ART: "Health Warning: The contents of this exhibition may cause shock, nausea, temporary confusion, panic, euphoria or anxiety. If you suffer from high blood pressure, a nervous disorder or heart palpitations, you should consult your doctor before viewing this exhibition." So reads the ad in Oct. issue of Christie's the auction mag. for the "Young British Artists From the Saatchi Collection" exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. You've probably heard about it. Some good art, most of it trendy junk, and some of it infuriating to big city Mayors who want to limit funding. Musea wouldn't have this problem - no government funding. But we would gladly encourage any and all opinions of the show good or bad. And what's a real shocker is that Brits are shocking us!
RADIO: Hicks sells out again. Local radio ruiner, Tom Hicks has sold Dallas based AMFM inc. to Clear Channel Communications for 23.5 bill $$$, thus making Clear the largest radio and outdoor billboard co. with 830 stations, that'll reach 100 mill +, and 425 thousand billboards (to promote those corp. art stations). The FCC is rumored to have asked "how high should they jump." Hicks, while at the helm had a record of continued bad, ad driven, fire everyone in site, mentality that left a legacy of incredibly confused leadership, broken up stations, weasely new formats, and poor stock performance. Eight stations are in D/FW, where we continue to have the worst radio in the world/universe. (K. Yung. DMN)
MEDIA: D/FW is getting an alt. to The Dallas Observer and The Met with the new weekly, D/FW Icon, first issue due out Oct. 27. In an e-mail to Musea from Senior editor Curtis Martin, he says, "Obviously we are entering a crowded market and having more interesting content than them is the only way that we will survive (that's what I think anyway)." We agree and support the added competition. One point in the Icon's favor is that Musea columnist Robert W. Howington will be writing the TV section. Now that alone will energize the new kid on the block. All our best Curtis.
HALF OF YOU ARE WIRED RIGHT NOW DEPT. According to Compuserve 49.6% of D/FW is wired to the Internet. We came in 6th of the top 10: Washington D.C. 59.9%/San Francisco 56%/Austin 55.5%/Seattle-Tacoma 53.5%/Salt Lake City 50%. Behind D/FW were Denver,Houston, LA, and Norfolk-Newport. And if you want to be on the MUSEA E-MAIL LIST and get 2 or 3 e-mails a month about any and all things cool, send us your address. P.S. Webmaster Donna has a new look to our site, and it is chock full of Musea info, some you've never even seen in print at http://Musea.digitalchainsaw.com. Cool is as cool does!
CAMP CHAMPS this month are Cisco Systems, the UN, and all those connected with the NetAid rock concerts to fight global poverty. During the 11 hour music marathon at 3 venues, London, NY, and Geneva, the website, www.netaid.org, had 2,385,455 hits. We salute them for centering attention on issues that count and that are outside the morally empty ad-driven world. A very good start to all involved! (Reuters)
WOMEN WORKERS of the world, realize that if you support Corp. Art 10, they aren't supporting you. Disney ,WB, Viacom, and the others may have cutesy products that tug at your heart but when it comes to management a "1998 Broadcasting & Cable survey found NO women heading the top 25 media or television groups, broadcast networks, or major cable programming companies." And remember 10 co. control virtually everything (see list lower left) so when you get 25 deep that's DEEP! (FAIR)
NEED MORE TV ADS? ABC,CBS & FOX are adding more ads this season - about 1 minute per most half hour shows. Here's the new ratio: half hour shows, 21 minutes long, hour shows 44 min. long. (USA Today)
LIT. Half Price Books has opened up a 53,000 foot superstore, the largest in Tx. with over 1/2 million books + music etc. (Ed. note, each year they spend a week talking about how bad it is to ban books. When they do ask them why they ban Musea and won't tell us why) ... They and other used books are part of the website/network of booksellers at Abebooks.com. When Amazon has an order for a non-new book they go here to get it. Check it out. But DON'T FORGET TO SUPPORT INDIE BOOKSTORES. Musea has long claimed they're a dying breed. Now we have the figures: 1,800 of the 5,200 members of the ABA, American Booksellers Association closed due to the chain bookstores. (USA Today)
UPDATE: In last month's Musea we listed what the Corp. Art 9 owned. Jason Cohen, Forbidden Books & Videos, said that Disney should have a checkmark for owning a music co. Seems that some of the most scandalous rap stars are distributed by family favs Disney. Insiders also claim that Disney's Hollywood Records may start promoting it's own preteen stars on ABC Network shows and on its Disney Radio Stations, the stations that played a key role in the success of 'N Sync and Britney Spears. (Variety) Reports by Alden Scott Crow & Musea.