nyt: "placing ads in some surprising spaces"

In The New York Times, Stuart Elliott's advertising column today looks at "mainstream advertisers starting to use nontraditional media," including a mention of indieWIRE as a site where ads were placed.



Finding the Film Blogs

After nearly 3 weeks in California, and a few days off in "The 909", its time to get back to blogging (both reading and writing). The Guardian's essential film coverage recently included Blogwatch, a special section highlighting the best film blogs:

If you want to track upcoming productions or releases, a good place to start is with the blogging community at Indiewire.com (http://blogs.indiewire.com) where producers such as Camera Planet's Steve Rosenbaum wax lyrical about public access, and festival programmers, sales agents and film journalists rave about new independent movies as soon as they're previewed.


A Celebration in La Quinta

neeley.jpgFinishing up teaching duties at The New School on Friday kept me from making it to La Quinta, CA (in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs) for the Saturday morning surprise party for Louise Neeley (photo from The Desert Sun), aka "Aunt Louise" (she is actually my late grandmother's sister, on my Dad's side). The Palm Springs paper, The Desert Sun, reported on the festivities in today's edition:

About 100 friends, relatives and public officials showed up to help Neeley, the director of the La Quinta Museum, celebrate her 80th birthday at the La Quinta Community Center...
» Continue reading "A Celebration in La Quinta"


NY TIMES | Joanne Grant, 74, Dies; Documented Grassroots Efforts on Civil Rights

grant.jpgSadly, good friend Mark Rabinowitz' mother passed away earlier this week. As you can see from today's New York Times, Joanne Grant was an accomplished writer and activist. On a more personal note, she was also an key supporter back in the earliest days of iLINE and indieWIRE; that will always mean a lot.

Joanne Grant, an activist who documented the grassroots efforts behind the civil rights movement through her journalism, filmmaking and commentary, died on Sunday...Ms. Grant wrote "Black Protest", a documentary analysis of black resistance from 1619 on. One of the first books to trace the origins of the civil rights movement, it remains required reading in many classes on African-American history.

A former assistant to W. E. B. DuBois, Ms. Grant sought to profile the struggle for civil rights through its community leaders. Her award-winning documentary film "Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker" (1981), about an unsung matriarch of the civil rights movement, was broadcast nationally on PBS. She later wrote "Ella Baker: Freedom Bound", a biography. In "Confrontation on Campus", she described sit-ins at Columbia University and elsewhere.



22 Questions.

Mindy Bond and Raphie Frank ask me questions, on Gothamist today...



Have You Seen This Man?

1206armored06.jpgSadly, about two weeks ago my aunt's grandson was shot and killed while on the job as an armored car guard in Arizona. While I had not seen Robert Keith Palomares in many years, his murder is a tragic story of someone clearly being in the wrong place at the absolutely wrong moment, with the tragedy leaving a family in mourning.

According to Friday's edition of The Arizona Republic, a suspect is now being sought (a photo is attached at right):

"A suspect wanted in last week's robbery and murder of an armored-car guard in Ahwatukee Foothills has been spotted in Southern California, authorities say.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Jason Derek Brown, 35, was seen in Orange County after the Nov. 29 shooting. She declined to reveal further details.

Brown is suspected of ambushing 24-year-old Robert Keith Palomares as he left the AMC Ahwatukee 24 theaters near 48th Street and Ray Road with a hefty moneybag after the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend.

Police say their suspect shot Palomares in the head multiple times before grabbing the bag and fleeing on a bicycle. Investigators linked Brown to the crime after finding evidence on a bike that was discarded near the theater."



NYT | "QUESTIONS FOR . . . Manohla Dargis"

In the New York Times this week, new film critic Manohla Dargis answers readers questions:

The fact is that like every other type of art, movies tend to fall into the bad-to-average range. It's tough to make a good film and exceedingly difficult to make a great one; and from the evidence it is pretty easy to make a lousy movie. Given that life is so short, I don't think I'm unduly harsh. When a filmmaker wastes two hours of my life (and sometimes a chunk of my change), it really annoys me because I can't get those hours back.

* * *

I thoroughly understand the desire for entertainment (really!), but movies were never "meant" to be any one thing. The medium was seized on by opportunistic business types early on, but it was always also a medium for artists, intellectuals and those for whom a life in the movies means something more than just a succession of pneumatic blonds and a swank Beverly Hills address.



October 8...

If today is your birthday: Emphasize networking and expanding your immediate circle of friends. [Jacqueline Bigar/King Features Syndicate]

If October 8 Is Your Birthday...you are definitely a lucky Libra because Jupiter, the planet of abundance, dances through your space in the zodiac this year. Jove provides you with beneficial guidance in December and March when your life can take a turn for the better. But you also have help from an increased inner strength that comes from sensitivity to the surrounding atmosphere. Seek permanent happiness and serenity by making important ties and listening to your inner voice this year. [Jeraldine Saunders/Tribune Media Services]

Today's Birthday (Oct. 8). What you've built is now inhabitable. This year features the fruit of your labor - you can sit back and enjoy what you've done. Love is the focus through the next two months. When relationships are on track, everything else seems to be on track, too. Just don't mix love and money, and you'll feel comfortable with your status in both areas. Your lucky numbers are: 40, 33, 29, 18 and 38. [Holiday Mathis/Knight Ridder]



Undistibuted Films in SF

The San Francisco Bay Guardian is touting indieWIRE's partnership with the California Film Institute to present "Undiscovered Gems," a two-week Rafael Film Center series that will present a dozen films from indieWIRE's 2003 list of the top 20 films without distribution.