For 12 years a lawsuit has dragged on about who owns the rights to merchandising Winnie the Pooh. For Disney, which has been selling Pooh stuff for years, the stakes are huge. “The company earns about a billion dollars a year in Pooh-related revenues, and if the Slesingers win the case Disney estimates that it may be liable for several hundred million dollars.”
Tag: 12.16.03
The Power Of Images To Tell Stories
After a weekend of staring at images of the humiliated Saddam Hussein, Philip Kennicott ponders the power of images to change how we feel about something. “Images that emerge from photo ops unravel because people tug on the loose threads of their constructedness. His capture, without a fight, no doubt has extraordinary power for the Iraqis who hate him. But the great leader brought low is a more complex image than has yet to be acknowledged.”
Jazz Critic Giddins Leaves Voice
Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins is leaving the Voice after 30 years. “I don’t like writing short, and it’s time. In jazz, time is all. I’m as besotted with jazz as ever, and expect to write about it till last call, albeit in other formats. Indeed, much in the way being hanged is said to focus the mind, this finale has made me conscious of the columns I never wrote.” Maybe in a blog on ArtJournal?
Hentoff: Why Aren’t American Librarians Protesting Abuse Of Cuban Librarians?
“While American librarians — whom John Ashcroft calls “hysterics”—deserve credit for being on the front line against this secret fishing for subversives, none have been threatened with prison time by Ashcroft. But 10 librarians in Cuba have been put away for 20 years and more for not going along with Castro’s endless Banned Books weeks.” So why aren’t American librarians protesting that?
Of Rings, Wagner and Tolkien
Lord of the Rings certainly has a Wagnerian feel, writes Alex Ross. And not just because rings are at the center of the two epics. “Tolkien refused to admit that his ring had anything to do with Wagner’s. ‘Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceased,’ he said. But he certainly knew his Wagner, and made an informal study of ‘Die Walküre’ not long before writing the novels. The idea of the omnipotent ring must have come directly from Wagner; nothing quite like it appears in the old sagas.”
WTC Tower Design Compromise
A compromise on the design for the design of the new tower at the World Trade center site has been reached, reports the New York Daily News. “Top aides to Gov. Pataki helped push Daniel Libeskind, whose master plan for Ground Zero was picked earlier this year, and architect David Childs, who works for developer Larry Silverstein, into an agreement.”
The Land Where Music Is Banned
“A public ban on music has gradually taken effect in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, after a radical alliance of right-wing religious parties swept to power in local elections last year. Music and film stores have closed, musicians have been harassed and vigilantes routinely tear down posters and torch tapes, decrying them as un-Islamic.”
Carmen In Seville (For Real)
A production of Bizet’s “Carmen” is going to be staged on the streets of Seville, where the opera is set. “Thousands of spectators will be invited to follow the tale of doomed love as it is played out around city landmarks. Spanish film-maker Carlos Saura will direct only 10 performances as part of the city’s international music festival starting in September.”
NY Subway Musicians Go To Korea
New York subway musicians are a constan presence underground. One entrepreneur thought they would be a hit in the Seoul subway, which doesn’t have performers. So she rounded up some players and flew them to Korea. “They were featured on Korean talk shows and news shows, and their faces were all over the papers. And the buzz only increased as the days passed. On the day of their second performance, the musicians arrived at GangNam station to find several hundred people sitting quietly on the floor, some with their own mats, waiting for the music to start. By the time the trip ended two weeks later, the five musicians were the toast of the town, featured in just about every newspaper, magazine and TV show of note.”
Restoring Baghdad’s Culture
“Baghdad may once have rivaled Rome as a symbol of urban splendor, but most of its historic landmarks are gone. Many of the uniform beige subdivisions and drab commercial buildings constructed in the last 50 years are crumbling — an apt symbol of the failures of modernization. The city’s ornate palaces are painful reminders of the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein, who is now in American captivity. Coping with this architectural and cultural loss is clearly beyond the scope of responsibility of the U.S. occupying authority.”