“Who knew the director of Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom and Hairspray was such a nut about the holidays? Filmmaker John Waters reads an excerpt from his essay, “Why I Love Christmas” and explains why it’s essential to send holiday cards and how to escape post-Christmas depression.”
Tag: 12.24.08
Jazzman Page Cavanaugh, 86
“Page Cavanaugh, a veteran pianist-singer whose trio was a popular nightclub and recording group in the late 1940s and ’50s and who became one of Southern California’s most enduring lounge jazz artists, has died. He was 86.”
San Francisco Opera Just Breaks Even
“The San Francisco Opera finished its 2007-08 fiscal year with a tiny surplus of $141,377 on an annual operating budget of $72,531,193… ‘We got out of there with our pants on,’ said General Director David Gockley… ‘We were able to cut $1.2 million in expenses, and ticket sales for the fall were only about $100,000 below projections.'”
Study: Longtail Theory Doesn’t Work For Music
“The idea that niche markets were the key to the future for internet sellers was described as one of the most important economic models of the 21st century when it was spelt out by Chris Anderson in his book The Long Tail in 2006.” A new study reports “that for the online singles market, 80 per cent of all revenue came from about 52,000 tracks. For albums, the figures were even more stark: of the 1.23million available, only 173,000 were ever bought, meaning 85 per cent did not sell a single copy all year.”
Great Year For Australian Museums
“The big names in painting – Picasso, Monet and Degas – have helped push attendances at our major galleries to more than 2.5 million visitors. And attendance figures are tipped to improve even as the economy takes a dive.”
Christopher Knight: MoCA’s Leadership Issue
“One point, however, made me wince. The agreement stipulates annual trustee dues at a minimum of $75,000 — effectively putting MOCA’s board off limits to all but the wealthy. That’s foolish. Lots of people, such as scholars or community organizers, can make profound contributions to a board. Why exclude them if they don’t happen to be rich?”
Paris Architecture Bumps Up
For years, architecture in France has been stuck in a time warp. It’s odd. France is so provocative in so many fields, so open to other cultures, yet in architecture it’s seemed trapped.
Europe’s Massive Digital Library Goes Onlline Again
Europeana brings together more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films. But it crashed soon after launching last month after 10 million hits an hour overwhelomed servers. “The website’s server capacity has been quadrupled to cope with demand. But the homepage – at www.europeana.eu – warns that “the user experience may not be optimal in this test phase”.
From The Makers Of Stomp, A Harry Partch Show
The Lost and Found Orchestra has a bigger cast than its popular, percussive predecessor, and more pitches as well (if not a whole lot of actual melody). But, like Stomp, the new show combines homemade instruments (made from traffic cones, filing cabinet drawers, woks and such) with finely synchronized movement to make grunge into high spectacle.