Tag: 02.24.03

Great Art Without Need Of A Story

The Museum of Modern Art’s Matisse Picasso show gathers up lots of great paintings. “With sixty-seven mostly top-drawer paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Picasso and sixty-six by Matisse, the show hardly needs a pretext, but it has one: a running dialogue of mutual attractions and abrasions between the twin godheads of modern painting. But to extract the story—an elliptical tale, full of hints, puzzles, and fine discriminations—while looking at so much stupendous art is like trying to check the oil in a speeding truck.”

What A Hit Band Earns

So how much does a hot new band earn from a hit recording? Let’s say this hypothetical hot band sells 500,000 albums at $16.98. That’s gross sales of $8,490,000. [Remember, of course, that this is a very hot band – only 128 of more than 30,000 records sold half a million recordings in 2002.] Well – after all the fees, commissions, fees, percentages, charges and expenses are deducted, the band comes home with $161,909 – split however many ways by band mambers. For a hit. Is this any way to run a business?

Battle Of WTC Design Criticism

A few weeks ago New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp attacked Daniel Libeskind’s design for the World Trade Center site. A number of observers were amazed at the attack and protested. The Times’ response? “This past Sunday the Times published an attack on the THINK design [the other design finalist] by New York University Art History Professor Marvin Trachtenberg – and in the space usually reserved for Muschamp, no less. Trachtenberg, in a thinly concealed response to the besieged Times critic, dismissed the THINK design as ‘an architectural Frankenstein monster’ and went on to praise Libeskind’s in glowing terms. ‘[I]t is in a class by itself in its deeply creative, organic relationship to the specificity of ground zero and its environment and meaning’.”

Salon Scrutiny Is Unusual For A New Magazine

So Salon magazine is on the financial ropes. But Salon’s publisher says the online mag’s finances are not unusual for a magazine. ” ‘Being a public company has been a huge burden. How long does the average magazine take to reach profitability? Sports Illustrated — 12 years. USA Today — 10 years.’ But these publications were developed inside corporations big enough to hide the years of losses in a dark corner of the accounting department. Salon does not have that luxury. Every expenditure drops directly to the bottom line, where it’s paraded past the investment community.”

Jones Dominates Grammys

Twenty-three-year-old jazz vocalist Norah Jones surprised many Sunday night by dominating the Grammys’ major awards, “capturing the marquee categories of year’s best album, record and new artist. The surprise win for Jones has cemented the reputation for the Grammys as an unpredictable entertainment gala.”

A Fun Show

This Grammy production was actually fun to watch as entertainment. “The producers bucked conventional award show wisdom and dumped the host as an unnecessary element. They emphasized performance and kept the pace as frantic and energetic as the music being honored.”

CD’s: A “Business Without A Business Model”

The music recording industry is in trouble. “The uncertainty facing the major recording labels has led a wave of others to seek new paths, either voluntarily or involuntarily. ‘It’s a business without a business model today because unfortunately it’s predicated on people actually buying CDs. I don’t know about you but my 12-year-old, he’s burning them pretty fast. That’s the reality and it was coming and everybody closed their eyes to it’.”

Tolkien Vs. Tolkien

Simon Tolkien, the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, is a successful barrister, and he has a book contract in Britain and America. But five years ago he had a fallingout with his father over the movies to be made from his grandfather’s books. Seems the Tolkiens had no control over the movies since JRR had sold them years ago. Simon’s dad wanted mothing to do with the movie-makers, but Simon…