Film production was worth £4.3bn to the country’s economy last year, research released by the UK Film Council has suggests. “This came through tourism, employment and exports, and was up from £3.1bn in 2004, the organisation said.”
Tag: 07.23.07
“Harry” Sells 11 Million Books In First 24 Hours
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US. The previous record for the fastest-selling book was held by the sixth Harry Potter novel, which sold nine million in its first day in 2005.”
Why Book Reviews Matter
“What do we do now when the disappearance of the book reviews from so many papers portends the extinguishing of the critical flame? I would urge you to realize that the disappearance of criticism from our papers is not the cause, but the symptom of vast changes in our cultural ecology.”
Does Radio Hurt Record Sales?
A recent study “compared record sales and music radio listening in some 100 American cities from 1998 to 2003. It found that, very roughly, an hour’s worth of radio listening per person per day, over the course of a year, corresponded with a 0.75 drop in the number of albums purchased per capita in a given city.”
A Conductor With Heart
Robert Bass, 53, has been New York’s Collegiate Chorale music director since 1980. But last year he contracted a rare condition that damaged his heart and almost killed him. After a heart transplant, he’s back performing again…
Should French Museums Be Free?
“At the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and other national museums, where admission costs anywhere from $9 to $12, some two-thirds of all visitors are foreign tourists, as are three-quarters of visitors between the ages of 18 and 25. The new government of President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to alter this profile. With a view to persuading more French people to enjoy art, it is pondering whether to follow the British and Danish examples of allowing free access to the permanent collections of major museums.”
Starchitects And Their Files
A small but influential number of celebrity architects “are considering selling their archives — which can include tens of thousands of objects, from multiple large-scale models and reams of drawings to correspondence and other records — even as they continue to practice.”