“Overall videogame sales totaled $614 million in September, down 6% from the same period last year, while sales through the first nine months of the year totaled $4.9 billion, down 8% from a year earlier, according to NPD Group.”
Tag: 10.24.10
Why Does Hollywood Hate Big Business?
“Yes, why does Hollywood hate what it essentially is? Well, the answer is that Hollywood is really two businesses in one: It’s a profit-obsessed industry but it’s also a dream factory.”
Is The Web The New Art-House Cinema?
“With individual print costs of up to $4,000 for a European subtitled film, and publicity costs running much higher, it’s just not profitable to screen these niche films in many theatres.”
What Happened To The Books You Had To Read?
“I was lucky: I lived through a time when it was great to read. There were so many books that you just had to read, which would have been read by everyone you knew. Not merely read, though, but digested and discussed.”
Free TV On The Web? Don’t Count On It Much Longer
“Broadcasters took a big step toward eliminating free TV shows on the Web after they blocked access to their programming online this month to enforce their demands to be paid.”
After That First Career, Coming Back To The Arts
“Many people who take up artistic pursuits after retiring from their primary careers talk about rediscovering feelings they haven’t experienced in years–or finding something inside themselves that they never knew existed. Their newfound avocations often evoke an interest they explored in their youth.”
Nearly Two Decades Later, “Angels In America” Confirms Its Place As A Masterpiece
“By now there have been hundreds of professional productions worldwide. But the reach of “Angels” into the heartland came with furious protest at first.”
Google Tries Its Hand At Translating Poetry (Oh My)
“What’s clever here is that Google is doing this on a statistical, rather than a rule-based, basis – which I understand to mean that, like a flesh-and-blood poet, the machine is trying out lines to see which fit best.”
On The Shelf – When Movies Wait Around To Be Seen
Completed movies “can linger for months, even years, trapped by marketing disagreements, creative clashes, executive shuffles, money shortfalls or the judgment that they are such surefire flops that it makes no sense to throw good money after bad and distribute them.”
Australia’s Small-Market Orchestras @ Disadvantage
“In Sydney, senior players earn $121,000 compared with $75,000 for the equivalent role in Adelaide. The wage disparity in Adelaide is even more distinct at the Tasmanian, Queensland and WA symphony orchestras. But the problem is tickets to symphony orchestras nationwide are already subsidised to the tune of $137 each, so the ASO players’ demands are finding few fans beyond the Adelaide Hills.”