Category: media

“All work in India’s film and television hub of Bollywood has stopped after thousands of technicians and actors began a strike over pay and conditions. Unions representing film employees in Mumbai (Bombay) say many members have not been paid for months and are threatening to strike indefinitely.”

“Francis Coppola’s masterpieces, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (really, who cares about Part III?), haven’t looked so good since they first came out three decades ago. Simply put, the new four-disc set amounts to one of the most spectacular achievements in the brief history of home theater.”

“So is Don Juanism funny, or is it sad? The pop-culture ambivalence reflects an uncertainty that extends all the way through the medical establishment – to the sex therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists who can’t agree on how to define sexual addiction, or indeed whether it should be called an ‘addiction’ at all.”

“The 46th New York Film Festival includes a striking number of features — among them some of the strongest and freshest films likely to be shown on Manhattan screens this year — that might be called semi- or quasi- or crypto-documentaries.” Which is to say, they’re hard films to pin down.

“A Russian adult cartoon TV channel that had been threatened with losing its frequency after religious groups complained that episodes of South Park and other toons incited religious and national hatred, earned a reprieve late Wednesday. But authorities have asked it to review its content.”

MySpace will offer a huge catalog of free music to users beginning this week, hoping to compete with giants like iTunes and Napster. “The catch: the music can be played only on personal computers connected to the Internet and listeners have to tolerate advertising splashed across the screen.”

“It’s been a long time since people in the recorded music industry have considered themselves lucky… But going into the last three months of the year, when more music is sold than at any other time, labels, retailers and others in the business say they are somewhat optimistic — or at least less pessimistic than usual.”

“Google co-founder Larry Page attended a Capitol Hill hearing today and called upon the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to “free” the white spaces spectrum so it can be used as an affordable, nationwide, high-speed broadband connectivity network… Page’s personal appearance brings star power to the dispute that pits companies such as Google, Microsoft and Motorola against wireless audio equipment manufacturers and live events producers.”

“People like [the character] Stamps have so much faith that one day America would deliver on its promise that everyone is created equal. And we are now closer to that than any other time in this country. In 2008, we are on the verge of having a black man as president. I think that that is a sign of the greatness of this country.”

“Broadcast television will have 16 gay and bisexual regular characters in prime-time series this fall, more than double the seven of a year ago, a new study has found.” Leading the network pack is Fox, with five regular LGTB characters.