Now September 2008

September

monday, september 01
Watch
Sid the Science Kid
New York

When Jim Henson created the Muppets for Sesame Street in 1969, there was almost no kiddie-TV market. Now, as the late Muppeteer's firm launches this new PBS series, there's plenty of competition -- more than 50 tot-targeted shows -- and lots of lucre: Dade Hayes, author of Anytime Playdate: Inside the Preschool Entertainment Boom, estimates the biz is worth $21 billion. Sid's scientific focus is a gamble that the hyperachieving parents bankrolling this niche prefer educational shows. After all, how will your kid get into an elite kindergarten if she can't explain why bananas turn brown? -- Ellen Gibson

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friday, september 05
Model
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
New York

Outrageous extravagance is so last year. This spring 2009 showcase should reflect some tightening of those alligator belts. "Buyers are responding to items that are good value as well as strong in design," says luxury-fashion consultant Robert Burke, who expects styles that can see consumers through more than one season. But the hues on the runways won't be as dark as the economic outlook; he predicts a palette of bright, mood- lifting colors. -- Theunis Bates

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saturday, september 06
Applaud
The 60th Emmy Awards
Los Angeles

Emmy's turning 60, but don't expect celebration from the struggling broadcast networks. The Feeble Four rotate the telecast rights each year, an arrangement increasingly akin to a game of hot potato. Last year, the show garnered its lowest ratings ever among the 18-to-49 demographic so crucial to ad sales. This year, things look even worse, thanks partly to a strike-truncated season. Ironically, cable -- and not just HBO -- may save the day for host ABC. Big-category buzz for cable shows such as AMC's Mad Men might draw the younger viewers who watch them, if just for one night. -- Chip McCorkle

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saturday, september 06
Run
The 13th Paralympic Summer Games
Beijing

No matter which country racks up the most medals at the Paralympics, Iceland will be celebrating. It's home to Ossur, the prosthetics titan behind the Cheetah Flex-Foot. Amputee athletes wearing the J-shaped carbon-fiber feet won every sprinting medal in Athens in 2004. Ossur expects another bumper haul in Beijing. About 90% of amputee sprinters in the Paralympics use Cheetahs, including South African runner and defending champ Oscar Pistorius (pictured below), who also competes against able-bodied athletes and successfully fought a ruling by the international track federation that the Cheetahs were performance enhancing. "Ossur is not in the business of enhancement," says CEO Jon Sigurdsson, who argues the athletes are improving prosthetics -- testing technology that will eventually aid nonathletes -- not the other way around. "These athletes are the equivalent of racing drivers for car manufacturers." -- TB

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sunday, september 07
Drink
Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference
Edinburgh, Scotland

Over the past year, soaring energy and grain prices have shaken distillers like a 007 martini. Still, talk at this four-day liquor summit should be merry enough, thanks to the booming demand for high-end spirits. U.S. sales of superpremium vodkas, such as Grey Goose, jumped 14.2% in 2007, while top-shelf single-malt scotch climbed 12%. Explains conference chair Paul Hughes: "Life is too short to drink cheap booze." -- TB

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sunday, september 07
Applaud
The last Broadway performance of Rent
New York

Rent's Broadway run = 12 years x 525,600 minutes. But even after 5,000 performances and ticket sales of more than $270 million, it seems, to borrow a line from the show, "the story never ends." Rent's last performance will be recorded and shown in movie theaters across the U.S. Interesting idea... . Wait, wasn't there a movie a couple of years back about NYC bohemian life? Flopped at the box office? What was it called? Oh, right. Rent. -- Jeff Chu

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