August 30, 2004

James Oestreich reviews concluding concert in Mostly Mozart Festival featuring Persian-Indian instrumental ensemble Ghazal and Louis Langree conducting festival orchestra and Riverside Choral Society in Mozart Requiem; photos (M)

Two-mile-long throng of demonstrators march through streets of Manhattan, pillorying Pres Bush and demanding regime change in Washington; raucous but peaceful event is city's largest political protest in decades; huge crowd marches past Madison Square Garden, site of Republican National Convention, and denounces Bush's domestic and foreign policies; protest organizer United for Peace and Justice estimates crowd at 500,000, double number it expected, and police officer unofficially concurs with that figure; six-hour-long march is tense, shrill, largely choreographed trek from Chelsea to Midtown and back to Union Square, where it ends, as planned, without rally; there is no major violence, just several hundred arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct; security force is biggest ever assembled in city; post-march gathering on Great Lawn of Central Park is also peaceful; hundreds of protesters in more belligerent mood go to Times Square to block entrances of two Midtown hotels; another group harasses Republican guests at party; photos; map showing protest route; chart (L)

New York City Police Dept oversees giant protest march by combining traditional methods of crowd control with variety of new techniques that take some protesters by surprise; methods are effective at containing marchers and even protest advocates praise police for overall restraint; convention is seen as one of greatest tests department has seen in recent years, not only dealing with successive days of protests, but doing so under scrutiny of worldwide press corps; some critics also praise marchers' commitment to keep demonstration peaceful; photos; map (M)

Andrew P Mooney discusses his efforts to reinvigorate Walt Disney Co's consumer products division, turning Disney name into lifestyle brand, much as he did for Nike before joining Disney in 1999; division provides only about 9 precent of Disney's overall revenue, but toys, costumes and backpacks have life far beyond movie theater; Mooney hopes to turn Mickey Mouse and company into Martha Stewart of bed, books and apparel for children, trading as much on Disney's reputation for quality, which appeals to parents, as on its characters' appeal to children; photos; graph (M)

Joyce Purnick column on political theater and street theater generated by Republican National Convention in New York; says protests, however genuine, are predictable; says Republicans, like Democrats in Boston, will be skirting issues important to voters in favor of popular themes (M)