October 21, 2008 - 1:22PM
The international community must wake up to the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the Australian chairman of a new disarmament body says.
The newly-established International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) has been meeting in Sydney for the past two days, with commissioners discussing growing nuclear weapons proliferation.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed setting up the ICNND in June during a visit to Japan, and the commission was given a two-year mandate to reinvigorate global debate on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
The commission is co-chaired by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans and former Japanese foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, Mr Evans said everyone had been sleepwalking on the issue of proliferation since the end of the Cold War, with the past decade seeing a succession of newly nuclear-armed countries, such as Pakistan, India and North Korea, as well as the continued threat of a nuclear Iran.
"We are on the brink after years ... of containing rather well the emergence of new nuclear weapons states ... we are on the verge of another avalanche or cascade," Mr Evans said at a joint press conference with Ms Kawaguchi.
The scale of the proliferation problem was "right up there" with climate change and the current financial crisis, with estimates of between 13,000 and 16,000 warheads actively deployed around the world.
"The scale of the havoc and the devastation that can be wreaked by one major nuclear weapon alone puts 9/11 and almost everything else into the category of insignificance," he said.
"For the last decade or so, the international community has been sleepwalking when it comes to this potential catastrophe."
The ICNND has 13 commissioners, including Ali Alatas from Indonesia, Alexei Arbatov from Russia, Jehangir Karamat from Pakistan, former US defence secretary William Perry and China's Wang Yingfan.
It will meet all over the world in the next two years in an effort to shape a consensus in the lead-up to a 2010 conference reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Mr Evans said efforts to reinvigorate the stalled US-Russia dialogue on disarmament would also be on the commission's agenda.
"It was felt that we needed a major new push to exercise the tension, debate, come up with workable recommendations that will actually snap us out of this torpor, snap out of this sleepwalking."
© 2008 AAP
http://news.theage.com.au/national/world-facing-nuclear-threat-commission-20081021-558n.html
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Drop the mouse and step away from the PC
Frustrated consumers make things worse after computer crash
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
The first few moments in any crisis response are critical, and mistakes can be costly. So it is with misbehaving computers.
Yet the first step for many users after a computer crash is to hit or yell at their machine, according to a new survey. The helpless feeling of data slipping away into a black hole seems to be more than many computer users can bear. According to the survey, more people commit some act of computer violence than call for help when faced with a crisis, according to a survey conducted by New York-based Ontrack Data Recovery.
Fortunately, violence isn't the only response. About 13 percent of survey participants said they attempt to sweet-talk their computers into coughing up any lost data, said Todd Johnson, vice president data recovery at Ontrack. Another non-violent response is the most popular, he said -- about one-third of respondents said they immediately just resign themselves to loss of the data.
But 7 percent said their first reaction is the hit the computer, Johnson said, a step that's rarely productive. Another 13 percent yell at the computer first.
"It's hard when people lose data," he said. "People do begin to panic."
The Ontrack study results parallel a study conducted recently by the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Automation Psychology and Decision Processes. A full 10 percent of respondents to that poll indicated that had committed violence against the computers in frustration, said Dr. Kent L. Norman.
"There was one restaurant manager who was so upset with his laptop that he threw it into a deep fryer," Norman said. "That destroyed the laptop ... and deep fryer, too."
That might sound extreme, but few computer users haven't considered tossing a misbehaving PC out an office window at one time or another. One respondent in Norman's study did just that, but left out an important step.
"His mistake was he forgot to open the window," Norman said.
Besides the obvious physical damage, such overreactions can have an even higher cost, Johnson said — often, lost data can be saved by experts, but not if a computer has already been deep-fried.
If you hear that grinding sound, don't reboot
In fact, the usual, conventional wisdom response — turning the computer on and off again, several times — can actually make things worse. The phrase "computer crash" has become a generic term, referring to anything that makes the computer freeze or stop operating. But the term actually refers to a mechanical breakdown. When a computer hard drive literally crashes, the head mechanism that reads the data physically crashes into the spinning platter that stores the data. Rebooting repeatedly just scratches the platter again and again, making recovery that much more difficult.
"If you hear a grinding sound, like squealing, the first thing you want to do is turn off your computer, and don't turn it back on," Johnson said.
Even those consumers who curb their violent impulses tend to do the wrong thing by attempting to fix the problem themselves. Some even start disassembling hard drives in an attempt to recover lost data, Johnson said. Such electronic experimentation can make matters worse.
But there's a reason for computer individualism, Johnson suggested. Many consumers don't think to look for help because of the subtle training they have received from overworked and sometimes sarcastic technical support staff.
"I think people don't know where to turn," he said. "And some of the (technical support) cultures in corporations have had an unwritten policy, 'If you don't back up your data, you are out of luck. We're not gonna help you.'"
Increased use of laptop computers away from the home office — and away from technical support — has also led to an increase in self-help, Johnson said. From there, that helpless feeling of lost data creeps in, and often gives way to anger.
'A tremendous amount of rage out there'But Norman, who's a psychologist by training, thinks there are more subtle reasons for people over-reacting to computer trials and tribulations.
Modern life requires people to spend endless hours working with more and more complicated machines — computers, cell phones, PDAs, even high-tech cars — and slowly but surely, there is a loss of predictability and control.
"We are dealing with so many complex things and we don't really know how they work," he said. "And we are extremely dependent on these things."
When "these things" break, stored frustration can explode into rage, particularly when people spend seven or eight hours each day in front of a computer, Norman said. In fact, he thinks road rage might be the result of what he calls "computer rage." After a long, hard day of computer crashes, one unfriendly driver on the way home can set off a person who is already near the edge.
"The bottom line is there is a tremendous amount of rage out there," he said.
To avoid the kind of computer rage you might regret later, Norman suggests using a strategy that's familiar to parents: take a break.
"Usually, the best thing to do is to get out of the environment. Just like if you get mad at your kids. Leave the house, leave the office, cool down for 10 to 20 minutes," he said.
In fact, Norman thinks companies could benefit from instituting 15 minute "frustration breaks" that employees could take during the week. Consider it the 21st century version of Industrial Age break-time.
Whatever the approach, the lesson from Ontrack's survey is clear: When something goes wrong with your computer, the best thing to do is slowly drop the mouse and step away from the keyboard.
"Remain calm. There are solutions out there," Johnson said.
Bob Sullivan is author of Your Evil Twin: Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7329279/
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
The first few moments in any crisis response are critical, and mistakes can be costly. So it is with misbehaving computers.
Yet the first step for many users after a computer crash is to hit or yell at their machine, according to a new survey. The helpless feeling of data slipping away into a black hole seems to be more than many computer users can bear. According to the survey, more people commit some act of computer violence than call for help when faced with a crisis, according to a survey conducted by New York-based Ontrack Data Recovery.
Fortunately, violence isn't the only response. About 13 percent of survey participants said they attempt to sweet-talk their computers into coughing up any lost data, said Todd Johnson, vice president data recovery at Ontrack. Another non-violent response is the most popular, he said -- about one-third of respondents said they immediately just resign themselves to loss of the data.
But 7 percent said their first reaction is the hit the computer, Johnson said, a step that's rarely productive. Another 13 percent yell at the computer first.
"It's hard when people lose data," he said. "People do begin to panic."
The Ontrack study results parallel a study conducted recently by the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Automation Psychology and Decision Processes. A full 10 percent of respondents to that poll indicated that had committed violence against the computers in frustration, said Dr. Kent L. Norman.
"There was one restaurant manager who was so upset with his laptop that he threw it into a deep fryer," Norman said. "That destroyed the laptop ... and deep fryer, too."
That might sound extreme, but few computer users haven't considered tossing a misbehaving PC out an office window at one time or another. One respondent in Norman's study did just that, but left out an important step.
"His mistake was he forgot to open the window," Norman said.
Besides the obvious physical damage, such overreactions can have an even higher cost, Johnson said — often, lost data can be saved by experts, but not if a computer has already been deep-fried.
If you hear that grinding sound, don't reboot
In fact, the usual, conventional wisdom response — turning the computer on and off again, several times — can actually make things worse. The phrase "computer crash" has become a generic term, referring to anything that makes the computer freeze or stop operating. But the term actually refers to a mechanical breakdown. When a computer hard drive literally crashes, the head mechanism that reads the data physically crashes into the spinning platter that stores the data. Rebooting repeatedly just scratches the platter again and again, making recovery that much more difficult.
"If you hear a grinding sound, like squealing, the first thing you want to do is turn off your computer, and don't turn it back on," Johnson said.
Even those consumers who curb their violent impulses tend to do the wrong thing by attempting to fix the problem themselves. Some even start disassembling hard drives in an attempt to recover lost data, Johnson said. Such electronic experimentation can make matters worse.
But there's a reason for computer individualism, Johnson suggested. Many consumers don't think to look for help because of the subtle training they have received from overworked and sometimes sarcastic technical support staff.
"I think people don't know where to turn," he said. "And some of the (technical support) cultures in corporations have had an unwritten policy, 'If you don't back up your data, you are out of luck. We're not gonna help you.'"
Increased use of laptop computers away from the home office — and away from technical support — has also led to an increase in self-help, Johnson said. From there, that helpless feeling of lost data creeps in, and often gives way to anger.
'A tremendous amount of rage out there'But Norman, who's a psychologist by training, thinks there are more subtle reasons for people over-reacting to computer trials and tribulations.
Modern life requires people to spend endless hours working with more and more complicated machines — computers, cell phones, PDAs, even high-tech cars — and slowly but surely, there is a loss of predictability and control.
"We are dealing with so many complex things and we don't really know how they work," he said. "And we are extremely dependent on these things."
When "these things" break, stored frustration can explode into rage, particularly when people spend seven or eight hours each day in front of a computer, Norman said. In fact, he thinks road rage might be the result of what he calls "computer rage." After a long, hard day of computer crashes, one unfriendly driver on the way home can set off a person who is already near the edge.
"The bottom line is there is a tremendous amount of rage out there," he said.
To avoid the kind of computer rage you might regret later, Norman suggests using a strategy that's familiar to parents: take a break.
"Usually, the best thing to do is to get out of the environment. Just like if you get mad at your kids. Leave the house, leave the office, cool down for 10 to 20 minutes," he said.
In fact, Norman thinks companies could benefit from instituting 15 minute "frustration breaks" that employees could take during the week. Consider it the 21st century version of Industrial Age break-time.
Whatever the approach, the lesson from Ontrack's survey is clear: When something goes wrong with your computer, the best thing to do is slowly drop the mouse and step away from the keyboard.
"Remain calm. There are solutions out there," Johnson said.
Bob Sullivan is author of Your Evil Twin: Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7329279/
More on The Phantom Sequel
Andrew Lloyd Webber on This Morning
3 September 2008
Various quotes:
"...I’m coming to the end of a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. It’s going to be called Phantom, and it’s just going to be all...Once Upon Another Time. And we’ve already done, ah, a performance of the first act of it and...quite pleased with it. A few little rewrites to do but, ah, then I’ve got to finish the second act which I’ve written all the melodies for now...
I think the plan is to open in London next October. Not this October, the October next year, October or November...
...Horrifyingly tough.
Yes, it’s an idea I’ve said no to consistently for about the last 15 years and never really thought that the ideas sent to me, or the stories that were being developed, were really good but, ah, a year ago, I found a way, or rather a writer found a way, of doing it which I thought was terrific...
It’s...Freddy Forsyth did a novella which I couldn’t find a way through, um, and I tried again because I thought, well, you know, it could be just worth having a...hack at it. But, ah, in fact, again, that didn’t really quite work but I had a dinner with my old friend Ben Elton and he said "Look," he said, "I think, as a novelist, where everybody’s going wrong is they’re introducing new characters and that if you keep it with the old characters, that could be the way through." ...He suggested one thing, and it really unlocked it and immediately on board came a guy called Glenn Slater, who you may not know of, but he’s a very talented young lyricist, and Jack O’Brien, who directed "Hairspray" and is a very, very good director, Bob Crowley who’s a great designer. So with that team, I plunged ahead...
...Christine, Phantom, Madame Giry and Meg Giry are all to be found. And the main difference is that Christine has a child and it’s ten years later and Raoul...is in the story too...He’s supposed to be Raoul and Christine’s..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUmoryeyWAs
3 September 2008
Various quotes:
"...I’m coming to the end of a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. It’s going to be called Phantom, and it’s just going to be all...Once Upon Another Time. And we’ve already done, ah, a performance of the first act of it and...quite pleased with it. A few little rewrites to do but, ah, then I’ve got to finish the second act which I’ve written all the melodies for now...
I think the plan is to open in London next October. Not this October, the October next year, October or November...
...Horrifyingly tough.
Yes, it’s an idea I’ve said no to consistently for about the last 15 years and never really thought that the ideas sent to me, or the stories that were being developed, were really good but, ah, a year ago, I found a way, or rather a writer found a way, of doing it which I thought was terrific...
It’s...Freddy Forsyth did a novella which I couldn’t find a way through, um, and I tried again because I thought, well, you know, it could be just worth having a...hack at it. But, ah, in fact, again, that didn’t really quite work but I had a dinner with my old friend Ben Elton and he said "Look," he said, "I think, as a novelist, where everybody’s going wrong is they’re introducing new characters and that if you keep it with the old characters, that could be the way through." ...He suggested one thing, and it really unlocked it and immediately on board came a guy called Glenn Slater, who you may not know of, but he’s a very talented young lyricist, and Jack O’Brien, who directed "Hairspray" and is a very, very good director, Bob Crowley who’s a great designer. So with that team, I plunged ahead...
...Christine, Phantom, Madame Giry and Meg Giry are all to be found. And the main difference is that Christine has a child and it’s ten years later and Raoul...is in the story too...He’s supposed to be Raoul and Christine’s..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUmoryeyWAs
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Jon Bon Jovi sued for $400bn
Sean Michaels
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday October 14 2008 09.59 BST
A Boston songwriter claims that Bon Jovi's hit I Love This Town is borrowed from his song (Man I Really) Love This Team. We think he could be waiting a long time to collect his compensation
Somewhere in Boston, a songwriter is angry. And he's suing Jon Bon Jovi for $400bn.
Yes, 400 billion dollars, roughly 200 billion pounds, an amount that recalls the number of stars in the Milky Way and brings us halfway to Gordon Brown's bank bail-out plan. Even if Bon Jovi lived forever, we scarcely think he could collect that much dosh.
But Samuel Bartley Steele may not accept any less. In a federal lawsuit brought this week, Steele claims that Jon Bon Jovi stole the lyrics and chorus to his song (Man I Really) Love This Team, using them for his hit I Love This Town.
"I know I'm the little fish and they're the big fish, but they fucked with the wrong piranha," Steele said to the Boston Herald.
Samuel Steele, 37, lives in the Chelsea area of Boston. He is also the frontman for the Chelsea City Council, which is a band and not an actual city council. According to his thinking, Jon Bon Jovi either received a copy of (Man I Really) Love This Team, or else heard Steele busking outside Fenway Park while the star was campaigning for John Kerry in 2004.
When questioned, Jon Bon Jovi's management told journalists that they had not yet seen the lawsuit.
"I know that I'm right," Steele insisted. "I want credit, acknowledgment and an apology." Either that or ... 400 billion dollars.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/14/job-bon-jovi-sued
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS???
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday October 14 2008 09.59 BST
A Boston songwriter claims that Bon Jovi's hit I Love This Town is borrowed from his song (Man I Really) Love This Team. We think he could be waiting a long time to collect his compensation
Somewhere in Boston, a songwriter is angry. And he's suing Jon Bon Jovi for $400bn.
Yes, 400 billion dollars, roughly 200 billion pounds, an amount that recalls the number of stars in the Milky Way and brings us halfway to Gordon Brown's bank bail-out plan. Even if Bon Jovi lived forever, we scarcely think he could collect that much dosh.
But Samuel Bartley Steele may not accept any less. In a federal lawsuit brought this week, Steele claims that Jon Bon Jovi stole the lyrics and chorus to his song (Man I Really) Love This Team, using them for his hit I Love This Town.
"I know I'm the little fish and they're the big fish, but they fucked with the wrong piranha," Steele said to the Boston Herald.
Samuel Steele, 37, lives in the Chelsea area of Boston. He is also the frontman for the Chelsea City Council, which is a band and not an actual city council. According to his thinking, Jon Bon Jovi either received a copy of (Man I Really) Love This Team, or else heard Steele busking outside Fenway Park while the star was campaigning for John Kerry in 2004.
When questioned, Jon Bon Jovi's management told journalists that they had not yet seen the lawsuit.
"I know that I'm right," Steele insisted. "I want credit, acknowledgment and an apology." Either that or ... 400 billion dollars.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/14/job-bon-jovi-sued
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS???
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Meat Loaf
By Saby Reyes-Kulkarni
Bat out of Hell 3, Meat Loaf's latest album, is already old news, insists the legendary rocker, AKA Michael Lee Aday. Though he recently toured to promote it, his current show doesn't focus on that material any longer. He's already working on a new album with producer Rob Cavallo (My Chemical Romance, Green Day, etc.) due out in 2010, and he says it will be his first album in which he likes 100% of the songs. New Times recently caught up with the Meat for a friendly chat.
After having made other records that stand alone and are not part of the Bat out of Hell series, did you have reservations about revisiting that concept?
We started talking about doing Bat 2 and Bat 3 in 1984. I didn't mind going back to it. The record company I was with at the time didn't want a sequel, so I went 'That's fine, I don't like you anyway.' For Bat 2, 18 million sales later, there you go.
Do you wish your other material got as much attention?
The record that followed Bat, Dead Ringer, came out on Black Friday, 1981. They used to release albums on Fridays, so they'd have the weekends. Now they release on Tuesdays. But it came out the day CBS fired 500 employees, so it got lost, although it did very well outside the U.S. The only album that's ever been bad was Midnight at the Lost and Found, but that was just a bunch of demos. I don't consider that an album.
In an interview from last year, you compared what you do to the job of a plumber.
If you hire a plumber and he comes and fixes your pipe, you're going to write his number down in your book, and you're going to keep hiring him. That's how it is with a live show.
After so many ups and downs, do you worry that it might all come crashing down again?
I've been doing it for 42 years. [Plus] I get offers constantly for acting jobs.
And you have to turn them down a lot because of your touring schedule?
Well, mostly I turn them down because the scripts aren't good. And the ones I generally do pick because the scripts are good [laughs] don't pay anything! I've got three films I'm doing between now [early October] and the end of February.
What would you have done with your life if it weren't for singing and acting?
A history teacher and a football coach.
How much of a plan did you have to do that?
I didn't have any plans. I was in show business before I even knew what happened. I don't even know how I got into it.
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/events/meat-loaf-626453/
Bat out of Hell 3, Meat Loaf's latest album, is already old news, insists the legendary rocker, AKA Michael Lee Aday. Though he recently toured to promote it, his current show doesn't focus on that material any longer. He's already working on a new album with producer Rob Cavallo (My Chemical Romance, Green Day, etc.) due out in 2010, and he says it will be his first album in which he likes 100% of the songs. New Times recently caught up with the Meat for a friendly chat.
After having made other records that stand alone and are not part of the Bat out of Hell series, did you have reservations about revisiting that concept?
We started talking about doing Bat 2 and Bat 3 in 1984. I didn't mind going back to it. The record company I was with at the time didn't want a sequel, so I went 'That's fine, I don't like you anyway.' For Bat 2, 18 million sales later, there you go.
Do you wish your other material got as much attention?
The record that followed Bat, Dead Ringer, came out on Black Friday, 1981. They used to release albums on Fridays, so they'd have the weekends. Now they release on Tuesdays. But it came out the day CBS fired 500 employees, so it got lost, although it did very well outside the U.S. The only album that's ever been bad was Midnight at the Lost and Found, but that was just a bunch of demos. I don't consider that an album.
In an interview from last year, you compared what you do to the job of a plumber.
If you hire a plumber and he comes and fixes your pipe, you're going to write his number down in your book, and you're going to keep hiring him. That's how it is with a live show.
After so many ups and downs, do you worry that it might all come crashing down again?
I've been doing it for 42 years. [Plus] I get offers constantly for acting jobs.
And you have to turn them down a lot because of your touring schedule?
Well, mostly I turn them down because the scripts aren't good. And the ones I generally do pick because the scripts are good [laughs] don't pay anything! I've got three films I'm doing between now [early October] and the end of February.
What would you have done with your life if it weren't for singing and acting?
A history teacher and a football coach.
How much of a plan did you have to do that?
I didn't have any plans. I was in show business before I even knew what happened. I don't even know how I got into it.
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/events/meat-loaf-626453/
Friday, October 10, 2008
World crisis may cause suicide rise: WHO
October 10, 2008, 8:00 am
The global economic crisis is likely to cause an upsurge in suicides and mental illness as people struggle to cope with losing their homes or livelihoods, the World Health Organisation has warned.
"We should not be surprised or underestimate the turbulence and the likely consequences of the financial crisis," WHO Director General Margaret Chan on Thursday told a meeting of mental health care professionals in Geneva.
"It should not come as a surprise if we continue to see more stresses, more suicides and more mental disorders," she said.
Just this week, a 45-year-old business school graduate in Los Angeles shot dead five members of his family before killing himself, telling police in a suicide letter that he had been driven to the deed because of his dire economic situation.
The Los Angeles case came less than a week after a 90-year-old woman in the US state of Ohio shot herself as she was about to be served an eviction notice on the home she has lived in for the past 38 years.
However, Chan stressed that the majority of people worldwide suffering from mental illness live in low- and middle-income countries, where there is an "abysmal lack of care," inadequate mental health care budgets and where victims suffer from social stigma and discrimination.
Chan was speaking at the launch of the WHO's Mental Health Gap Action Programme which aims to redress the balance.
The WHO estimates that three quarters of the global burden of neuropsychiatric disorders falls in low -and middle- income countries, and that in these countries, around three quarters of affected people cannot afford treatment.
"Care for these highly prevalent, persistent, and debilitating disorders is not a charity. It is a moral and ethical duty," Chan said.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5069936/world-crisis-cause-suicide-rise/
The global economic crisis is likely to cause an upsurge in suicides and mental illness as people struggle to cope with losing their homes or livelihoods, the World Health Organisation has warned.
"We should not be surprised or underestimate the turbulence and the likely consequences of the financial crisis," WHO Director General Margaret Chan on Thursday told a meeting of mental health care professionals in Geneva.
"It should not come as a surprise if we continue to see more stresses, more suicides and more mental disorders," she said.
Just this week, a 45-year-old business school graduate in Los Angeles shot dead five members of his family before killing himself, telling police in a suicide letter that he had been driven to the deed because of his dire economic situation.
The Los Angeles case came less than a week after a 90-year-old woman in the US state of Ohio shot herself as she was about to be served an eviction notice on the home she has lived in for the past 38 years.
However, Chan stressed that the majority of people worldwide suffering from mental illness live in low- and middle-income countries, where there is an "abysmal lack of care," inadequate mental health care budgets and where victims suffer from social stigma and discrimination.
Chan was speaking at the launch of the WHO's Mental Health Gap Action Programme which aims to redress the balance.
The WHO estimates that three quarters of the global burden of neuropsychiatric disorders falls in low -and middle- income countries, and that in these countries, around three quarters of affected people cannot afford treatment.
"Care for these highly prevalent, persistent, and debilitating disorders is not a charity. It is a moral and ethical duty," Chan said.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5069936/world-crisis-cause-suicide-rise/
Thursday, October 9, 2008
TAYMOR'S WEB OF RICHES
'SPIDER-MAN' BUDGET SWELLS TO $40 MILLION
Last updated: 11:30 am
October 8, 2008
Posted: 3:19 am
October 8, 2008
IN this economy, everybody's tightening their belts. Everybody, that is, but Julie Taymor.
The genius director of "The Lion King" has never met a budget she didn't blow right past.
Case in point: "Spider-Man," her new show - extravaganza, really - whose budget has ballooned to $40 million, making it the most expensive production in theater history.
Some of the people involved (there are dozens and dozens, with more being added daily) are starting to blanch at the price tag. With straight faces, a few are running around town saying things like: "Well, it's $40 million now, but we think we can get it down to $35 million."
Let's see.
If - and it's a big "if" where Julie The Lion Taymor is concerned - they do bring it in for $35 million, "Spider-Man," with a weekly running cost of $1 million, will have to run about 8,000 years in a Broadway theater just to break even.
"It's off the charts," one source says. "Off the charts."
The musical has a rock score by Bono (quite a good score, I'm told; the messy book is another matter) and is being produced by Sony, Marvel Comics and David Garfinkle, a lawyer who managed to get control of the musical after its original producer, the much-missed Tony Adams, died of a heart attack three years ago.
This crowd has very little theatrical experience, which is apparent since nobody seems to have the wherewithal to say: "$40 million, Julie? Are you out of your f - - - ing mind??"
Where's all that money going?
Well, a lot of it's earmarked for "designers."
There's a set designer and a costume designer and a projections designer and a fight designer and an aerial designer and a graphic designer and a film designer. In short, if you're a designer of any kind, you've got to get on this gravy train.
"Julie's called designers - I mean people who aren't just designers but who have their own companies - and offered them jobs," a source says.
"The Playbill is going to have 18 pages of designer bios."
"Spider-Man" has gotten so expensive, some people working on it think it should bypass Broadway and head straight to Las Vegas, where it might have a shot at making money. Maybe. One day. When pigs fly.
But a high-ranking production source insists the show will definitely open on Broadway next year.
The "Spider-Man" crew has been all over the Hilton Theatre.
That's the worst-kept secret in town, but nobody's saying anything official because poor, deluded Mel Brooks still thinks "Young Frankenstein" is going to run longer than "Cats." (It's not going to run longer than January.) But the Hilton, horrible barn that it is, is the only theater big enough to accommodate Taymor's massive web of a show.
Theater insiders blame Disney for her out-of-control spending habits.
"The reason she worked with puppets most of her life is because she never had much of a budget," a source says. "But then Disney came along and gave her $25 million to do 'The Lion King.' "
Her shoestring days are over, and now, the source adds: "She doesn't care what it costs. Does not care at all. Her attitude is: It's for the art, and you don't question artists."
Even when the show they're working on is "Spider-Man"?
NICE to see that Matthew Broderick is returning to Broadway. He hasn't been around since that tepid revival of "The Odd Couple" two years ago, when he wasn't off book until the final week of the run. Matthew will star in Christopher Hampton's "The Philanthropist" at the Roundabout.
Says a wag: "I hope there aren't too many lines in it."
michael.riedel@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10082008/entertainment/theater/taymors_web_of_riches_132605.htm
Last updated: 11:30 am
October 8, 2008
Posted: 3:19 am
October 8, 2008
IN this economy, everybody's tightening their belts. Everybody, that is, but Julie Taymor.
The genius director of "The Lion King" has never met a budget she didn't blow right past.
Case in point: "Spider-Man," her new show - extravaganza, really - whose budget has ballooned to $40 million, making it the most expensive production in theater history.
Some of the people involved (there are dozens and dozens, with more being added daily) are starting to blanch at the price tag. With straight faces, a few are running around town saying things like: "Well, it's $40 million now, but we think we can get it down to $35 million."
Let's see.
If - and it's a big "if" where Julie The Lion Taymor is concerned - they do bring it in for $35 million, "Spider-Man," with a weekly running cost of $1 million, will have to run about 8,000 years in a Broadway theater just to break even.
"It's off the charts," one source says. "Off the charts."
The musical has a rock score by Bono (quite a good score, I'm told; the messy book is another matter) and is being produced by Sony, Marvel Comics and David Garfinkle, a lawyer who managed to get control of the musical after its original producer, the much-missed Tony Adams, died of a heart attack three years ago.
This crowd has very little theatrical experience, which is apparent since nobody seems to have the wherewithal to say: "$40 million, Julie? Are you out of your f - - - ing mind??"
Where's all that money going?
Well, a lot of it's earmarked for "designers."
There's a set designer and a costume designer and a projections designer and a fight designer and an aerial designer and a graphic designer and a film designer. In short, if you're a designer of any kind, you've got to get on this gravy train.
"Julie's called designers - I mean people who aren't just designers but who have their own companies - and offered them jobs," a source says.
"The Playbill is going to have 18 pages of designer bios."
"Spider-Man" has gotten so expensive, some people working on it think it should bypass Broadway and head straight to Las Vegas, where it might have a shot at making money. Maybe. One day. When pigs fly.
But a high-ranking production source insists the show will definitely open on Broadway next year.
The "Spider-Man" crew has been all over the Hilton Theatre.
That's the worst-kept secret in town, but nobody's saying anything official because poor, deluded Mel Brooks still thinks "Young Frankenstein" is going to run longer than "Cats." (It's not going to run longer than January.) But the Hilton, horrible barn that it is, is the only theater big enough to accommodate Taymor's massive web of a show.
Theater insiders blame Disney for her out-of-control spending habits.
"The reason she worked with puppets most of her life is because she never had much of a budget," a source says. "But then Disney came along and gave her $25 million to do 'The Lion King.' "
Her shoestring days are over, and now, the source adds: "She doesn't care what it costs. Does not care at all. Her attitude is: It's for the art, and you don't question artists."
Even when the show they're working on is "Spider-Man"?
NICE to see that Matthew Broderick is returning to Broadway. He hasn't been around since that tepid revival of "The Odd Couple" two years ago, when he wasn't off book until the final week of the run. Matthew will star in Christopher Hampton's "The Philanthropist" at the Roundabout.
Says a wag: "I hope there aren't too many lines in it."
michael.riedel@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10082008/entertainment/theater/taymors_web_of_riches_132605.htm
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