Apparently, it’s not enough to have produced the best-selling children’s book series of all time. The good folks at Scholastic, American publisher of the Harry Potter books, are launching a new ad campaign designed to draw adults of all demographics into the Hogwartian fold. A new series of print ads aimed at the 18-35 set, and specifically focusing on such voracious consumers of literature as bikers and skate punks, will begin running in select magazines this fall.
Tag: 09.26.03
The Soldier Field Debate: Monstrosity or Magnificent?
As Chicagoans begin to adjust to the new look of historic Soldier Field, home to the football Bears, an intense PR campaign is being waged in an effort to shout down the folks who are calling the renovated stadium an architectural joke. But somehow, even the best slogans and outreach efforts fizzle somewhat when the public gets another up-close look at what one Chicago critic has dubbed “the eyesore on Lake Shore.”
Shakespeare Hits The Road
This year, the National Endowment for the Arts is promoting an unprecedented 15-month, 100-city tour of Shakespearean drama. The idea for the tour came from former NEA chairman Michael Hammond, and was brought to fruition by the NEA’s current bundle of energy, Dana Gioia. According to Gioia, “the NEA is hoping to ‘revive the tradition of touring theater, which has been in jeopardy.’ By making connections between touring companies and local presenters, he says, ‘we’re creating a circuit that I hope these companies can go back to.'”
Building A Firm Foundation In Louisville
When the Louisville Orchestra was in danger of folding this past summer, the orchestra’s board claimed that it simply couldn’t raise enough money to pay its operating costs. Three months later, the ensemble is back on track, and money is rolling in from a group of local developers who have pledged to lead the way in making the orchestra fiscally secure. The Home Builders Association of Louisville has already raised more than $400,000 on a $465,000 pledge, and they say they won’t stop there.
Theaters Get Compliant
“Half the theaters on Broadway, including some of its most famous stages, will become fully accessible to disabled people under an agreement announced Thursday between the landlord and the government. Work on the 16 landmark theaters operated by the Shubert Organization is to be finished by year’s end. The organization has spent $5 million over several years to improve wheelchair seating areas, restrooms, entrances, exits, ticket windows, concession areas and drinking fountains. But legalities formally bringing the theaters into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act were completed only this week.”
The Gates Of Venice
Experts are coming to agreement that the only way to save Venice from flooding is to build large gates to keep high water out of Venice’s lagoon. “The nearly €3 billion ($3.4 billion) scheme will comprise about 80 hollow gates embedded in the seabed at the three inlets to Venice’s lagoon. When not needed, the gates will rest on the seabed, full of water. But when high tides threaten the city, compressed air will force water out of the gates. This will cause them to rise and act as a barrier to water trying to enter the lagoon. Will the gates justify their large cost?”
Revisionist Soviet Cultural History
In the old Soviet Union, “culture was a matter for the central committee and the Politburo. What kind of modern art should be allowed? Was jazz decadent? Which foreign plays should be staged? Even to pose these questions was all but unimaginable in the West; yet they were matters of state in the East. When Nikita Khrushchev, in a moment of notorious philistinism, denounced abstract modern painting during a visit to the Manezh gallery in Moscow in 1962, it changed the future course of Soviet art, breaking countless careers in the process. What Richard Nixon, LBJ or Harold Macmillan may—or may not—have thought about modern art was hardly a scratch on the canvas.”
London’s National Theatre Goes Young(er)
At the beginning of last season the National Theatre’s Nicholas Hytner lowered ticket prices in an attempt to draw younger audiences. It worked. “It represents a triumph for Nicholas Hytner, the National’s artistic director, who gambled on filling the giant Olivier auditorium with audiences for edgier plays, if ticket prices could be reduced. Two-thirds of the thousands who flocked to see the musical skit based on the American television show were under 35, and they all came at full price. Nearly half had never been to the National before. “
Celebrating Tape
“Forty years ago this month, Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, and our relationship with music has never been quite the same since. Portable, cheap and relatively robust, the new format was an instant success. By the early 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes: LPs, concerts, tunes from the radio. “
Blues For “The Blues”
Mike Figgis’ “The Blues” series for PBS chronicles an important shift in audience, then ignores it. “The accretion of whites in Mr. Figgis’s film reflects both the majority of the public-television viewership as well as the largest audience for the blues these days. The London blues-rock stars who heard the music as teens in the 1950’s and 60’s — like Eric Clapton and Eric Burdon, who are both featured in Mr. Figgis’s film — exposed it to the rest of the record-buying world: suburban kids who now keep it alive. It’s a sad fact that ‘The Blues,’ devoted to the cumulative power of a cultural phenomenon, tends to ignore the racial shift in the music’s fans. Such a lack is like overlooking a roasted tree stump that was rocked by lightning.”