“In some ways, marketing Mr. Brown is as much about saying no as it is about saying yes. The author is catnip for TV news producers, who know viewers are so hungry for information that sharing a mere tidbit will drive up ratings. But the publisher also recognized that overexposure of the author could have killed off that interest.”
Tag: 09.25.09
UNESCO Gets A New Director
“The new director general of Unesco is Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova. Bokova, 57, who is currently the Bulgarian ambassador to France, emerged as the sole opponent to Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, 71, after three rounds of voting saw the other seven candidates withdrawn or eliminated.”
Will Disney Abandon Miramax?
“Miramax has never appeared to be a priority for Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger, nor does it fit his strategy to focus on Disney’s “branded” mass entertainment that can be exploited across the Burbank studio’s various businesses including theme parks, television and consumer products.”
Is 90 Minutes The Ideal Length For A Play?
“In general, 90 minutes can please a lot of people. Technology has helped too. When I saw the Las Vegas ‘Phantom,’ which is about 90 minutes, I was amazed that it seemed to contain almost all the same material found in the three-hour ‘Phantom of the Opera’.”
Vänskä And Minnesota: Four More Years!
In six years as the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director, Osmo Vänskä and his band have garnered so much attention in the US and Europe that fans in the Twin Cities keep worrying about when he’ll be lured away. They can stop fretting for a while: Vänskä has extended his contract through the 2013-14 season.
Orlando Ballet Loses Funding From County
“Orlando Ballet was shut out of funding by Orange County’s cultural-tourism program for the coming year because of a shortage of county grant money. The funds come from tourist-development tax receipts,” i.e., from a sector that has been hit hard by the economic downturn.
Utah Symphony/Opera Names Replacement For Keith Lockhart
Thierry Fischer, a 52-year-old native of Geneva who is currently chief conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan, has succeeded Lockhart as music director of the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, effective immediately.
Survey Names One Hundred Years Of Solitude Most Influential Book
“Gabriel García Márquez’s seminal novel … is the piece of writing that has most shaped world literature over the past 25 years, according to a survey of international writers.” Salman Rushdie made the list for two different titles; one panelist chose Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father.
Jeff Koons, Curator
“For an artist who seems to have been everywhere and done everything for nearly three decades, Mr. Koons is taking a new direction. He is trying his hand as a curator, agreeing to organize an exhibition of the Greek industrialist Dakis Joannou’s contemporary-art collection when it comes to the New Museum [in New York] in February.”
Poets In Glass Houses In Lower Manhattan
After a quarter-century housed first at a high school and later in a Soho loft building, “[o]n Friday, Poets House opens its spacious new home in Battery Park City hard by the Hudson River … Glass walls surround the entryway – in which a Calder mobile floats – and enclose the second-floor exhibition space. … The staircase is wired for sound, so when people pass, a motion sensor might trigger a spoken line from a poet like Robert Frost.”