable and satellite TV companies.”
Canadian Actors Deal Worried US Producers
Making a deal with Canadian actors to end their strike has hit snags with Hollywood producers who worry about setting precedents. “Canadian studio operators and equipment suppliers servicing U.S. shoots grew increasingly alarmed in recent weeks at the loss of work from south of the border. That put ACTRA and CFTPA bargainers under intense pressure to reach a settlement or see their respective members suffer for lack of work as the Americans continued to shift production elsewhere.”
Kenwood Concerts Canceled
About 60,000 people a year attend the annual concerts at London’s Kenwood House, which have featured classical music and performances from pop artists. But neighbors complained about the noise, and Englis Heritage decided to cancel.
Domingo, Cronenberg Team On Fly
“Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore, Placido Domingo and director David Cronenberg are forming an unlikely trio to create an unlikely opera — The Fly.”
Norwegian Newspaper Thrives On The Internet
“At a time when other newspaper companies lament a loss of readers and advertisers, Schibsted is thriving. Its earnings rose 28 percent in the fourth quarter. Online operations will generate about 20 percent of the company’s revenue this year. Perhaps more important, at least for investors, online businesses will provide nearly 60 percent of the company’s operating earnings by next year.”
Going Under The Knife? (Make Sure The Surgeon Plays)
A new study says that surgeons who play video games score better on tests. “Video game skills translated into higher scores on a day-and-half-long surgical skills test, and the correlation was much higher than the surgeon’s length of training or prior experience in laparoscopic surgery, the study said.”
How Will XM, Sirius Alter The Landscape?
“The two companies, which report close to 14 million subscribers, hoped to revolutionize the radio industry with a bevy of niche channels offering everything from fishing tips to salsa music, and media personalities like Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey, with few commercials. But neither has yet turned an annual profit and both have had billions in losses.”
Was Pianist’s Plagiarism Mozart Requiem Syndrome?
David Patrick Stearns ponders the puzzling musical-recording plagiarism case of the late British pianist Joyce Hatto. “Ultimately, one asks not just how this happened, but why. There’s no mercantile motivation: Self-published and available mostly through British Web sites … the recordings can’t have sold more than a thousand copies of each title. The amount of money involved is hardly worth a trip to small claims court.”
A Spalding Gray Performance Piece, Sans Author
There is a cast of four; “surrounding them are stacks and stacks of composition books with black-and-white marbled covers — not the spiral notebooks [Spalding] Gray habitually laid on the table before disclosing his latest collection of innermost thoughts to the audience. These incongruities aside, the piece being rehearsed is indeed a new Spalding Gray work, but it is the first not to star the author, who leaped off the Staten Island Ferry in January 2004….”