We have 2 months of art & media news to tell you so let's get started. Reports gathered here (and in Art Surfin') by Musea & Alden Scott Crow.
THEATER: BROADWAY TICKET SCAM. "The public has virtually no shot at buying good seats at face value no matter how long they wait in line or how many times they call" said New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer. In a 60 page report he declared that the Broadway ticketing industry is 'rife with corruption and bribery'. He issued over 200 subpoenas, plus a report to the state legislature. Included were recommendations to clean up 'ice' bribes paid by brokers to ticket agents and venue managers to secure choice Broadway seats for resale . (Variety)
TV: GE PULLS THE PLUG: NBC owners didn't like SNL's cartoon, by Robert Smigel, called Conspiracy Theory Rock. It called attention to the fact that the media was in too few hands and too often biased to protect their parent co. We saluted it and gave Smigel our Camp Champ award. GE cut it from SNL repeats of the April 1998 show. Kinda proves the point doesn't it? (Free Speech. Org)
MEDIA ON PATROL: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it's a violation of the 4th amendment, privacy rights, of homeowners when the media accompany the police in the execution of a warrant in that home. The police have the right to enter. The media does not. Chief Justice William Rehnquist said, "the reporters do not engage in the execution of the warrant nor assist the police in their task. (Reuters) We applaud the decision.
SONGWRITERS OUCH! If you , like Hunkasaurus, compose your own music: The copyright office has raised its fees. Registration fee will jump from $20 to $30 PER SONG. They wanted $45. Musea thinks anyone should be able to copyright their music for FREE . (Playback/ASCAP) TV: In a surprise announcement near the end of Conan O'Brien's show, Wed. Aug. 11, sidekick Andy Richter said he's leaving the show in 9 months. I thought it was a gag. Not so. (Andy is the funny one.)
CAMP CHAMP #1 We applaud the work of Bono, African singer Youssou N'Dour, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, the Archbishop of Cologne, Bob Geldof, and others who formed a human chain in Cologne to protest to the G7 nations, for the abolition of Third World debt. The G7 did agree to cancel $70 Billion of loans but protesters said that was only 1/3 of the total debt owned. (Reuters) We salute the protesters.
ART THEFTS: Mexican police caught the leaders of a trafficking ring with 652 Mayan artworks. It's the largest arrest of illegal traders of pre-Columbian art. In related news the Canadian Gov. returned to Syria, 39 ancient mosaics seized by customs officials. Some are 1,500 years old. They came from Syrian monastic complexes. In Beijing a farmer from Hebei province stole and accidentally broke a Buddha statue from A.D. 499. He was condemned to death by authorities. ArtNews 5/99)
MUSIC PUBLISHING: One of the last indie music publishers has been bought by one of the "Big 5" the 5 corps that own all the music. EMI paid $200 mill for the 40,000 song collection of Windswept Pacific. It includes such 50's & 60's classic songs as:
MEDIA & PUB.: CHUMP OF THE MONTH, is Warners
(owner of Time Mag and Warner Pix). Reader, Melanie Pruit writes: Of course any movie starring ...Cruise & ...Kidman, directed by ...Kubrick... is newsworthy,... but when the nominally respected ... Time Magazine features Cruise & Kidman on the cover, it's less news than blatant self promotion on the part of Time-Warners... worse the article is merely a tease ending with coy suggestion that Mr. & Mrs. Cruise may, or may not, actually engage in sex before the camera...
ARCHITECTURE OF THE CENTURY. More than 400 construction officials have named the top 10 building achievements of the 20th century. They are:1. The Channel Tunnel between Dover and Calais 2. The Golden Gate Bridge, 3. The U.S. Interstate Highway System, 4. The Empire State Building, 5. Hoover Dam 6. The Panama Canal. 7 Sydney Opera House, 8 Aswan High Dam, Egypt, 9. The World Trade Center, and 10 Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong.
IN HOUSE PUBLISHING: Borders now has a machine that Musea has advocated in the past. It makes books on demand. If a customer wants a book that the store doesn't carry, and that is in the machines database, then Borders can download a digital file of the book to 2 printers at the store - one does the cover, the other the text. Then the book is assembled in a binding machine. Musea applauds the tech. but it's in the wrong hands. This database should be filled with Zines and Chapbooks! What a weapon for the art revolution! (MSNBC)
FILM: 4 movie houses were selected to show The Phantom Menace not with reels of film but with projectors that convert digital signals to film like images. This is the future folks. Advantages: the film can be sent to theaters on disk or broadcast to them via satellite then stored on a hard drive. Also digital images can't be scratched. (Newsweek)
DEADLY AMUSEMENT: In March 99 a woman was killed and 10 people injured at Six Flags in Arlington when a raft carrying 12 flipped over on the Roaring Rapids ride. A 2nd accident on a similar ride in August at Riverside Park in Agwam Mass, hospitalized 2 adults and 2 kids. In both cases strapped in riders were overturned into water and unable to get out. Parent company, Premier Parks ordered all raft type rides CLOSED at all parks after the 2nd accident. (Arlington Morning News)
TOY PROFITS ARE US. Did you see this legal notice on a proposed settlement of lawsuits alleging that toy retailer Toys'R Us. Inc. conspired with toy manufacturers Hasbro, Mattel, The Little Tykes Co, Sega of America, Huffy, Binney & Smith, Lego, etc.
to limit the types of toys supplied to warehouse clubs. 46 states are in on it. And you can too if you bought toys between 1/1/89 - 5/13/99 @ www.toysettlement.com. Musea says 'What a bunch of crooks! Shame on all of you! (Parade Magazine)
DEADLY TV: According to the Academy of Pediatrics: No children under 2 should watch ANY tv. Older kids should not have tv's or computers in their room. Kids & teens should be interacting with human beings not screens. Toddlers need direct interaction with parents for healthy brain growth and the development of social, emotional, and cognitive skills. It also interferes with the physical health of young people who don't get enough exercise, etc.
(CompuServe )
CAMP CHAMP #2 Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy is fighting the Big 5 by allowing his records to be sold directly to the public on the internet at about $8, half of what the Big 5 charge. "The downloadable aspect that we are presenting here for $8 once again backs up my theory of providing consumers with options they've never had before." Chuck D is a true art revolutionary and our CAMP CHAMP. We salute! (Reuters)