At the Frankfurt Book Fair, where cigar smoke hangs heavy in the hotel lobby and no one would think of passing an evening without getting blind drunk, trends are emerging, visible to anyone willing to throw himself fully into the spirit of the thing. Trend #1: Every book released this year must have the word “code” in the title if it expects to have any kind of commercial success. Trend #2: Shrill, ultra-partisan rants masquerading as intellectual treatises are selling like hotcakes to a polarized society eager to make themselves feel better about the world by reading political pablum with which they already agree.
Tag: 10.10.04
BritFilm Finally Off The Ropes
British film has long been a source of derisive humor for many in the UK, with local productions underfunded, underproduced, and overwhelmed by Hollywood’s seemingly endless resources. “Yet unlikely as it may seem, there is currently an unfashionably buoyant air about contemporary British film-making – if not within the industry, then at least as far as audiences are concerned.”
Can Satellite Radio Train Us To Pay For It?
Howard Stern’s jump from traditional radio to satellite service Sirius could mark the moment when subscription radio becomes as indispensable to most consumers as cable TV. Or, it could relegate Stern to the fringes of pop culture and have little effect on over-the-air broadcasters. The truth is, no one knows whether Sirius’s gamble will pay off. “The challenge is to train the audience to pay for what they want to hear, uninterrupted by commercials, in the same way HBO trained us to pay for what we want to see, uninterrupted.”
Will Early Starts And Silent Films Put Butts In The Seats?
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is hoping to fit itself into the busy lives of modern professionals with a new series of concerts aimed at multitasking, sleep-deprived workaholics. The concerts will begin quite early in the evening, and will run no more than 90 minutes, with no intermission. Gone will be the traditional orchestral formalwear, and a host will guide the audience through the program. Another new series will focus on film music, with the CSO providing live accompaniment to a Charlie Chaplin film projected above the stage. It’s all about attracting that elusive new audience that has become the Holy Grail for every American orchestra.
A Brief History Of Supertitles
They’re ubiquitous now, but operatic supertitles are actually only 20 years old, and it’s easy to forget how such a simple invention changed the face of the entire form. Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company was the first to try the idea back in 1983, and the practice spread quickly despite the objections of purists, making even the completely uninitiated able to follow the often convoluted plots unfolding on stage. But a technology that most operagoers take for granted now is far more complicated and accident-prone than most of us realize, and it was only fairly recently that supertitles entered the computer age.
Iraq Torture Photos Being Used As Art
“Five months after they made their first shocking appearance, the Abu Ghraib photographs have become a museum exhibition. Once ubiquitous on television and in newspapers, they now qualify as quasi-aesthetic artifacts, pictures you may choose to seek out – for edification, as a distraction, even… Placing these atrocious pictures in a sleek white room and inviting us to cogitate on their visual properties raises some interesting ethical questions. Why Abu Ghraib but not images of beheadings, which are also on the Web, floating in the digital ether, fragments from the same new photographic universe?”
Truth Is Almost As Strange…
Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick’s classic political satire of the nuclear age, has aged well, and the hilarious yet terrifying premise of the film – that a wacky collection of incompetent statesmen and insane warmongers could destroy the world in a fit of pique – may be the most potent reminder we have of the uncertainty of Cold War reality. But a closer examination of what we now know about the film and its era reveals that it is more than a brilliant work of fiction. “In its own loopy way, the movie is a remarkably fact-based and specific guide to some of the oddest, most secretive chapters of the Cold War.”
Choreographer Without A Company
Eliot Feld is one of the dance world’s stars, and yet, he has been without a company since the Ballet Tech Foundation shut down last year. These days, he’s working with six young dancers in a collaboration that he refuses to call the beginnings of a company, and seems perfectly happy to be working outside the traditional realm of the choreographer.
Return Of The Protest Song
This election year has focused the entertainment industry like nothing since the Vietnam era, and after decades of staying out of such debates, pop musicians have penned a stunning number of protest songs and partisan anthems. From classic rocker John Fogerty to blues man Keb’ ‘Mo to a metal band called Lamb of God, everyone in the music biz seems to be getting political, and a lot of what’s out there is actually good music.
Joffrey: No Ownership Disputes Here
Recent high-profile legal disputes over the ownership of specific dances after the choreographer’s death have many top companies scrambling to insure their hold on the work produced by their employees. At Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, choreographer Gerald Arpino’s advanced age has caused such concerns, but “Arpino and the troupe’s response is unequivocal: The Joffrey Ballet here has the rights to all Arpino and Joffrey ballets ‘in perpetuity.'” The company is also stressing that, while Arpino is not scheduled to retire anytime soon, there is a succession plan in place.