“Here is how it used to work: aspiring filmmakers playing the cool auteur in hopes of attracting the eye of a Hollywood power broker. Here is the new way: filmmakers doing it themselves — paying for their own distribution, marketing films through social networking sites and Twitter blasts, putting their work up free on the Web to build a reputation, cozying up to concierges at luxury hotels in film festival cities to get them to whisper into the right ears.”
Tag: 08.12.09
Can They Still Do This? In Sicily, Church Officials Ban A Production Of Cavalleria
“The plot of Pietro Mascagni’s tragic opera Cavalleria rusticana is ‘immoral’ and unsuitable for performances while the Sicilian city of Caltagirone holds its religious festival, the local church said on Wednesday.”
How The Guggenheim Museum Was (Almost Not) Born
On the 50th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s icon, “not much is made of the fact that [it] almost went unbuilt.” Not only did Robert Moses have to ram the project through New York City’s permit process, but “[a]fter seeing the blueprints, 21 prominent artists signed a petition protesting that the building, especially its curved walls and continuous ramps, would be unsuitable for displaying paintings.” (For the first couple years, they were right.)
The Dopamine Loop: Why We Can’t Stop Seeking Online
“We actually resemble nothing so much as those legendary lab rats that endlessly pressed a lever to give themselves a little electrical jolt to the brain. While we tap, tap away at our search engines, it appears we are stimulating the same system in our brains that scientists accidentally discovered more than 50 years ago when probing rat skulls.”
Puzo’s Godfather, Still Popular 40 Years On — But Why?
“The reasons for its enduring popularity aren’t easy to pin down. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpieces, ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Godfather, Part II,’ brought a swarm of new readers, but the book had already sold millions of copies before the first film was released in 1972. Those who read the novel today in search of a greater appreciation of the movies are bound to be disappointed; it quickly becomes apparent the book’s success isn’t based on literary merit. “
Cleveland Museum Of Art Lays Off 14
“The Cleveland Museum of Art, pressed by a plunge in the value of its endowment, eliminated jobs held by 14 employees on Tuesday and decided to leave another eight positions vacant. The cutbacks will enable the museum to balance budgets in its current fiscal year and in the fiscal year beginning next July, said outgoing director Timothy Rub.”
CTG Wins $1 Million Grant To Develop Experimental Works
“Experimental theater in L.A. is getting a significant financial boost thanks to a $1-million grant to Center Theatre Group’s new play production program from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The three-year grant will be used to develop stage productions with L.A.-based artists that use new technologies and a non-textual approach to performance, said CTG in its announcement Wednesday.”
Never Mind: Emmy Broadcast To Feature All Awards Live After All
“After two weeks of mounting criticism over plans to ‘time-shift’ eight of the Emmy Awards bestowed on the prime-time telecast, the TV academy and CBS have relented. Now all 28 Emmys will be presented live during the Sept. 20 awardscast.”
Kiri Te Kanawa To Retire From Opera Stage (Wait, She Was Still Singing Opera?)
Saying she finds the discipline of full-scale opera “exhausting,” Dame Kiri will sing a cameo as the Duchess of Krakenthorp (usually a spoken comedy role) in Daughter of the Regiment at the Met next February, followed by final performances as Strauss’s Marschallin (a signature role) at the Cologne Opera in April. (She pointedly reminds us, however, that she is continuing her concert work.)
Shuttered Vibe Magazine To Relaunch With Online Focus
“Vibe, the hip-hop magazine that folded six weeks ago under a pile of debt, is being resurrected with a new spin – as a Web-focused publication with a greater emphasis on Vibe‘s roots. … The new owners say they plan to relaunch Vibe.com in the next few weeks. They intend to bring out the print edition only at the end of the year and then publish it quarterly rather than monthly, possibly increasing the frequency after 2010.”