“Has racial conflict become amusement? Is the conversation about racism mere entertainment, dialogue rendered for show, inflammatory words tossed back and forth over a racial divide to excite an audience?”
Tag: 11.11.07
Sex Up The Opera (Think It’ll Work?)
“It seems only logical that orchestras and opera companies, desperate to attract young ticket buyers flush with cash and hormones, should resort to the sexual sell. Now the mating game has been taken up by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which last week inaugurated a series of exploratory evenings, entitled Connect at the Met, for singles.”
The “Up-Market” Movie Experience?
“Will audiences take to the concept of paying up to $15 for an upmarket moviegoing experience? You pay three extra bucks or so for the “V.I.P” seating and you get free popcorn, and extra-extra-wide seats.”
Norman Mailer – Writer As Pugilist
“In an age when authors inspire mostly indifference, Mailer evoked hostility and passion. Trailing in his wake were dozens of books, nine kids, six wives, two Pulitzer Prizes, one run for New York mayor and countless feuds.”
$100 Theatre Tickets Come To Hartford
“We’re following New York on this. Producers are saying if scalpers are going to scalp our tickets why don’t we take the best seats and scalp our own. In fact, we’re beginning to hear stories of these [Bushnell] $100 tickets selling on the open market for more than $100,”
How Technology Ruins Debate (And Restores It)
“Mass media, the communications technology that became supreme in the 20th century, has ruined debates. Today’s mass media, reflecting a cultural short attention span, elevates shallowness. But technology can also help restore the debate.”
A New Model For Signing Bands?
It’s “one in which artists share not just revenue from their album sales but concert, merchandise and other earnings with their label in exchange for more comprehensive career support. If the concept takes hold, it will alter not only the way music companies make money but the way new talent is groomed, and perhaps even the kind of acts that are offered contracts in the first place.”
Where Are The Women Conductors?
“Women have attained prominence in almost every other area of classical music. Accomplished female instrumentalists are everywhere in American orchestras. Most conservatories and college music departments report that roughly half of composition students these days are women. Yet where are female conductors at important orchestras and opera companies?”
Book Bluffing
It seems hard to believe that a book called “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” would hit the best-seller lists in France, where books are still regarded as sacred objects and the writer occupies a social position somewhere between the priest and the rock star.
Remembering Norman Mailer
He wanted to “alter the nerves and marrow” of the nation with his work, to “change the consciousness” of his times. He wanted to write the Big Book, the Great American Novel. He wanted to hit the longest long ball of them all.