Film review: Rocky (1976) starring Sylvester Stallone & Talia Shire
07 Oct 2014 1 Comment
in economics of media and culture, movies Tags: Rocky
By chance, I caught Rocky on late-night TV the other week. I must have never seen it before. I have seen the other Rocky movies, for my sins.
Not a single thing came back about the movie as I watched it: not a single scene, not the plot, nothing. Either I am fading away or I’ve never seen the film.
It’s actually quite a good film. Stands up well to time as well.
The fight scenes are excellent. So good that I could not actually work out how they filmed them in such a short period of time on a small budget. Rocky was the 3rd film to use the Steadicam, after Bound for Glory and Marathon Man. The movie was shot in 28 days. The production budget was $1,075,000, with a further $100,000 spent on producer’s fees and $4.2 million of advertising costs.
The famous scene of Rocky running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a cultural icon as is its anthem Gonna Fly Now.
Mega-cities are the most beautiful sight in the world: Shinjuku train station by night
07 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, liberalism, movies Tags: Blade Runner, Shinjuku, The Great Enrichment, Tokyo
The first time I walked out of the gate of Shinjuku train station the night I arrived in Tokyo in 1993, I thought I had walked into a scene from Blade Runner.
Tokyo is one of the most beautiful cities the world. It’s full of people doing the most amazing things, producing an immense amount of wealth and prosperity. Cities are as beautiful as any natural beauty, more so because they are man-made.
This isn't an outtake from Blade Runner—it's Beijing today. via @punodraws @TomHoltzPaleo @b0yle http://t.co/QHMxSunUAL—
Amos Zeeberg (@settostun) January 14, 2015
IOC diva-like demands on Norway for its now scuttled Winter Olympics bid
05 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Olympic Games, rent seeking
- They demand to meet the king prior to the opening ceremony. Afterwards, there shall be a cocktail reception. Drinks shall be paid for by the Royal Palace or the local organizing committee
- Separate lanes should be created on all roads where IOC members will travel, which are not to be used by regular people or public transportation.
- A welcome greeting from the local Olympic boss and the hotel manager should be presented in IOC members’ rooms, along with fruit and cakes of the season. (Seasonal fruit in Oslo in February is a challenge…)
- The hotel bar at their hotel should extend its hours “extra late” and the minibars must stock Coke products.
- The IOC president shall be welcomed ceremoniously on the runway when he arrives.
- The IOC members should have separate entrances and exits to and from the airport.
- During the opening and closing ceremonies a fully stocked bar shall be available. During competition days, wine and beer will do at the stadium lounge.
- IOC members shall be greeted with a smile when arriving at their hotel.
- Meeting rooms shall be kept at exactly 20 degrees Celsius at all times.
- The hot food offered in the lounges at venues should be replaced at regular intervals, as IOC members might “risk” having to eat several meals at the same lounge during the Olympics.
How to Make a Living as a Poet
01 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of media and culture, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: starving artists
Robots will take my job alert: when musicians campaigned against the introduction of canned music into cinemas
28 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, technological progress Tags: automation, creative destruction, mechanisation, technological unemployment, The Great Enrichment
Not Many People Got Past Page 26 Of Piketty’s Book
25 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, Marxist economics Tags: Thomas Piketty
Professor Jordan Ellenberg looked at the five most popular book passages in a number of current best-sellers, according to data from Amazon Kindle readers. He determined the average page number readers highlighted and divided that by the total number of pages in the book.
A high number, according to Ellenberg, means that readers are reading until the end. Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning blockbuster, The Goldfinch, for example, earned a score of 98.5 percent on the index.
Piketty’s book scored a dismal 2.4 percent. The latest of the five most popular highlights in Piketty’s book is located on page 26, according to the Ellenberg.
Richard Cohen: NSA is doing what Google does
16 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, liberalism, war and peace Tags: conspiracy theories, Edward Snowden, Left wing paranoia
Greenwald likens Snowden to Daniel Ellsberg, who revealed the Pentagon Papers to The Post and the New York Times more than four decades ago.
Not quite. The Pentagon Papers proved that a succession of U.S. presidents had lied about their intentions regarding Vietnam — Lyndon Johnson above all. In 1964, he had campaigned against Barry Goldwater for the presidency as virtually the peace candidate while actually planning to widen the war.
As the Times put it in a 1996 story, the Pentagon Papers “demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance.”
In contrast, no one lied about the various programs disclosed last week. They were secret, yes, but members of Congress were informed — and they approved.
Safeguards were built in. If, for instance, the omniscient computers picked up a pattern of phone calls from Mr. X to Suspected Terrorist Y, the government had to go to court to find out what was said. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act established a court consisting of 11 rotating federal judges. These judges are the same ones who rule on warrants the government seeks in domestic criminal cases. If we trust them for that, why would we not trust them for other things as well?
via Richard Cohen: NSA is doing what Google does – The Washington Post.
Some people are still shocked when they learn that governments spy on people. What next? Will people be shocked to learn that the police investigate innocent people in the course of routine enquiries.
The perennial gale of creative destruction at work: those all-powerful television networks
14 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, media bias, Schumpeter, television networks
11 Classic Movies That Were Originally Box-Office Bombs | Business Insider
14 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, movies Tags: box-office sleepers, movie classics
see 11 Classic Movies That Were Originally Box-Office Bombs | Business Insider for the list,
HT: Newmarks’ Door
Seinfeld economics
13 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture Tags: Seinfeld
$3.1 billion: The amount the show has generated since entering syndication in 1995.
$400 million: What Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld can each make just from the most recent syndication cycle.
For a potential tenth season, Seinfeld was offered $5 million per episode, or $110 million per year. He turned it down.
HT: http://www.vulture.com/2014/06/breaking-down-the-seinfeld-economy.html
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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