“Across the Washington area, attendance has flatlined for years, but in the past four years, sales at the Olney have doubled. This sturdy and sometimes aggressive programming might be a bit of a well-kept secret, even though Olney’s affinity for challenge extended to hosting the politically driven Potomac Theatre Project for 10 years, through 2006. The reasons for this lack of attention? History and geography.”
Tag: 08.10.08
Mini-Series Flourish On Cable
“Though they have all but disappeared from broadcast webs, successful minis such as Sci Fi’s Emmy-nominated “Tin Man” — whose premiere was ad-supported cable’s top entertainment telecast among adults 25-54 in more than two years, according to Nielsen Media Research — have cast doubt on reports of the genre’s demise.”
Country Music – It’s Recession-Proof
“Like such durable industries as liquor, fast food and health care, the genre is arguably recession-proof. Sales of country CDs remain strong and the nation’s hottest disc right now is by Sugarland, a country duo that bumped pop/TV supernova Miley Cyrus from the top spot last week as they headed to Minnesota for the annual We Fest in Detroit Lakes.”
Chinese Publishing Takes An Olympic Break
“Chinese publishing is still mostly in the doldrums. Nothing is selling all that well, and no one is bringing out anything new. The situation is a little like that in the United States, where many publishers are reluctant to release anything important this fall until after the presidential election. The great distraction here is the Olympics, of course, and to a certain extent the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake and related disasters in May.”
Gustavo Dudamel: On Being A Great Conductor
“You can learn technique, but a conductor is a leader, a person whom players will follow. You can be the best musician in the world, but the instinct to keep the attention of hundreds of people is impossible to learn. It’s something natural. I think this is the secret of a good conductor.”
The Better We Do, The More Difficult It Is To Innovate
“The frontier of knowledge is becoming very hard to reach, making innovation more difficult and costly, and narrowing the window of opportunity in a prospective innovator’s (limited) life span.”
When The BBC Censored With Abandon
“Everyone was a censor at the BBC in its Golden Days. I recall getting a pile of transcripts of interviews I’d recorded in San Francisco in 1965 with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth et al, in which every few lines the secretary making the transcription broke in with the capitalised observation: ‘THIS IS UNFIT FOR BROADCASTING’.”
Producer Warns: Illegal Music Downloading Will Kill Music Quality
“The question I ask of anyone who abuses copyright, steals tracks and samples or downloads music illegally is, ‘How rubbish do you want your music to be in future?’ Everyone will end up poorer if things carry on this way.”
The Growing Professionaliztion Of Street Theatre
“Street theatre, it turns out, is in rude health. With the revival of circus schools and the burgeoning festival scene, an ever higher calibre of athlete, acrobat and artist is joining the increasingly competitive cobblestone circuit. There is now an annual street-performance world championship, in Dublin in June, as well as a raft of sideshow and modern circus tours; and the recent offspring of street theatre, living sculpture, has blossomed into an eye-popping art form.”
After Only Four Weeks, Batman Now The Third Highest-Grossing Movie Of All Time
“The Dark Knight‘ is the first film since 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to hold onto first place for four consecutive weekends, according to Media By Numbers. The movie may help lift 2008 box-office sales past last year’s record of $9.68 billion.”