Music City

Nashville, Tennessee has a neighborhood in its downtown known as Music Row. In this area are recording studios, record label offices, radio stations and other businesses related to the music industry. One of the most popular historical sites in the city is the Grand Old Opry. It a concert of different country stars that takes place each week and is called “the show that made country music famous.” Another popular place is to visit is the RCA Studio B, where country stars such as Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Dottie West and Willie Nelson recorded songs.

The famous Hollywood sign in the hills of California has long announced to visitors that this is the home of many of the nation's most famous movies.

Hollywood

Over the years, Los Angeles, California has become the home to the film industry. In the early days of moviemaking (the late 1800s and early 1900s) many films were made in New York. But by the 1920s, many studios had moved to California because the weather is mild. This means people can make movies outdoors all year long. Between the 1920s and 1960s there was something called “the studio system,” where movie stars and crew members worked for one of only five studios. While there are still big studios, the movie industry is more open today.

Broadway

There’s a song about New York City that says “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” Many people believe this is true when it comes to theater. Broadway is an area in the middle of New York City where there are forty professional theaters that produce both musicals and straight plays. It is a popular place for visitors, with more than 12.13 million people going in 2012. The first theaters in this area opened in the mid 1700s. One hundred years later, P.T. Barnum (best known for his circus), opened a huge entertainment hall that held 3,000 people. Plays by William Shakespeare were also very popular at this time. The musical the Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running Broadway show in history. It has been playing eight times a week since 1988.

Publishing Capital

Book publishing in the United States is said to have started when a single printing press was brought over from England in 1638. Even though there were early publishing houses in Massachusetts and Philadelphia, New York City was where most books were being published by 1850. Today, there are publishing companies all over the world. But there are still six major publishing companies (known as “the big six”) who are all located in New York.

TLX News! Journal Geography Activity – See if you can find other cities that are associated with the arts. Consider sub-categories (such as Opera or Bluegrass). Make a map of your findings.

Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences

In order to become a member of this academy, one must be a professional artist or craftsperson working in the film industry. This can include writers, directors, technicians, executives and other film professionals. Then they must find a current member who is willing to “sponsor” them and be voted in by the Board of Governors. There are currently more than 6,000 members of this academy. Ballots for the Oscars are mailed to each member. Returned ballots are counted by a company called PricewaterhouseCoopers who carry the winner ballots to the Oscars in a briefcase.

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

The goal of the “Recording Academy” is to honor excellence in the field of recorded music. Members and record companies are allowed to submit music they believe deserves a Grammy award. There are “reviewing sessions” by experts, followed by first-round voting, and then final voting. No one knows who wins until the Grammy Awards are on television.

Tony Award Productions

This organization is a partnership between two groups, the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing. Members are made up of actors, writers, managers, directors and others involved in professional theater. The group that votes for the Tony Awards are made up of 30 people who are asked by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. They are asked to see every Broadway play. Then they meet and vote on the nominations.

Who are the organizations that choose the winners for the Oscars, Tonys, National Book Awards, and the other major arts awards in this country?

National Book Foundation

Unlike the other groups, the judges for the National Book Awards are chosen each year. There are a total of twenty judges, five for each of the four categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People’s Literature. Up until 2013, the judges had to be published writers. Now, they can be librarians, critics and booksellers too. Each judge must read all of the books that were submitted by publishers. They narrow the list to ten finalists in each category, and then five, before choosing a winner.

TLX News!Journal Civics Activity – Find out when the next award’s ceremony takes place. Look up the nominees in every category. Do some research and try to guess who the winners might be.

Marketing

Have you ever seen this sentence on a movie poster:  “From the writers of the Academy Award-winning film. . .”? Or a TV show advertising music from a Grammy Award-winner? It has been proven that people like to follow artists who have been honored in their field.

How Much?

A company called IBIS World does all kinds of research on different businesses throughout the world. They found out that movies that won Best Picture in the past five years made a 485.6% profit. This means that each on cost about $17 million to make, and then made $82.5 million at the box office. In music, there is something called a “Grammy Effect.” This means that if an artist wins a Grammy, sales of their music will automatically go a lot up the week after the ceremony. Winning a Tony also makes a difference in ticket sales to see the show, but as much as a Grammy or Oscar. Bookscan is company that tells how many have been sold each week. After the latest National Book Awards were announced, all four winners saw a big increase in sales of their book. It turns out that just being nominated also makes a big difference.

Being honored with an Oscar, a Grammy, or an Emmy can translate into increased sales for the winner.

Campaigning

Anyone who has run for Class President knows that it is hard to win without posters and word-of-mouth. Companies who make movies, music, and books and put on plays spend lots of money on making sure people who vote on the awards see their work. There are screenings and DVDs of films that are special just for those who vote. There are also ads in magazines asking voters to vote for certain actors and movies. Harvey Weinstein is a producer who is famous for the amount of advertising he does for the films he produced. In recent years, the Grammys have made use of social media like Facebook and Twitter. For the Tony’s most of the attention is put on just the plays, not the people in them.

TLX News! Journal Economics Activity – Pick one category (Music, Movies, Theater, or Books). Then pick five movies that have won an award. Make a chart of how much it cost to make each work, how much money it made when it was nominated, how much to make when it won, and how much it has made so far. Compare with your classmates.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame, in Los Angeles, California is a history of the film stars that made the city famous. Many of these honored stars have also won an Oscar or some other arts award..

The Emmys

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) hosted the first Emmy Awards in 1949 as a way of getting more attention. The name “Emmy” was originally “Immy”, after the term “image orthicon tube” that were used in early television sets. The award itself is a sculpture of a winged female figure holding an atom, which represents both the artistic muse and science. The Primetime Emmys are the most popular of this award, but there are also Daytime Emmys, Sports Emmys, News and Documentary, Technology and Engineering, and Regional Emmys.

The Grammys

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences created the Grammy Awards in 1959. There were once 109 award categories. The most popular of them are: Album of the Year, Record of the Year (given to the performer of the song) and Song of the Year (given to the writer of the song). In 2011 the Academy reduced the number of awards to 78. The trophies are a small version of an old fashioned record player called a gramophone.

The Oscars

What was originally called the Academy Awards is now officially known as the Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first awards were handed out at a brunch ceremony in 1929, but the term “Oscar” wasn’t used until 1939. There are many different stories about how the name came into being. Screen legend Bette Davis claims to have named it after her husband. An early secretary of the Academy was said to have claimed the award looked like her uncle Oscar. The first film to win an Academy Award was a silent movie called Wings.

The Tonys

The American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League together issue the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre. Perry was an actress and director and a co-founder of the American Theater Wing. She died the year before the first Tonys were awarded in 1947. Tonys are given to both musicals and straight stage plays. To be eligible for the award, the production must have been performed on Broadway. Only 38 theaters qualify as Broadway houses.

National Book Award

Started by the American Booksellers Association in 1936, the National Book Awards are now given by the National Book Foundation. There are four categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People’s Literature. There are more than 1,000 nominees each year. The ceremony is not televised, but it is a big event held in New York City.

TLX News! Journal History Activity – Look up the most current winners of the awards above. Are there any of them close to receiving an EGOT?

Each article has an activity that reinforces or extends the information. These activities are short and intended to allow students to read and respond to all four strands in 45–60 minutes. Each article may also be completed individually.

Vocabulary
The TLX News articles are based on current events. In order to properly convey this information to students, it may be necessary to use vocabulary that is new and possibly beyond student reading levels. For this reason, vocabulary words will be posted for each article page with their definitions.

On the front page of the TLX News site, essential vocabulary will appear in a scrolled menu. This will allow you to preview words that are essential to student understanding of the content.

This Issue’s Vocabulary:

• performer:  someone who presents a piece of art, after study and practice (History)
• ceremony: a gathering where art and artists are honored and awards are given out (History)

TLX News Journal
This booklet is designed to keep students focused on an Essential Question as they work through each TLX News issue. The front page of the TLX News Journal asks the students to think about the Essential Question before reading the TLX News articles. The Essential Question is revisited after the students read all four articles and complete the related activities. This provides several opportunities for informal assessment of student knowledge and misconceptions.

This Issue’s Essential Question:

How do we honor great works in the arts?

The middle pages of the TLX News Journal are divided into the four strands. This space will allow students to respond to the prompts found at the end of each article. Prompts are designed using multiple intelligences and higher order thinking skills.

This Issue’s TLX News Activities:

History:

Look up the most current winners of the awards above. Are there any of them close to receiving an EGOT?

Geography:

See if you can find other cities that are associated with the arts. Consider sub-categories (such as Opera or Bluegrass). Make a map of your findings.

Civics:
Find out when the next award’s ceremony takes place. Look up the nominees in every category. Do some research and try to guess who the winners might be.

Economics:

Pick one category (Music, Movies, Theater, or Books). Then pick five movies that have won an award. Make a chart of how much it cost to make each work, how much money it made when it was nominated, how much to make when it won, and how much it has made so far. Compare with your classmates.

TLX News Project

Each TLX News features an integrated lesson plan for a project-based activity. This activity connects and extends the information found in TLX News.

This Issue’s Project:

Create a Civic Awards for the leaders and artists in your community who make your world a better place or go out of their way to provide service to others. Devise a set of awards in different categoies such as Most Helpful, Best Writer, Most Inspiring Leader, Most Creative, and other appropriate choices. Work with your classmates to put together a final list of categories and then select appropriate individuals to nominate in each category.

Write letters to the nominees to inform them of your selections. Invite them to a school awards ceremony where they are honored for their service and ask them to present a brief speech explaining why they feel they are motivated to serve.

Work together to devise an award to present to those selected.

During the winter months, many cultures around the world celebrate with festivals of light. Celebrating with light began long ago and has become a tradition in many countries. Immigrants have taken these traditions to communities throughout the United States. Where in the world and the United States are some of these light festivals celebrated?

Diwali
Diwali is a holiday celebrated in the country of India. The name Diwali means an array, or group, of lights. Diwali is a family celebration that begins in early November and lasts for five days. It symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. People decorate their homes, light thousands of lamps, and pass out candy. This holiday is becoming popular in the United States. This year Barack Obama became the first president to celebrate Diwali at the White House. In Dallas, Texas, a Diwali celebration was held at Cowboys Stadium. 100,000 people attended this celebration!

This family is celebrating Diwali.

St. Lucia Day
St. Lucia Day is celebrated in many parts of Europe and in the Caribbean. Each year on December 13, a young girl in the community wears a white robe and leads a parade through the streets. On her head she wears a pine wreath topped with lit candles. The candles represent the end of darkness and the return of light. Many families in Wisconsin and Minnesota honor their European heritage by continuing this tradition.

Los Posadas
Los Posadas is celebrated in Mexico. It begins on December 16th and lasts for nine nights. Each night during the celebration, children and their families carry candles through town in a parade that ends with treats for all. Many families with Mexican heritage live in the states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Los Posadas is also celebrated in those states today.

Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year often takes place in January or February. Earth’s Moon is an important part of the Chinese New Year celebration. People celebrate this source of light with food and lanterns shaped like a full moon. The Chinese New Year is also celebrated with bright and colorful lights in the form of fireworks! These fireworks are meant to represent the joyful beginning of a new year. The Chinese New Year is celebrated in many parts of East Asia. It is also celebrated by Chinese families living in the United States, especially in California.

Fireworks display in Hong Kong on Chinese New Year.

Many cultures celebrate a festival of lights in special ways. Think about how your family celebrates the holidays. Do you use lights in your celebrations?

TLX News Journal Geography Activity:
Create a new family or cultural tradition to celebrate light. Make an invitation to your Light Celebration event!

Do you and your family work in a soup kitchen? Have you helped with a Habitat for Humanities project with your youth group? Do you volunteer to clean up a local river on a Saturday? What other ways do you practice good citizenship in your community?

Many schools and citizenship groups lend their time to work in food pantries, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters to help those in need. This is a great gift, and a great way to celebrate the holiday season!

This group in Chicago is helping to clean and repair a local elementary school

Most people who volunteer do so for little or nothing in return. Today, the Disney Corporation wants to reward volunteers. Disney is celebrating volunteering and citizenship by offering a new program, called “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.” During most of 2010 you and your family can go to one of the two Disney Celebration Parks free when you volunteer in your community!

Disney hopes to reward others for volunteering with its new program.

There are many ways to celebrate others. When we give of our time and volunteer to help others, we are celebrating ourselves, too. Have fun and celebrate!

TLX News Journal Civics Activity:
Think about the spirit of giving and volunteering to help others. Do you think that you should be rewarded for helping others? Do you think that Disney’s “Give a Day Get a Disney Day.”  is a good idea? Write a letter to an imaginary newspaper sharing your ideas.

Be prepared to make hard choices in case any of the items on your list are scarce.

Supply and demand are part of our economy. When many people want to buy a product, the demand is high. If there isn’t enough of an item for everyone who wants it, then the supply is low. When supply is low, we say the item is scarce. Did you know that when a product is scarce, the price often goes up? Will you be paying more for the hottest toys and games this year?

Due to the slower economy, we are seeing changes in the market. Some toy makers have decided to sell smaller, more affordable toys. Also, producers of gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii and the XBOX 360 have reduced their prices to increase sales. The demand for these systems had been low. Do you think demand will go up for these game consoles if the price goes down? If the demand goes up more than the producers expect, there may be a shortage of these systems.

Producers of video gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii and the XBOX 360 have reduced their prices to increase sales.

If your family is buying gifts for your holiday tradition, think ahead. Be prepared to make hard choices in case any of the items on your list are scarce. Can you buy something else instead? Can you wait until the item is no longer scarce and the price comes down? It is the buyer’s decision. Have you sharpened your pencil yet?

TLX News Journal Activity:

Imagine you want to buy a friend a gift. Choose an item and compare prices from several catalogs or newspaper ads for the item. Cut out the ads and glue or tape them in your journal.

Each year the President receives a turkey from a farmer who raises turkeys. Instead of eating the turkey, the President sets it free. This tradition is a fun way the President celebrates the Thanksgiving holiday.

President Truman was the first President to be gifted a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Turkey producers have donated turkeys to the White House each Thanksgiving since 1947. Presidents and their families usually would eat these turkeys on Thanksgiving. This changed in 1989. That year President George H. W. Bush said the turkey “would not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy. He’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now.” A pardon is freedom from punishment. When the President pardons those in jail or prison, they are set free. When the turkey gets a pardon, it means the President won’t eat it!

President Kennedy was gifted this turkey in 1963. The sign around the turkey's neck says "Good Eating, Mr. President!"

Like many traditions, the turkey pardon has gotten bigger over the years. In 1990 the pardoned turkey was sent to a farm park in northern Virginia. Today, the turkey spends the night before the pardon feasting on corn and soybeans in a Washington, D.C. hotel. And since 2005, the pardoned turkey is the Grand Marshal in the Disney Thanksgiving Day parade! The lucky turkey then gets to spend the rest of its life as part of the Disney Animal Collection in Orlando, Florida.

The tradition of pardoning a turkey continues today.

This year will be the twentieth year of the turkey pardoning tradition. It will also be the first year President Obama gets to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. It’s not a very serious tradition, but it is cheerful. And that spirit of joy and fun is what most holiday celebrations are all about!

TLX News Journal Activity:

As far as traditions go, pardoning the turkey is a new tradition. Write about your family’s Thanksgiving or holiday traditions in your journal.