The vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Alison Richard, has warned that the UK is in danger of losing its standing as a world leader for university education within a decade.
Tag: 07.05.07
Is Banksy Britain’s Best Artist?
“A poll of 18- to 25-year-olds recently named him an ‘arts hero’ in third place behind Walt Disney and Peter Kay, and ahead of Leonardo da Vinci. The cult of Banksy is a broad church, ranging from millionaire bankers splashing out on ‘street sculpture’ to young book buyers radicalised by Iraq.”
Using OJ’s Book Against Him
“OJ Simpson’s controversial account of how he would have killed his wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman is finally to be published, following a court order issued last month. But the proposed publication will not benefit Simpson, his family or any of those involved in the original, aborted project.”
Mob Hit On The American Novel?
“Has Tony Soprano whacked the American novel? This question is not as facetious as it might at first seem. Novelists from Norman Mailer to Gary Shteyngart have described the show – which as yet does not exist between two covers – as a Great American Novel, and for good reason. Spread across nearly 100 hours of viewing time, The Sopranos developed characters to a degree unparalleled in American television.”
Baltic Center Staff Revolt
“The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, the £46 million complex hailed as the North’s answer to Tate Modern at its opening five years ago, is in turmoil with its director facing a motion of no confidence from his staff.”
British Museum To Build Big New Exhibit Center
The museum says it needs the space to show the biggest exhibitions. “It has already had to turn down the chance to show 130 spectacular treasures – the largest collection of Tutankhamun artefacts assembled in the West, which will instead be exhibited in the O2 , formerly the Dome, in Greenwich, southeast London. It is now drawing up ambitious plans to construct a centre at the back of its historic building.”
BBC Warns: More Repeats
“Repeat programming will have to increase on the BBC as a consequence of a below-inflation licence-fee settlement, the corporation’s bosses said yesterday.”
Ovation Arts Channel Starts Over
The ten-year-old US arts channel Ovation has relaunched. “Defying the conventional view of culture on TV as stuffy and obsessed with ‘plummy British accents,’ Ovation has assembled an eclectic array of performances, films, documentaries and more of both the fine arts and mainstream popular fare.”
Hollywood’s Summer Blues
This summer was supposed to generate record box office for the movies. But “in fact, attendance is running behind last summer’s and has even fallen below that of summer 2005, a year of box-office duds that had some analysts predicting audiences were abandoning movie houses in favor of home theaters and other entertainment options. With studios offering a stronger late-season lineup than normal this year, attendance likely will pick up and lift Hollywood to a respectable summer. Still, early forecasts that Hollywood would have its first $4 billion summer now look like wishful thinking.”
New Ad Ratings Roil Market
A new ad ratings program has changed the TV ad buying market. “Advertisers paid extra to have ad buys based on the new ratings service. They did so on the broadcast side and would do so on the cable side if the currency is adopted there as well, sellers said. Audiences for ads in prime time are about 5 percent smaller on average across the major broadcast networks than the audiences for the programs, according to Nielsen Media Research.”