Just as certain smells can make you salivate and certain visual images can inspire certain feelings, music and sound have the power to trigger specific reactions in the human brain. A biotech company is hoping to take financial advantage of that fact by “integrating neurosensory algorithms into music to create a certain mood and evoke more intense responses from listeners. The company hopes to market its compositions to the movie industry and video game companies.”
Tag: 05.01.04
Shaw Looks For a Rebound Season
Between the SARS virus, the blackout that left a good chunk of Ontario in the dark for an entire weekend, and the American invasion of Iraq, 2003 was not a good year for the Shaw Festival and its first-year director, Jackie Maxwell. “Tourists stayed away in droves and the end result was a deficit of $3 million, of which $2.5 million was attributable to falling attendances.” The Shaw will look to rebound this summer, and Maxwell is looking to put her stamp on the festival’s artistic image after a tumultuous first year on the job.
Judge: Canadian Film Censorship Illegal
An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the province’s practice of requiring all films to be submitted to a censor board for approval is illegal under Canada’s Charter of Rights & Freedoms. In his ruling, the judge said that the government had provided “no satisfactory explanation why prior approval of films to be shown to the public at large was required,” especially since similar screening processes are not required for film festivals and other “limited audience” screenings.
Picasso Could Go For $100 Mil
“A rare Picasso canvas from the painter’s Rose period could set an art-world sales record with a hammer price of as much as $100-million when it goes up for auction on Wednesday evening at a blockbuster single-owner sale at Sotheby’s in New York. The event kicks off the spring season of Impressionist and modern-art sales.”
The Genies, All Bottled Up
The Genie Awards try hard, they really do, but getting Canadians to watch a Canadian awards show focusing solely on Canadian films, when Canadians can already see the Oscars and the Golden Globes, which focus on films that Canadians actually go to in large numbers, is a difficult undertaking. So with the Genie telecast moving to a new channel this year, the organizers thought that a new host might liven things up. But can even former Kid in the Hall Scott Thompson make the Genie’s a marketable event?
Noble Fool Meets An Ignoble End
Chicago’s Noble Fool Theatre Company has shut down, but the company’s founder and board will continue to operate, hopefully reemerging as a more wide-ranging arts organization. In the short term, “Noble Fool will continue as the exclusive theater presenter at two new venues at” a local resort, and certain performances will continue as the company attempts to reorganize financially.
Is It Just Possible That Nobody Cares?
NC-17 is losing some of its taboo qualities, with major studios agreeing to release films with the once-dreaded rating, and newspapers readily airing ads for them. True, video stores still won’t stock them, but they will stock “unrated” versions of R-rated films which include NC-17-worthy footage. So what does it all mean? Are we a more permissive society than we were a decade ago? Are studios less risk-averse? Is Western civilization knuckling under to the dark forces of deviant morality? Or is it just possible that Hollywood has decided that there’s very little point in having a rating that you can’t use?
Royal Winnipeg Loses 9 Dancers, 2 Principals
Turnover is not abnormal in the ballet world, and most companies can expect to lose a dancer or two in a given year. But the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is taking a rather large hit this summer, with 9 of its 26 dancers, including two male principals, either being let go or leaving the company on their own.
Edwards Signs Off Morning Edition
The Bob Edwards era at NPR is officially over. On Friday, Edwards, who has been cast as the martyr to the increasing corporatization of public radio since news of his “reassignment” broke weeks ago, thanked his listeners for “24 years and 6 months” of loyalty, conducted a last interview with CBS newsman Charles Osgood, and faded into the obscurity of his new nebulously defined job as “senior correspondent.”