Is Prince Trying to Return to the People?

Is Prince loosening up? And if so, can he ever reclaim his place among pop music royalty? Watch this week for the enigmatic singer to invite fans to tour the rarely seen corridors and memorabilia of Paisley Park Studios, his purple workplace and playground in Chanhassen, Minn. It’s a surprising move for the usually reclusive singer, as was his recent announcement that he would change his name back to his birth name (Prince Rogers Nelson) after seven years of going by an unpronounceable symbol that spawned the awkward identifier “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” That change, the open house and a tie-in concert have inspired a wave of optimism among online Prince fans, who have posted a flurry of messages on Web sites that, in essence, say the Purple One may be ready to mount a comeback. While Prince was a creative and commercial powerhouse in the 1980s, a squabble with his old record label, Warner Bros., seemed to sap his career and cost him his brand-name status when he chose to abandon the name Prince to foil Warner Bros. His 1999 album for Arista Records, “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic,” sold 440,000 copies--far from his platinum pace in past years--and insiders at the label say there are no plans there to seek a follow-up disc. Some, though, say Prince is still a force to be reckoned with. “I think changing his name back will be good for his career, especially if he comes back with some killer music,” says Violet Brown, the urban music buyer for Wherehouse, a Torrance-based chain with more than 600 stores. “He really lost some people with the whole ‘Formerly Known As’ thing . . . but he has always been an important artist with a strong fan base. He’s still viable, but his style of music isn’t exactly the flavor of the month anymore.”

A Yes-They-Can Festival in Acapulco

It’s being billed as black cinema’s version of the film festivals at Cannes or Sundance, only instead of staging the event in the South of France or along the snowy streets of Park City, Utah, this festival is held on the western coast of Mexico. The weeklong, fourth annual Acapulco Black Film Festival kicks off today with more than 3,000 filmmakers, producers, directors, screenwriters, distributors and film financiers expected to attend. The festival will showcase 18 new black-created films from America and other countries, including works-in-progress, short films and out-of-competition screenings. The festival had its genesis in Jesse Jackson’s call for blacks to boycott the 1996 Academy Awards because of the lack of black nominees and the overall underrepresenation of blacks in Hollywood. “Rather than complain or boycott, we kind of empowered ourselves to hold our own festival,” said festival founder Jeff Friday, president of UniWorld Films, a division of UniWorld Group Inc., one of the largest African American-owned advertising companies in the United States. “We wanted to provide a forum for African Americans to network about the film business and to provide a platform for independent black movies from around the world.” Friday believes it isn’t so much racism that prevents many blacks from climbing the ladder of success in the movie business, as much as lack of access. “When you are tapped in,” Friday said, “you can have access to everything.” He noted that Hollywood studios are taking intense interest in this year’s festival, with Miramax, New Line Cinema, Disney, Nickelodeon and other companies sending representatives. Actress Nia Long (“Big Momma’s House”) and director Melvin Van Peebles (“Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song”) will be honored during this year’s festival, Friday said.

Nine Inch Nails’ 17-Foot-High Concert Art

“In the studio,” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor recently told Rolling Stone, “I’m purely in fine art mode.” It turns out that he’s in fine art mode on tour as well. Reznor asked L.A. artist Bill Viola to provide videos for a three-song visual interval that takes place during the middle of the band’s Fragility V2.0 show, which lands at Anaheim’s Arrowhead Pond on Tuesday night. Viola, a MacArthur Award winner known for surreal and serious monumental video installations, may not seem a likely match for a rock concert. But his musical interests preceded his art: In college he played drums in a rock band and studied electronic music with David Tudor. So when he got the call--while preparing an installation for this summer at the National Gallery of Art in London--he agreed. “I usually work a year in advance,” says Viola, “but this was so different and interesting--a huge area with people charged up and energized. What a space to work with!” Reznor’s brief to Viola was straightforward: “We play very intense music and there has to be a counterpoint to that.” Using his trademark water and fire imagery, Viola underscored the lyrics of “La Mer,” “The Great Below” and “The Mark Has Been Made”; the results will be projected on a triptych of video screens 17 feet high.

Making the Most of Its Brand Name

The producer of “Sesame Street” wants to make sure that viewers of its other shows--such as PBS’ “Dragon Tales” (done with Columbia TriStar Television Group) and the upcoming “Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat”--know of the illustrious connection to the pioneering children’s show. So today the three-decade-old Children’s Television Workshop will announce it is changing its name to Sesame Workshop. Although the newer “Dragon Tales” now outshines “Sesame Street” in the ratings, the move is meant to tap into the brand for which CTW--which over the years also produced “The Electric Company” and “3-2-1 Contact”--is best known. Indeed, even as “Sesame Street” has slipped somewhat in the United States, it is growing overseas, where two co-productions are about to launch, bringing the total to 20. By taking “television” out of its name, the nonprofit educational organization is also acknowledging that children’s media has become a much more complex arena today than it was at CTW’s founding.