A Small-Business Documentary Sparks Discussion Last night I attended a small-business forum organized by Manhattan's Community Board 4 that addressed the problematic future of New York's small businesses. The meeting was held in conjunction with a screening of Virginie Alvine-Perrette's documentary, "Twilight Becomes Night."
Posted Fri Nov 21, 2008
Recession Fashion The depressing economy may be prompting us to keep our wallets shut, but so far it's doing very little to curb our fashion obsession. Amidst widespread corporate layoffs, our nation elected a new president, and subsequent fashion coverage followed the historic event.
Posted Fri Nov 14, 2008
Can We Laugh at Obama? As the nation transitions from the erratic, divisive Bush-era into the historically momentous presidency of Obama the rhetoritician, some journalists are declaring crisis mode on a flourishing art form: the political satire.
Posted Fri Nov 7, 2008
How the Recession is Impacting Music, Too As the financial crisis ripples beyond Wall Street, the Classical music industry is being affected. Because this cultural segment relies on wealthy donors and audiences for its survival, opera houses and philharmonics are forced to cut back.
Posted Fri Oct 31, 2008
Is Hollywood Benefiting from the Current Recession?
The U.S economy may be in shambles, but for the movie industry, the next two months seem to signal a nice upsurge. Not only does the most universal form of escapist entertainment tend to fare especially well during economic downturns, but the end of October also signals the unofficial peak of the yearly Academy Awards-race.
Posted Fri Oct 24, 2008
Once Again, Oliver Stone Surprises Critics Multiple Oscar-winner Oliver Stone may be adapting new tones as a filmmaker, but he has certainly not lost his ability to surprise those who claim to understand his style and artistic motivations. After the director adapted a shockingly apolitical approach to the events of September 11th and instead turned them into a small-scale tale of survival in World Trade Center, some expected his biopic of George W. Bush to signal a return to the fearless societal criticism that made Stone famous.
Posted Fri Oct 17, 2008
Celebrities Rock the Vote...Do We Still Listen? The idea of comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton may be preposterous, but the Democratic Candidate's status as a full-fledged cultural icon is undeniable. While Che Guevara used to be the most likely political figure to end up on an Urban Outfitters shirt, stylized Obama-graphics now represent the trendiest in T-shirt design. Thanks to Obama's youth-friendly image, catchy rhetoric and comfort with the digital realm, he's the first candidate in decades to authentically appeal to the primary consumers of pop culture.
Posted Fri Oct 3, 2008
Emmys Hit by an Academy Awards-Curse? Last Sunday's Emmy awards, like the night's big winner, Mad Men, failed to attract the desired fan attention; at 12.2 million viewers, the awards show's ratings were the worst since 1990. But unlike the decorated and critically praised AMC series whose viewership has crawled in the 920,000-range since last season, the telecast received almost universally lukewarm responses from critics (USA Today called it "hideously awful").
Posted Fri Sep 26, 2008
'In the Family' Demonstrates Inspired First-Person Filmmaking Earlier this week, I attended the New York premiere of filmmaker Joanna Rudnick's first-person documentary, In the Family, at the Paley Center for Media. Scheduled to run on October 1st on PBS, the film chronicles Rudnick's efforts to explore the psychological effects of a genetic mutation (BRCA) that dramatically increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in its carriers. Rudnick herself was tested positive for the mutation in her mid-20s, making her a central figure in the resulting narrative.
Posted Fri Sep 19, 2008
Spielberg Draws on Rear Window, Gets Slapped with a Lawsuit When Disturbia, the pre-Transformers Shia LaBeouf-vehicle hit theaters last year, most critics made reference to its similarities to Hitchcock's universally hailed Rear Window. Both featured a murderer next door, an intently curious neighbor who sees something not intended for his eyes, and a neighborhood that's slow to catch on to his suspicions. Perhaps most importantly, both feature main characters who are somehow immobilized (one by an injury, the other by an ankle bracelet).
Posted Fri Sep 12, 2008
Complaining in Song I recently paid a visit to the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens that, through the summer, has hosted an exhibit entitled Arctic Hysteria: New Art from Finland. As a native Finn, I generally consider it my patriotic duty to demonstrate interest whenever anything Finnish makes it across the Atlantic, but this time my interest was also fueled by the exhibit's title itself. How would the stubbornly internal, dreamlike madness of the Nordic winter translate in the self-conscious and status-driven city of New York?
Posted Fri Sep 5, 2008
New York's annual Fringe Festival Turns the Spotlight on Independent Theater Off-Off Broadway is the perpetual underdog of New York's arts scene, but to a non-theater aficionado, exploring the wide-spanning thespian scene beyond Broadway can easily feel intimidating--like sitting away from the hipster kids' table. Indie theater projects are seemingly everywhere, from obscure black box theaters to restaurant back rooms and neighborhood parks, but how should an unfamiliar audience member distinguish between a low-budget gem and a failed vanity project?
Posted Fri Aug 15, 2008
Paris Hilton, a Political Force
It's not just Project Runway contestants that hope to get into Young Hollywood's good graces: If The White House Correspondents' Dinner this year was any indication (The Hills' villains Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt were among President Bush's honored guests), the nation's political elite also aims to play nice with reality TV stars, party-prone socialites and other E! Channel regulars.
Posted Fri Aug 8, 2008
A Tale of 'The Hills' MTV's larger-than-reality phenomenon, The Hills, is about to return with its fourth season. Spot-on reflective of this twenty-something generation of self-made celebrity, the show's cultural impact is undeniable--even if many of its fans (including myself) don't claim to even find its cast of characters particularly loveable.
Posted Fri Aug 1, 2008
What Gotham City Says About Us Two polar ends of the glitzy blockbuster--Sex And The City and The Dark Knight--have been entrusted with quite a bit of cultural weight this summer. While one has been mocked for advocating materialism in the face of recession and the other hailed as the pinnacle of an oversaturated genre, both have sent millions to the multiplex and fueled a rhetorical storm on the web.
Posted Fri Jul 25, 2008
Meet The Real Craig Stevens In early March, thousands of Youtube-surfing Broadway aficionados discovered Craig Stevens, a recent college graduate from Tennessee who, shortly after the new year, had followed his theatrical aspirations to New York.
Posted Fri Jul 18, 2008
'Title of Show' Opens on Broadway Almost three months ago I interviewed writer-singer-actor Jeff Bowen, whose musical about the making of a musical, Title of Show, was picked up for a Broadway run (see my post here.). Much of his and co-writer Hunter Bell's success, Bowen told me, was due to the pair's self-made marketing campaign on Youtube.
Posted Wed Jul 16, 2008
Theaters Prepare for 'Dark Knight' Release
The Hollywood blockbuster hero--from a whip-wielding archeologist to a Blahnik-sporting sex columnist--is alive and well. And come next Friday, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is likely to face a dethroning from the top of 2008's box office (over $312 million to date) by late Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker.
Posted Fri Jul 11, 2008
In Finland, the Accordion is Still Cool
I'm currently on a short vacation in my home country of Finland, and
even through the relative isolation of a television set at my parents'
summer cottage, have been reminded of the country's famed musical
heritage. Last night's television news depicted Tuska-Festival,
an annual gathering of metal bands in Helsinki, while the night before,
the nation's cultural headlines focused on--yes--accordions.
Posted Sat Jun 28, 2008
