With the home viewing experience suddenly reaching new heights of splendor, what conceivably could be the incentive for seeing classic films in a theater? The answer is simple and not what anyone consciously thought of during the repertory heyday: Other people. After all, in all our memories of transcendent theatergoing experiences, those other people - those strangers watching with you - were part of the experience, too. A big part.Movies are a group participation art form, to be in a room with 300 people laughing infectiously. To see a movie at home, even with a group of friends, is like seeing it under a microscope. These were made to be seen by hundreds of people at the same time.
If you're looking for two great movies, you need to see No Country for Old Men and In the Valley of Elah. Both star Tommy Lee Jones, both had plenty of Academy Award nominations The Ritz of May 2008
STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE THE FIRST STONE: IN MY BLOOD
Another of my great influences from the 60's has passed away. As a teenager, I was inspired by the creativity of Mary Quant, David Bailey, Brian Duffy, David Hockney and Peter Blake. I couldn't get enough of the fashion, music, poetry, art and design that was churning out of London and Manchester at an incredible rate. It was also the era of the first supermodels... Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton and one of my favorites, Jane Lumb
The co-founder of Atheneum, which the NYT calls "perhaps the last major literary house to be started from scratch in the 20th century," died at home yesterday. Bessie was Atheneum's president from 1963 to 1975, but he was also known for his strengths in acquiring manuscripts. Over his career he edited writers like Daniel J. Boorstin, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Kenneth Tynan and Elie Wiesel
Hyperion's Bob Miller in Cold River Start-Up
Founding publisher at Hyperion Bob Miller is leaving the company after 17 years to "launch a new global publishing program based on a non-traditional business model" starting on April 14 described as a "creative publishing 'studio' that challenges conventional trade publishing standards." They add: "Miller will publish approximately 25 popular-priced books per year in multiple physical and digital formats including those as yet unspecified, with the aim to combine the best practices of trade publishing while taking full advantage of the internet for sales, marketing and distribution. Authors will be compensated through a profit sharing model as opposed to a traditional royalty, and books will be promoted utilizing on-line publicity, advertising and marketing. Miller adds in the release, Our goal will be to effectively publish books that might not otherwise emerge in an increasingly 'big book' environment, an environment in which established authors are under enormous pressure to top their previous successes, while new authors are finding it harder and harder to be published at all.
• Publishing - SHOCK VALUE; [Love of movies; A mole on the author's back turns out to be one of the 'nasty variety'. This is his story .. A shameless act of self promotion: my brush with death]
• · Four Seasons Hotel tell-all is deep-sixed - A gossipy book by two ex-concierges at Chicago's luxurious Four Seasons Hotel has been pulled by Three Rivers Press because the authors were legally banned from writing about their experiences. Three Rivers Press has cancelled GREAT RESERVATIONS; When she first saw the man she thought him a ghost and even though she knew ghosts were dangerous and could drag people down into the water, she still moved closer to him. When she knelt by his side it was clear he was still alive, but barely. The River-Hag - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• · Aspiring fiction authors can be classified in any number of ways, but among the most prominent categories seem to be "uncannily brilliant," "deeply devoted to substance abuse," and "just plain nuts." The jury is divided about which camp I fall into, but at last poll the Twelve Angry Critics leaned heavily toward acquittal by virtue of insanity. Keys to Overcoming the Writer’s Fear of Failure; Frankly, after much rumination, I've decided an insanity defense is the only plausible one for We Who Are Determined to Embarrass Ourselves Repeatedly by Committing Tripe to Paper. The Insanity Defense
• · · Though I await further reports, talk of some blogospheric war makes little sense to me. We're in a dynamic situation here. And one of the biggest unknowns is: will Obama match McCain in radical openness with the press? Rosen - The Love Affair Between McCain and the Press Sprains the Brain of the Liberal Blogosphere; Getting the Politics of the Press Right: Walter Pincus Rips into Newsroom Neutrality
• · · · As I expected, Clark Hoyt, public editor of the New York Times, told the Times what Ben Bradlee tells Woodward and Bernstein in one memorable scene from All the President’s Men: “You haven’t got it,” he says about a draft of their story. Public Editor to Bill Keller: You Haven't Got it.; ike the social conservatives who deserve a seat on the bus but shouldn’t be allowed to drive it, the yahoos who think the press is a tool of the Democratic party are needed but should not be heeded by conservatives in power Most of them are not ideologically driven; they just want to get on the front page
• · · · · Mod modders delight - Pink Floyd 'The Wall' PC case mod The Wall; Connecting the Unconnected - Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. Here's one for you girls !
• · · · · · Kevin Roberts is someone I read on regular basis - A couple of further thoughts about books and reading post the Lovemarks launch in Frankfurt. The first thought is that most of the innovation in the industries based on reading is not coming from traditional book publishers. The latest attempt to encourage e-book reading is the Kindle from Amazon. Reading the future ; Music creates memories. Rich Robinson wrote about this magic in a recent post and of course he’s right. All five of our senses are packed-up and waiting at the door to send us back to our past. I love music, but for me the most evocative of the senses is smell. Memories Are Made Of This