“Live shows were once a staple of television. Ditto game shows and shows with sponsor products interwoven into the contents. Now the Spike TV cable channel is bringing all three genres back in one fell swoop. 120 Live, a game show sponsored by the Fusion line of shaving products sold by Gillette, is to appear on Spike six times on Monday and Tuesday. The title derives from the length of the show: two minutes.”
Tag: 12.22.08
How Is Tom Cruise Like Wall Street?
“But note a curious fact about his career: It maps perfectly onto the 25-year bull market in stocks that, like Cruise, is starting to show its age. Nascent in the early ’80s, emergent in 1983, dominant in the ’90s, suspiciously resilient in the ’00s, and, starting in 2005, increasingly prone to alarming meltdowns. For both Cruise and the Dow Jones, more and more leverage is required for less and less performance.”
‘Tortillas Of The Stone Age’
“Fire-cracked rock piles found across North America received little scientific attention for decades, but two new studies reveal… [that for] thousands of years, they were used [by Native Americans] to cook a favorite food staple: smoky, sweet camas bulbs.”
It’s Star Wars – The Musical!
“Not content with seven feature films or myriad TV spinoffs ranging from the current Clone Wars cartoon series to the dreaded Star Wars Holiday Special, the Jedi masterminds are readying a stage show.” Star Wars: A Musical Journey, opening in April at London’s O2 arena, will feature narration by actors, clips from all six films and the Royal Philharmonic playing John Williams’s score.
Atlanta Ballet Regained Its Orchestra – For All The Good It Did
“For two humiliating years, the Atlanta Ballet couldn’t afford an orchestra, and the dance company suffered public scorn, a freeze in artistic quality and a slight erosion in ticket sales. When two donors gave a $250,000 gift in September and brought musicians back to the pit, the arts community cheered. But it had zero effect on tickets.”
Blackpool Woos Victoria & Albert Museum
“The stop-start courting of one of London’s most respected museums by a series of regional suitors has been revived, with discussions about a franchise for the Victoria & Albert on Blackpool seafront.”
MOCA Chooses Broad’s $30M Bailout; Strick Gone, CEO In
“After weeks of conjecture, the board of the financially strapped Museum of Contemporary Art has voted to accept a $30-million bailout offer from billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, a founder and life trustee of the museum and the city’s largest arts patron. In addition, MOCA’s beleaguered director, Jeremy Strick, has resigned and MOCA has appointed UCLA Chancellor Emeritus Charles E. Young as the museum’s first chief executive.”
SAG Pushes Strike-Authorization Vote Back Two Weeks
“Facing growing internal dissent, leaders of the Screen Actors Guild have postponed SAG’s divisive strike authorization vote for two weeks. … The delay comes with the anti-authorization effort gaining traction among SAG members with over 1,400 having publicly declared that they’ll vote against the measure.”
Shakespeare Santa Cruz Raises $415,000, Saves Its Season
“It’s going to be a joyous holiday season at Shakespeare Santa Cruz after all. The week of existential crisis is over at the acclaimed 27-year-old theater company, and for fans of professional theater in the redwoods, the news couldn’t get much better. SSC not only met its university-imposed fundraising goal, it exceeded it by six figures.”
Puccini At 150: He Transcended Opera’s Artifice
“Puccini was not just a guy who wrote a few good, slushy tunes, but a lifelong perfectionist, an innovator, and a man and musician of the modern world. Above all, his sense of dramatic timing is second to none, and he’s able to cut straight to the emotional core of a character.”