Columns
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Super 8
1 hitRECord’s RECollection “Who knows, maybe in three years we’ll have hitRECord cinema!” This was Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s hope when we talked to him about his open-collaborative site hitRECord.org in 2009. Well RegularJOE, you did it in less than three! With the release of RECollection: Vol 1, Gordon-Levitt’s dream of building work with a community of artists from across the globe is becoming a reality. Featuring the films, music, drawings, poetry and photography of 471 collaborators (which have already been showcased at Sundance and SXSW), this hardbound 64-page book (along with DVD and CD) proves that Gordon-Levitt’s mission to create a […]
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Load & Play
Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times Magnolia Home Entertainment – October 18 Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times visits one of our nation’s oldest and most-read newspapers at a time of existential crisis. Directed by Andrew Rossi, this documentary focuses on The Times’ media desk, tasked to cover, among other things, the crisis facing journalists today due to the Internet. At the center of the film is David Carr, a veteran reporter and ex-drug addict in the midst of a lengthy piece about the collapse of The Tribune Company. The film incorporates events like […]
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Hard to Kick: On Videogames and Addiction
February 12, 2014: It was something of a watershed moment last weekend when Doug Nguyen, creator of Flappy Bird, the world’s most popular free app, pulled his game from the App Store. The app was estimated to have generated for Ngyuen $50,000 a week in advertising revenue. The problem? The game, said Nguyen, was addictive. He told Forbes, “Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed. But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone […]
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Super 8
1 John Peel’s Record Archive Regarded as one of the greatest DJs of all time, the legendary John Peel introduced British listeners to countless seminal bands – including The Buzzcocks, New Order, The Slits and Peel’s favorite band, The Fall – on his BBC Radio 1 show, which ran from 1967 until his untimely death in 2004. Now the Arts Council England, via its website The Space, has created an online archive of Peel’s radio shows, live sessions and, most remarkably, his incredible record collection. For fans of Peel and music in general, this website is a veritable rock-and-roll treasure […]
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Can Microbudget Filmmakers Graduate to the Big Time?
Independent film has long been considered the farm leagues for Hollywood’s majors. But with fewer specialized distributors and a risk-averse studio system, do up-and-comers still have the opportunities they once did during the ecstatic exuberance of the sector’s heyday? The crossover success of former DIY filmmakers Lena Dunham (with HBO’s Girls), Sean Durkin (who is developing The Exorcist TV series) and the Duplass brothers (with their studio-indies Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home), suggests that breakthroughs are still very possible. And yet, for every Jeff Nichols (Mud) or Zal Batmanglij (The East), there are numerous filmmakers who have made […]
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Cannes 2012 pt. 2
The incongruity of Michael Haneke winning the Palme d’Or for the second time in four years was that his film featured two veteran actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, in a year that may well be remembered for introducing us to several new talents. The common denominator of the films that opened the official competition, Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight, was that only the parents and school friends of the young actors would have heard of the leads before they became the darlings of the Croisette. Moonrise Kingdom’s Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, as well as Broken’s Eloise Laurence, […]
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Cannes 2012 pt. 1
Normally the spotlight at the Cannes film festival is stolen by attractive young celebrities and hip, hot films (Tarantino’s, for example). This Cannes was a little bit different. The most interesting films addressed Big Issues and, perhaps coincidentally, were awarded the top prizes. They are mature films, for the mature. Two provocative topics stood out. CONFRONTING OLD AGE Very different takes on living out the geriatric years are apparent in Austrian director Michael Haneke’s French production Amour, which took the Palme d’Or, and Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s Japanese film, Like Someone in Love (no prize, because, even if it […]
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War of Words
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Culture Hacker: Scarcity and Abundance in the Digital World
Scarcity and Abundance in the Digital World By Lance Weiler.
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Super 8
1 The Chimerist If you’re a new iPad owner, you should know that there are reading options other than iBooks, the Kindle app and Instapaper. Indeed, while games and social apps get most of the iOS press, there are artists who are rethinking the book form for the tablet device. These innovators are chronicled at The Chimerist (thechimerist.com), a Tumblr blog by “two iPad lovers at the intersection of art, stories and technology.” Follow writer, editor and literary blogger Maud Newton and Salon co-founder Laura Miller and learn about new graphic novels (Eric Shanower’s Age of Bronze), storytelling game apps […]
