Category: media

“At its peak sales hit around 428,000 copies a day. Twenty-five years later, the number of copies being sold on a weekday in newsagents is rather closer to 28,000.”

Samsung has confirmed that its “smart TV” sets are listening to customers’ every word, and the company is warning customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets.

“To be fair, whinging that no German cinema movement has proved as influential or productive as the New German Cinema movement circa 1962-1982ish is bit of a non-starter, as one could argue that no national cinema movement since has proved as influential or productive as the New German Cinema. But if there’s no worthwhile national film culture in Germany, if German films have no future, then why do Berliners seem to go ga-ga for their annual film fete?”

“The game, entitled Slippery Slope, is supposed to educate impressionable kids on ‘the distorted logic of blame that can lead a person into violent extremism’, but it’ also indicative of how clueless governments can be when it comes to reaching out to the kids.” (Another failure of the nanny state.)

“From an upstart ingenue like Alicia Vikander, tapped for Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl, to a veteran producer like Steve Golin, who has two films (Spotlight and The Revenant) competing for Best Picture; from a writer like Andrea Berloff, who co-scripted the unexpected blockbuster Straight Outta Compton, to documentary director Liz Garbus, nominated for her defiant and heartbreaking What Happened, Miss Simone?, all the assembled were equally eager to share their insights about the craziness (and necessity) of Oscar campaigning.”

“Consciously or unconsciously, contemporary filmmakers not only tap into increased knowledge about the brain offered by neuroscientific experiments, but their films also stimulate the neural senses of emotions without the detour of narrative.”

“So how did the company that seismically shook the music industry, rethought the smartphone, and pioneered the tablet blow it with the television set? The reasons are complex but essentially involve a combination of hubris, impenetrable legal agreements, bad timing, and a television industry that identified Apple as public enemy No. 1.”

When silent movies came to India, there were almost no experienced actresses there: respectable Indian women did not appear on the public stage. So most of the stars – some of whom also produced and wrote – came from the Baghdadi Jewish community in Bombay and the Bene Israel in Maharashtra. (One of them was the first Miss India.)

“Oscar nominees in the acting and directing categories at this month’s Academy Awards will be given a 10-day, first-class trip to Israel valued at $55,000, included among other goodies in their $200,000 gift bag.”