“Although excerpts from high-profile books routinely appear in national magazines, some publishers have been having second thoughts about the strategy. Frequently, an excerpt can offer a lift to a book’s sales, but there is always the risk that it might offer too much, thus stealing thunder (and revenue) from the book.”
Tag: 06.11.07
The Tonys’ Lessons On Broadway
The message after Sunday’s Tony Awards: “Fluff might sell, but seriousness (sorry, “Legally Blonde”) is what the theater community stands by. Now if only art and commerce could join hands and turn out a show that’s simultaneously — and unqualifiedly — a critical and popular hit. Then we’d all be smiling at revenue numbers that, despite their steady climb toward the billion-dollar mark, can’t conceal such darker realities as a slew of multimillion-dollar flops (including “High Fidelity,” “Coram Boy” and the soon-to-be shuttered “The Pirate Queen”) and exorbitant ticket prices that have rendered Broadway a luxury item for the Zagat set.”
Jazz At Lincoln Center Gets New Executive Director
Arts consultant extraordinaire Adrian Ellis has been appointed executive director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Ellis will become the center’s third top executive in three years. Brown, the center’s former head of development, became executive director in February 2005, succeeding Derek Gordon, a former senior vice president at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.”
Why Arts Coverage Is Essential For Newspapers
It is a mistake for newspapers “to do away with such things as book review sections and Sunday magazines. Our core audience is educated, well-informed, curious and generally smarter than we are – about more than a few things. Essays about books and ideas, reviews of film, theater, art and television – these are far more important for newspapers today than they ever were in the past. A great city newspaper functions as a sort of community memory and mind; it ought to capture a view of the nation and the world that is distinct, rooted in place, style, local tradition and history.”
Why We Have Deja Vu
“A new study suggests only a small chunk of the brain, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for ‘episodic’ memories–information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart.
Déjà vu is a memory problem, occurring when our brains struggle to tell the difference between two extremely similar situations. As people age, déjà -vu-like confusion happens more often–and it also happens in people suffering from brain diseases like Alzheimer’s.”