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Role Reversal: Why TV Is Replacing Movies As Elite Entertainment

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Hollywood Economist - By Edward Jay Epstein - May. 13 (News Analysis) - Once upon a time, over a generation ago, The television set was commonly called the “boob tube” and looked down on by elites as a purveyors of mind-numbing entertainment. Movie theaters, on the other hand, were considered a venue for, if not art, more sophisticated dramas and comedies. Not any more. The multiplexes are now primarily a venue for comic-book inspired action and fantasy movies, whereas television, especially the pay and cable channels, is increasingly becoming a venue for character-driven adult programs, such as The Wire, Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire. This role reversal, rather than a momentary fluke, proceeds directly from the new economic realities of the entertainment business. Consider what happened to Pay-TV. Back in the 1970s, HBO provided something home viewers could not get elsewhere: movies uninterrupted by commercials. It was, as a HBO executive put it, “the only game in town,” so its subscribers paid a monthly fee, no matter how little or often they watch it, to their local cable provider who in turn forked over a share to HBO. As the cable systems grew, so did HBO. By 2010, it had (including its Cinemax unit) over 40 million subscribers, and just the monthly fees produced cash flow of over $1.5 billion a year. Getting new movies was no problem. HBO simply licensed them from a few major studios for an exclusive period (which began a few months after they were released on video and DVD) in so-called “output deals.” To continue to harvest this immense bounty, HBO had merely to stop subscribers from ending their service.

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Where Are the Women Writers? (ASME Edition)

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Adam Weinstein - Apr. 04 (Special Report) - They called it the Count, and the concept was simple: Tally up how many women get published in some of the world's top literary magazines and journals, compare it with the number of men gracing those pages, and slap the results into a pie chart. Red for men, blue for women. The result was a lot of big red pie slices . First published in 2011, they conveyed a clear fact: From Harpers to The New Yorker to The Atlantic , it's still very much a man's world. Roughly 65 to 75 percent of the space in the prestigious magazines went to male writers. The Count is the brainchild of two accomplished poets, Cate Marvin and Erin Belieu. In 2009, the duo founded VIDA: Women in Literary Arts , a nonprofit that acts as part online community, part advocate and agitator for women of letters. The idea, Belieu says, came in a "moment of loathing and terror and revolutionary spark." They intended the Count to be a conversation-starter, and it certainly has been : After they published the first round, some major ...

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Key Senator Abandons The Protect IP Ship

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Zach Carter - Jan. 18 (News) - Home to the Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks, Rubio's Florida may be the most Hollywood-centric state outside California, and Rubio had been one of the first senators to sign on in support of Protect IP when Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) introduce

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Legendary Folk Duo Crosby & Nash on Soundtracking Movements From the 1960s to Occupy Wall Street

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 10 (News Report) - Just days after performing at the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Lower Manhattan, the legendary musicians David Crosby and Graham Nash join us live in our studio. For the duo, Occupy Wall Street is the latest in a number of causes they have supported in their historic careers stretching back nearly five decades. They are best known as founding members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a supergroup that performed at Woodstock and sold millions of records. Both are two-time inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Throughout their careers, politics has played a central role in their music. About the Occupy Wall Street movement, Crosby says: “There's an awful lot of people who feel that they are not represented in Congress, that Congress has been bought by the large corporations, and that they are powerless and are getting the short end of the stick.” [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Details of Steve Jobs' life emerge before launch of official biography

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

OpenGlobe - By Fetchcomms, OpenGlobe contributors - Oct. 21 (News Report) - New details of Steve Jobs' life have emerged as advance copies of his official biography, due to go on sale Monday, were released to media organizations. The 630-page book by Walter Isaacson, "Steve Jobs," sheds new light on Jobs' personal life, thoughts, and philosophies, as well as his relationships with major political figures and other companies.

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Zynga Files For $1 Bilion IPO

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Business Insider - By Jay Yarow - Jul. 02 (News Report) - Zynga has just filed with the SEC to go public. The company is on pace to generate well over $1 billion in revenue this year, and earn over $36 million. It's a pretty slim profit margin considering reports were circulating that Zynga was earning $400 million on $800 million in revenue earlier this year. It wants to raise $1 billion from the IPO, and it already has $1 billion in cash on hand.

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$43 million tax break approved for Ark Encounter theme park

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Lexington Herald-Leader - By Beth Musgrave - May. 19 (News Report) - A controversial biblical-themed amusement park received approval Thursday for up to $43 million in Kentucky tax incentives over a 10-year period. The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority, which oversees tax credits for tourism and film-related projects, unanimously approved the tax credit for the Arc Encounter project, which is scheduled to break ground in August outside Williamstown in Grant County.

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'Go The F*k To Sleep' Hits Parents' Raw Nerves

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Leanne Italie - May. 16 (News Report) - Playing dress up or running around the park, kids can be so darn cute. Until it's 3 a.m. and they won't go the (bleep) to sleep. The F-bomb plea on the minds of every parent at one point or another is the title of a buzz magnet of a book parody written in kid-friendly rhyme. Beware, parents, it's decidedly unworthy of a bedtime readaloud.

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Brazil: Lesbian kiss delayed

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Solana Pyne - May. 12 (News) - It’s been a big month for gay rights in Brazil. Last week the supreme court gave gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.

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ARTINFO: 'Jeff Koons Must Die!!!' & 4 Other Art Video Games You Can Actually Play

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Artinfo - Apr. 23 (News) - In Hunter Jonakin's "Jeff Koons Must Die!!!" the player must destroy the artist's work with a rocket launcher. / Courtesy of the artist With the Smithsonian set to crown video games the latest institutionally-ratified art

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'Today' Show At A Potentially Huge Turning Point

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Apr. 08 (News) - NEW YORK — NBC's "Today" show has been one of the most stable and successful programs in the history of television over the past 15 years. Now it faces the possibility of a major makeover. Co-host Meredith Vieira, the "newbie" on "Today" with five years

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Putting Sustainability to Music

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By MIchael Todd - Nov. 05 (News Report) - A body of environmentally minded musicians and music industry types, while not abandoning the public face of action, are working to create institutional change behind the scenes.

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Ban on School Christmas Carols Upheld

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

beliefnet - By Jeanette Rundquist - Oct. 05 (News) - "Silent Night" and other religious songs will remain off the program at holiday concerts in one New Jersey school district -- and possibly others across the country -- after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a school ban on religious holiday music.

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Tony Curtis buried, service well-attended by fans, family and friends

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

allvoices.com - Oct. 04 (News) -

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USB Warfare: The Real Electronic Nightmare

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Michael Scott Moore - Sep. 22 (Special Report) - But there are other ways to wage electronic war, and they tend to be more terrifying precisely because they’re tougher to fight.

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The Trouble With Amazon

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Colin Robinson - Jul. 14 (Special Report) - Amazon has not grown to where it is today by being touchy-feely. Sure, it adopted the informal trappings that characterized many of the new technology start-ups of the 1990s. But if Bezos's first desk at the company was an old door on trestles, the business conducted from behind it has been as ruthless as anything he encountered in his previous gig as a Wall Street broker. Soon after Amazon's launch in 1995, Bezos told his employees that he wanted a place that was both "intense and friendly" but that "if you ever had to give up 'friendly' in order to have 'intense,' we would do that."

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Mel Gibson Hurls ANOTHER Racist Slur: Wetbacks

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jul. 08 (News) - Mel Gibson has spewed hatred about blacks and Jews, and now he is caught on tape making a bigoted remark about Hispanics. Mel referred to one of his staffers as a "wetback," Radaronline.com reports.

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Libraries and Librarians Are Endangered Species

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Carol Fitzgerald - Jun. 25 (Special Report) - In April my mother called to say a cost-cutting move threatened to close my hometown's local library. The town council of Cedar Grove, New Jersey needed to trim the budget by $600,000, and by eliminating library funding council members thought they saw an easy cut.

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Five Reasons the iPad Won’t Kill the Kindle (or Other E-Readers)

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

retrevo.com - Mar. 30 (Other) -

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Lindsay Lohan Sues E*Trade Over Ad with "Milkaholic" Lindsay - Today's News: Our Take

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

tvguide.com - By Joyce Eng - Mar. 09 (News) - Lindsay Lohan is suing E*Trade, claiming the financial company based the "milkaholic" baby named Lindsay in its commercial after her. Lohan filed the $100 million lawsuit Monday at Nassau County Supreme Court, a court clerk office rep told TVGuide.com.

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Triumph of the Cyborg Composer | Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. | Miller-McCune Online Magazine

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Ryan Blitstein - Feb. 22 (Special Report) - UC Santa Cruz emeritus professor David Cope's software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?

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Tax Rates For America's Top 400 Earners Fell As Income Soared In 2007, According To IRS

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:35:14 -0800

Huffington Post - Feb. 17 (News Report) - The average top 400 rich person made $344 million and paid only $57 million in taxes. Maybe I have no conception of money, but $57 million doesn't sound like peanuts to me. Eliminate the the tax caps for Social Security and Medicare, make it a flat %

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Anti-Statism In America

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By John B. Judis - Nov. 11 (News Analysis) - Liberals and progressives have fared poorly in the face of this staunch anti-statist tradition, but there have still been periods when they have broken through and enacted major reforms--during Woodrow Wilson’s first term, Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, Lyndon Johnson’s first two years, and Richard Nixon’s first term. They succeeded for different reasons at different times, but several conditions recur.

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Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - During the past year, Republicans have frequently said they want to work with Democrats. But the real story of the last few months is how unserious those pledges turned out to be. Although you wouldn’t know it from their rhetoric or the media coverage, there are not one but two ostensibly bipartisan proposals out there right now. Either of them could be the template for successful reform if even a few Republicans started pushing them seriously. But, even the ostensibly reasonable Republican senators whom Democrats have tried to engage--Mike Enzi, Charles Grassley, and Hatch--just aren’t interested. And it appears they haven’t been for a while.

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The Courtship

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Gabriel Sherman - Aug. 31 (Special Report) - In the spring of 2005, New York Times columnist David Brooks arrived at then-Senator Barack Obama’s office for a chat. Brooks, a conservative writer who joined the Times in 2003 from The Weekly Standard, had never met Obama before. But, as they chewed over the finer points of Edmund Burke, it didn’t take long for the two men to click. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging,” Brooks recently told me, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he knew both better than me.”

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