Numlock News: March 13, 2023 • Oscars, Orcas, Mysteries

By Walt Hickey

Welcome back!

Wine

The swift panic-induced bank run on Silicon Valley Bank obviously presents problems for many of its core customers in the startup technology business, but one other set of businesses is caught up in this as well: wineries. The Sonoma and Napa area wineries were longtime customers of SVB, accounting for 2 percent of its total loan business. Since 1994 the bank has extended over $4 billion in loans to wineries and vineyards, funding development and acquisitions in the valuable slice of California’s wine business. Much like SVB uniquely catered to startup founders, it was also uniquely suited for the wine business, with a depth of industry understanding about wine inventory and valuation.

Jess Lander and Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle

VI

Scream VI brought in $44.5 million at the domestic box office this weekend, the best opening in franchise history and a great performance for a film that cost $33 million to make. The slasher also made another $22.6 million from 53 overseas markets. Most encouraging for exhibitors was the excellent turnout from young people, with 18 to 34s accounting for 71 percent of moviegoers. In second place, Creed III’s second round went well, with $27.2 million, finishing the weekend with a cumulative $101.4 million. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in just its fourth weekend but still brought in a measly $7 million domestically, just $800,000 more than Cocaine Bear made.

Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Scabby

The company that produces labor icon Scabby the Rat, a large inflatable rat that accompanies picketers outside of non-union or union-busting shops, has been sold to new ownership that indicated it will no longer produce the superstar. A hideous, mutilated rodent that ranges in size from six feet to 14 feet in height that is designed to insult scabs who break a strike, unions around America often have dozens hanging around, so Big Sky Balloons’ decision to stop production of the rat is unlikely to have immediate impact. At various points, Big Sky was selling about a half-dozen Scabbies a month at $10,000 apiece.

Tarpley Hitt, The Guardian

Art Mystery: Solved

Art historians have solved a fascinating puzzle around the 1626 painting Double Portrait of a Father and Son by Cornelis de Vos, which at first glance depicts a father and son. However, a 1966 conservation report found a woman’s arm that had been painted over, and the cleaned painting would appear to reveal that someone in a trio had been excised from this painting to make it a duo. The art historians used some details from the woman’s wrist to find mom, in De Vos’ Portrait of a Lady, which depicts an elegant woman in front of, wouldn’t you know it, the exact same background. It appears that the original work depicting all three sustained damage at some point, and in order to salvage it the painting was carefully separated into two separate and standalone paintings sometime between 1830 and 1859. The family has since been reunited at the Nivaagaard Collection in Denmark.

Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper

Orcas

In the Pacific Northwest, there are two groups of orcas: the southern resident orcas and the northern resident orcas. They have similar diets and overlapping territory, but the southern resident orcas are much worse off; there are just 73 individuals left, compared to over 300 northern resident orcas. Scientists are very curious as to why, and a new study out of NOAA Fisheries and the University of Washington published in Behavioral Ecology argues that the orcas are hunting for salmon differently. The northern resident orcas see females hunting and capturing more pray than male orcas (catching 55 percent more salmon per hour), while the southern resident orcas see the inverse (with males catching 152 percent more salmon per hour).

James Urton, UW News

Oscars

Everything Everywhere All At Once won historically big at the Oscars, winning not just Best Picture but also Best Actress, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, seven wins from the ceremony and the best performance in above-the-line categories ever. That’s out of eleven awards they were up for. Other big winners included All Quiet on the Western Front, which nabbed four prizes including Best International Film, and the Academy Awards crisis team, which got paid to sit around and do nothing.

Kimberly Nordyke, The Hollywood Reporter

K-pop

The clash of K-pop titans Hybe and Korean internet giant Kakao over which company would take on a large stake of early K-pop innovator SM Entertainment has come to an end, with Hybe walking away from plans to take control of their rival. Kakao’s 150,000 won per share tender bid for 35 percent of SM Entertainment scared off Hybe, which offered 120,000 won per share for a 25 percent stake. Hybe, which is best known as the organization behind the now-on-hiatus BTS, was looking to shore up its catalog by buying a rival.

Nikkei Asia

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