§ Will Marvel have to move office again? According to this piece in the New York Observer, their office building has just been purchased by a new buyer who could be well advised to raise the well-below-market rents.
417 Fifth Avenue is an 11-story, 392,000- square-foot building at the corner of 38th Street and across the street from the Lord & Taylor. It’s a building that was constructed in 1912, and includes Atari and Marvel Entertainment as its main tenants.
The building also has 80,000 square feet of air rights available, which was included in the deal, a source said.
One of the first things that Mr. Moinian may want to do is push up rents, since they’re far below market now. The asking rent for the only available floor is $32 per square foot, according to CoStar (whereas average rents for class-B midtown south buildings are $40 per square foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield).
§ The American Psychological Association warns that suggestive toys and cartoons are creating an aura of early sexualization for girls which could be very psychologically damaging. Even Disney could be to blame!
The APA report also looked at toys, music and other media, such as films and magazines. One particular target was the Bratz dolls – which outsell Barbie in the UK – who wear raunchy gear such as hot pants, fishnet stockings and feather boas. Even the Disney Corporation, which promotes family values, was criticised. The study singled out cartoons including The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas for featuring characters “which have more cleavage, fewer clothes, and are depicted as ‘sexier’ than those of yesteryear”. Eileen Zurbriggen, one of the APA report’s main authors, said: “The consequences of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls’ healthy development.
§ SHOCKER: GERRY FEARED HE WAS FAT! :
§ Audrey Niffenegger, an UNUSUAL graphic novelist, is profiled:
One day, she was scraping together a living as a Chicago artist. The next, she had Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and “The Today Show” knocking at her door. For Audrey Niffenegger, the author of the best-selling “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” the past four years have been as surreal as the plots of her books.
§ An exhibit of art by Osamu Tezuka has opened in Sydney, Australia:
Tezuka: the Marvel of Manga
23 February to 29 April 2007
Art Gallery of New South Wales2 June to 9 September 2007
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
I get the APA’s concerns, but that “fewer clothes” comment in reference to characters like a mermaid and a Native American just comes across to me as people being uptight.
Ummm, Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid are both more than a decade old. They -are- the films of yesteryear.
Weirdly enough, the Bratz never bothered me.
But the Bratz Babies? YIKES. YIKES. YIKES.
And, wow, APA thanks for being sooo on the ball. Bratz have been around for seven years, and (as Nat points out) TLM and Poca more than ten. (In fact, TLM is nearly twenty years old.