Muzak to the Ears
Always on the cutting edge, Southern California is now breaking ground in the convenience store business. Some stores are experimenting by blasting Muzak--and even classical music--into their parking lots to chase away loiterers.
Muzak is not insulted, says Bruce Funkhouser, vice president of programming for Muzak Ltd. in Seattle. He says Muzak is happy whether businesses uses its music to attract people into stores or drive them away.
But he says Muzak doesn’t monopolize the parking lot music business. He said he’s hearing about stores that use classical, soft Montovani music and country records to get rid of loiterers.
Potential Muzak competition is found in the recent “The Worst Rock n’ Roll Records of All Time” by Jimmy Gutterman and Owen O’Donnell. Possibilities include:
* “Granny’s Mini-Skirt,” a 1965 album by Irene Ryan of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
* John Travolta’s 1978 record “Travolta Fever.”
* And the 1968 classic “Joey Bishop Sings Country Western.”
Junk Art
A lot of people argue that junk bonds aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. But in a collage it seems a different story.
The federal Resolution Trust Corp. today is scheduled to unseal bids on the art collection that once belonged to the now-defunct Columbia Savings & Loan. The Beverly Hills thrift failed earlier this year at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion, largely because it bet heavily on risky junk bonds bought mostly through Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Michael Milken.
The $2-million collection, which features works of such famous artists as David Hockney, includes one 1988 collage-like work by well-known artist Mitchell Syrop. The name: “Junk Bond.”
The work resembles a tropical-like poster in which the words “Junk” and “Bond” have been torn away. The work has been appraised at $5,500, the RTC says, quite a bit more than some junk-bond collections are worth now.
Roll the Creditors
The creditors list in last week’s bankruptcy filing by Orion Pictures reads like a list at your local video store.
Some entities owed residuals and “participations” on films are production companies or partnerships named for the movies themselves.
The list includes Dances With Wolves Productions at $2.2 million and Under Fire Associates at $2 million.
Then there’s a partnership owed $2.1 million whose name hardly reflects a typical creditor’s experience in bankruptcy court: “Easy Money Associates.”
Briefly. . .
Good news in a recession: Forest Lawn in Glendale is calling itself “a place for families to visit this Christmas for free.” . . . A recent Salomon Bros. report on California’s economic woes says, “Perhaps the only positive sign has been the bearish cover story in Time magazine--historically an inverse indicator.” . . . Quote of the week: Former Lincoln Savings owner Charles H. Keating Jr., speaking to a Times reporter at a break during his arraignment last week on federal fraud charges, said: “There, but for the grace of God, goes Neil Bush.”
