Violence in movies has escalated to higher levels than ever before. “Explicit film content ebbs and flows through the years. But lately, partly because of an influx of controversial imports, the flow has become a gush of blood. The standards of what can and can’t be shown have been blasted away like a Peckinpah anti-hero. And not everyone thinks that’s such a bad thing.”
Tag: 03.16.03
UK Teachers Fear Disappearing Arts Education Is Harming Students
Instruction in the arts is shrinking in Britain as the school calendar gets more crowded. “More than 80 per cent of UK headteachers say they battle to find time to schedule arts lessons, while almost 90 per cent of teachers worry that the sidelining of arts is affecting their students’ ability to think imaginatively. According to the survey of 695 primary, secondary and sixth-form teachers, two-thirds believe the reduction in arts teaching will be detrimental to the fabric of the country, resulting in a diminished creative industry and fewer artists.”
Fixing A “Mistake?”
“In his budget address, Gov. McGreevey proposed eliminating $43 million earmarked for various cultural programs. Among the funds eliminated were $18 million in grant money for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, $10 million for the New Jersey Cultural Trust, $4 million in grants for the Historical Commission and $3 million in Cultural Enrichment Grants. Individual institutions also got cut, including $2.7 million for the Newark Museum.”
The BBC – Power To The People
Is the BBC “arrogant, unfairly subsidised, dumbed-down, imperialistic and creatively barren.” Those are certainly the charges critics fling at Britain’s national broadcaster. And now there’s to be a major review of the corporation leading to its charter renewal in 2006. “So the past few months have seen the BBC launch a charm counter-offensive. If, as a columnist and media pundit, you turn around in the pub you find yourself facing a free drink wielded with intent by a top executive who will tell you of the wonderful highbrow things being made by his or her department…”
Will Soft Bestseller Market Affect Literary Market?
“Book sales, particularly fiction, have been suffering since 11 September, and the impending war is prolonging the depression. You wouldn’t know it from a glance at the New York Times bestseller list – John Grisham, James Patterson, Michael Crichton, Jeffrey Archer – but the thriller market especially seems to be suffering. One publisher estimates that submissions of thrillers from agents are down by 30 per cent on previous years. Some agents fear that if publishers are not making the expected returns on their guaranteed big-hitters, the first casualty will be the debut novels and literary fiction that represent more of a gamble. Not everyone agrees, however.”
Caroline Michel Rises To The Top
Caroline Michel has just been made managing director and publisher of HarperPress, the literary division of the publishing giant HarperCollins” where she’ll be one of the most powerful women in publishing. “She has long since proved her doubters comprehensively wrong. But her new job will nevertheless demand all her promotional skills and should also test the depths of her seemingly bottomless supplies of optimism. To put it bluntly, the glaring problem with HarperCollins, as far as the bien pensants of British literary life are concerned, is that it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch.”
War Stories That Can’t Be Sold?
Elite British fighters in Afghanistan have some action-packed stories. “Publishers and agents calculated that an action-packed book by one of these heroes would be worth £1 million, more if Hollywood bought the rights. But none of them wanted to write a book. Since 1996, members of the Regiment, as the SAS is known to special forces’ cognoscenti, and the SBS had been ordered to sign confidentiality agreements, prohibiting them from discussing their time as elite soldiers without official sanction. If they refused to sign, they were thrown out. New recruits had to sign as a condition of service.”
Shakespeare Was An Expert On How The Brain Works
Modern studies of the brain suggest that Shakespeare had an intuitive understanding of how the brain works. “Modern studies have shown the more a word is used in conversation, the less the brain responds to it. Our neurones get tired of hearing it. You can see this effect in the electrical activity of the brain’s word centres. They stop sparking so much. ‘Shakespeare knew that intuitively. Hence the rich variety of his vocabulary and his use of unexpected words or odd combinations of them – for instance, comparing mercy with rainfall to keep us on our toes and interested and involved in what he was saying. Other examples include the use of phrases such as ‘a muse of fire’ or ‘a quintessence of dust’. They are startling and unanticipated and keep us stimulated.”
Hollywood Makes A Discovery: There’s Life After 40
Older actresses are finding better roles in Hollywood these days. “Actresses used to lament that turning 40 was a fast train from playing leading ladies to playing mothers. It still is, frankly, but forward-thinking screenwriters and sexually vital actresses are crafting complex mother characters more reminiscent of Grace Slick than Donna Reed.”
More Cuts For CBC?
According to a lobbiest group, Canada’s CBC faces “layoffs in journalistic and production staff of between 400 and 1,200 are being predicted All in all, the public broadcaster would suffer nearly $30 million in cuts in fiscal 2003-2004, says the lobby.”