ArtsJournal

Archives for March 2, 2014

Being Elaine Stritch

PEOPLE Posted:

“One of her close friends — a friend! — calls Elaine Stritch ‘a Molotov cocktail of madness, sincerity, and genius.’ And now she’s the subject of an up-close and sometimes glaringly personal new documentary.”

How Brazilian Funk Left The Favellas And Moved Into The Mainstream

MUSIC Posted:

“Funk’s newfound popularity is fueled by listeners from a generation that has undergone the biggest class shift in Brazil’s history: tens of millions of people moving out of poverty to form a new middle class. If economic empowerment has given this new class a voice, funk has given many of its members something to sing.”

How The Oscars Logistics Work

MEDIA Posted:

“How those envelopes end up in those briefcases, how the ballots are counted, how they get transported to the ceremony via not just one clandestine route but two different routes — it’s all part of a security system so impregnable, not even the NSA could hack it.”

Will The Visual Effects Picket At The Oscars Accomplish Anything?

ISSUES Posted:

“It all comes down to foreign tax incentives, says David S. Cohen, who covers the special effects beat for Variety. Cohen says California cannot compete with the lavish subsidies studios get from Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. He says other places can offer about 10 percent to even more than 50 percent back on the labor costs for visual effects.”

Do The Oscars Mean Anything At All? [AUDIO]

MEDIA Posted:

Bob Mondello: “I don’t think they mean anything. And it drives me nuts they’re taken so seriously. Let me give you an example. In 1952, the picture that won best picture was ‘Greatest Show on Earth,’ the circus movie. ‘Singing in the Rain’ was not nominated. What kind of sense does that make?”

Are You Betting On The Oscars?

MEDIA Posted:

“‘It’s by far the biggest non-sports occasion for us,’ says Kevin Bradley, sports book manager for Bovada, a sports betting site licensed in Canada. Bradley puts his site’s Oscar wagering in the ‘healthy’ six-figure range, adding that a lot of money comes from Hollywood.”

Amazon Can Bury Your Novel, Unless You Pay Up

WORDS Posted:

“I don’t know if my publisher, Little, Brown, has given Amazon a white envelope thick with green bills, but in recent weeks my novel has distanced itself from Sweet Valley High (‘What do you mean you broke up with Scott!’). Now, whenever you search for the book, you’ll find its company more appropriate.”