FilmBuff

It's been a year since my conversion to a cable-less life.   I started this experiment with relatively straightforward goals, like saving money, practicing what I preach in forging the digital revolution, and trying to eke out a moreaesthetic and spiritual existence at home in the hours after work and during cold weekend afternoons.   (While the first two goals have certainly been achieved, I'm not exactly reading Tolstoy on Tuesday nights with the classical station humming in the background). [READ MORE]

The big winners at this weekend's Golden Globes included Avatar, The Hangover, Glee, and Mad Men. HitFix has more about the winners, as well as some photos from the star-studded (and rain-soaked) event.

In a recent New York Times Magazine article “On Language,” Fred R. Shapiro discussed the problem of movie misquotations or, when people quote “famous cinematic lines that weren’t actually spoken.”

Citing numerous examples of references to “famous” movies lines that were never, in fact, part of any movie, Shapiro’s article points out that in our fast paced lives, we can easily fall into the trap of not checking our film facts.  The result is a sadly distorted version of what should be a well-executed reference to win you cool points with friends. [READ MORE]

Reports came late this past weekend, that The New York Times would likely start charging for online content. The rumored word is that the content will be metered, making only the first few stories free of charge. From a CNET report on the news:

As readers have increasingly gone online for their news, papers have suffered declining subscriber numbers and lower advertising revenue, resulting in a dramatic industry contraction. Newspaper publishers and the Associated Press have blamed Google and other news-aggregation sites for their woes, leading to threats...

Long ago I had the pleasure of being the local video store clerk/jerk, dishing out the latest releases to my community. Among the standard questions was the infamous classic, "This doesn't have those black bars on it, does it?" Being the FilmBuff that I am, I went into the details of what those black bars really mean. It hardly ever mattered of course, as just about everyone would opt for the full screen and/or pan-and-scan experience so that they could have what they said was the "whole film" on their TV.

Thankfully, that painful conversation is quickly becoming a thing of the past. [READ MORE]