Producer and friend John Pinckard is bringing the critically-acclaimed (and one of my favorite shows of all time) Gutenberg, The Musical to The Royal George in Chicago. Having lived in Chicago for so many years, I can’t be more proud for this awesome new musical to make its debut in one of the best theatre cities in the world!
A brand spankin’-new website will launch soon, so check www.gutenbergthemusical.com
See the viral video with Steve Guttenberg:
Last night, I learned about the creative editing process at the Onion, the uber-popular weekly satirical newspaper. Apparently, every Monday, the team comes in with lots and lots and lots of story ideas. If at least 2 people agree the ideas should be published, the story survives until the next day.
If the story is not up to snuff, it is DOA.
Amazingly, the team can look at 600 story ideas to come up with 20 story ideas that will make it into the final newspaper.
That means there’s a 97% failure rate at the Onion.
That statistic is somehow comforting. The Onion encourages failure — lots and lots of failure — in order to come up with story ideas that will make people grab the paper, read it, and give a little chuckle at headlines like …
What!?! The Public is making it possible to get tickets to Shakespeare in the Park online.
The Public Theater is launching the virtual line initiative this summer to increase accessibility to Park shows. While the majority of the tickets will still be given out at the line in Central Park, a limited number of tickets will be available each show day online. The virtual line will allow people who are registered at The Public Theater website to log-on the day of a show (starting at midnight) to submit a request for up to two tickets. At 1PM, they can log-on to the theater website again to see if they have received tickets for that evening’s performance. The tickets will be held at the box office and a valid photo ID will be required. The selection process is completely random and is not determined by what time of day a person submits a request for tickets.
This is a pretty revolutionary step for The Public (and awesome one, I might add). I wonder if they will do this every year or if it’s just a test.
Sumeet, Joyce Randolph and Jim at Sardi’s. Photo by Jaisen Crockett.
So much happened!
Enjoy your weekend. Go play in the nice weather. Why are you still inside? Go. You are free.
New York Magazine’s article, “If You Lived Here, You’d Be This Guy By Now” describes how realtors design model apartments in luxury buildings to show prospective buyers. They decorate to the smallest detail as if a very specific person lived there, complete with his or her own age, career, habits, sexual orientation, family life, etc.
The agents hope to lure prospective buyers into relating to, or even aspiring to be, the model within the model.
The designer of a real-estate firm who invented a grand total of 5 characters for 1 apartment building said “One [character] was a 60-year-old writer, widowed, on the board of the Met. Another was a young Master of the Universe guy. We also had a 50-year-old real-estate lawyer; a jet-setting Brazilian family with a sophisticated 6-year-old; and a gay shoe-designer couple, so we could do fun things with colors.”
Hmmmm … maybe the real-estate agents could hire a playwright and some actors and make these profiles come to life!
Did you see this article in the Times this weekend? An Outdoor Party Where the Dancers Supply, but Don’t Share, the Music
It’s all about this new phenomenon, the “silent rave.” One happened-maybe you were there–in Union Square last Friday. About 1,000 people gathered, poked their ear buds in, and started dancing to the music playing in their heads. Yes, everyone dancing simultaneously, but each to different music.
What does this mean? Does it speak to the human craving for connection AND to our thoroughly modern addiction to isolation? What do people gain from gyrating soundlessly to what’s loud only in their minds, but still within touch–and sight–of others similarly distracted by their own private I-Pod drummers. Is it another symptom of societal anomy? A bold new move toward egalitarianism? Or is it just a press stunt??
Frankly, I’m confused. What do you think?
When I went for ice-cream as a child, I would look out at all the flavors laid out in all their deliciousness, and be scared of making the wrong decision. I began to dread trips to Baskin Robbins.
Neurotic? Maybe. But recent research shows that this behavior is not that unusual, and not limited to children.
In their fantastic book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath describe “decision paralysis.” Decision paralyis is the paradoxical idea that the more choices people are given, the less likely they are to agree to any one of them.
The authors describe a study where college students were offered the hypothetical choice between a great, once-in-a-lifetime lecture versus studying. 21% chose studying. Then they were offered the hypothetical choice between a great lecture versus studying versus a great foreign movie. 40% chose studying.
The lesson, I think, is as much as people say they like their freedom, sometimes they like to be told they have 2 and only 2 choices: A or B.
For instance, Red Mango is a big fad that’s hitting the Art Meets Commerce office these days. It offers 2 flavors of frozen yogurt: original and green tea …
And I find that kind of comforting.
Well, it’s actually called “The Rather Difficult Font Game,” but unless you’re a hardcore font nut (yes, like me: 33/34!) you’re in for a test that’s a level of magnitude more difficult than distinguishing Arial from Helvetica.
Play it here, and post your scores in the comments.