The troubled Miami Performing Arts Center is wending itse way towards completion. But what will go in it? Well, the Cleveland Orchestra, for one. And now the MPAC has announced a program asking “local performing artists to submit ideas for development, minor funding and perhaps eventual performance in the PAC’s 2006-07 opening season. The $412 million center, with symphony hall, ballet opera house and performance theater, is set to open in October 2006.”
Tag: 02.22.05
Random House To Offer Mobile Phone Content
Random House has invested in a company that distributes content to wireless phones. So will books be offered? “This is the first step, and we will probably see a lot of other content from Random House and Bertelsmann being offered to mobile users. One hurdle, however, is the confining nature of the mobile interface, which does not lend itself to reading books, for example. But this will probably be a lot more compelling when they start offering content from the Bertelsmann channels.”
Trimming Overhead… Permanently
One of the toughest challenges of managing an arts organization is dealing with the high fixed costs of doing business: office rental, computer costs, security, etc. So it’s worth asking just how many of these “essentials” are actually still essential in the digital world. “Of course, arts organizations need control of many assets to do what they do…since often what they do requires lots of physical space. But there are signs in the world that new options are available, if an organization is really serious about rethinking its fixed costs, its overhead, and the ‘stuff’ it thinks it needs to do its work.”
Russia Enjoys A KGB Renaissance
“The intrepid Russian spy, saving the Motherland if not the world, has come in from the cold. Not since his heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, when espionage novels and movies grabbed the imagination of a teenaged Vladimir Putin, has the Russian secret agent enjoyed such a celebrated place in popular culture. Blockbuster movies, TV series, best-selling novels and even theme restaurants are restoring luster to the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, and its predecessor, the KGB, as the country mines the contemporary fight against terrorism and the Soviet past in a search for incorruptible heroes.”
The Thompson Legacy: Pessimism As A Muse
To anyone familiar with his writing, Hunter S. Thompson’s suicide probably wasn’t a big shock, but his drug-addled, gloom-filled prose was some of the best writing done in America in the last hundred years. “He was also what you get when you combine Murphy’s Law and some hillbilly Calvinist preaching the doctrine of innate depravity. He believed every man had it in him to do wrong… He spoke in bursts of words that later in his life became so unintelligible that a documentary about him provided subtitles. He had a sharp eye for the right people and he hung out with them. He had charisma. Being around him gave you the charmed but unsettled feeling of having joined an entourage.”
More Classical Radio Woes
Pittsburgh’s non-commercial classical music station, WQED, just wrapped up its winter fund drive, with seriously disappointing results. The station is one of the few remaining in the U.S. to program its own classical music without the use of a satellite-based voice tracking service. Some observers suggest that ‘QED listeners were angry over the recent dismissal of two popular announcers, but station officials have a gloomier perspective, pointing out that almost no one is making any money playing classical music on the radio these days.
Oscar As A Marketing Tool For Outrage
There is no shortage of “message movies” in Hollywood these days, but even films which were designed to be apolitical have been getting the polemical treatment in the highly competitive run-up to Oscar night. In fact, screenings of such highly regarded films as Hotel Rwanda and Vera Drake have been sponsored by activist groups hoping that an Academy Award could bring new attention to their favorite causes.
No Broadway For Hurlyburly
The New York revival of Hurlyburly, starring Ethan Hawke and Parker Posey, has decided to skip its turn on Broadway, opting instead for a run at a high-profile off-Broadway theater. The producers say that the decision was largely a financial one.
The Unknown Stuntmen Would Like A Trophy
There is no Academy Award for stuntmen, largely because Hollywood and its stars want to preserve the widely-believed myth that big stars do their own stunts. But this year, the industry’s stunt professionals are demanding that Oscar recognize their considerable contributions. Why not, says Jack Mathews, especially if it means the possibility of getting to watch some of these specialists perform their stunts live on Oscar night?
A Calculated Move
The Denver International Film Festival is tired of trying to score quality premieres and attract attention just as every other city in North America fires up its own filmfest, so the well-regarded Colorado festival is moving from October to November in an effort to have the spotlight to itself. “Festival organizers also believe they can use the November date to host sales from filmmakers to distributors. Two movies from last fall’s festival won deals during Denver talks, Erickson said, and moving to November, away from more traditional sales markets in other cities, may help increase that number.”