Amazon Cloud Player

Sounds kind of cool. Boo to you iTunes.

Television Today

I liked Dan's response to segmentation. I think cable should offer a pay per channel for a small fee, rather than having to pay 59.99 for a thousand channels plus a landline (which nobody uses anymore) and basic internet. What's the deal with the warring cable company's? The only time my doorbell rings, which I should know better now than to answer, a cable rep is standing on the doorstep trying to sell me something. It's gotten out of control.  
From the discussion board, it sounds like most people are watching less and less network television. This is due, not only to internet TV, but I think it probably is related to all the other entertainment gadgets out there. ipads, smartphones, enhanced video gaming, texting or facebook during the commercials.. etc..

Giving Literature Virtual Life

Another article in the NYTimes hits closely home to English for New Media. They're calling it digital humanities and using things like 3D space to thoroughly study Shakespeare. The article then goes on to talk about an undergraduate student getting a digital senior thesis accepted:

"Jen Rajchel, one of the conference organizers, is the first undergraduate at Bryn Mawr to have a digital senior thesis accepted by the English department: a Web site and archive on the American poet Marianne Moore, who attended the college nearly a century ago."

check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/books/digital-humanities-boots-up-on-some-campuses.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=homepage&src=me

NYTimes online charging readers

The NY Times online will begin charging their most loyal readers beginning March 28. Will it tank or will it be prosperous?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/business/media/18times.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage


"For years, newspaper companies have been offering Web access free in hope that the online advertising market will cover their costs. But while online advertising has grown, it has not increased quickly enough to make up for the decline in traditional print advertising. Many publications have been looking at ways to make online consumers pay as they do for print.

“This is practically a do-or-die year,” said Ken Doctor, an analyst who studies the economics of the newspaper business. “The financial pressures on newspapers is steady or increasing. They’re in an industry that is still receding. Newspapers are trying to pay down their debt, but they have fewer resources to do it.”

At the movies

As a child it was a special treat to go see a film at the theater. For most of my adult life catching a flick at the cinema was the norm and a common occurrence - it's what we did for entertainment on the weekends. At this point in my life, I'm back to it being a special event again and rarely make it to the theater - instead preferring to watch movies in the comfort of my home. With HDTV's, blu-ray and surround sound, it's almost the same experience.

The coolest theater experiences happened in Los Angeles. We made it a point to go to films that had Q&A's with the directors/actors. This was a weekly thing at our neighborhood cinema and riding our bikes over, we had the chance to see Francis Ford Coppola talk about his film "Tetro" along with the actors that starred in the movie. We saw David Bowie's son - Duncan Jones - and Sam Rockwell talk about their film "Moon." We saw/listened to "The Hurt Locker" stars discuss the film. We watched 2001: Space Odyssey on the big screen and watched countless limited releases - a lot for free admission as long as you get there early enough. In most cinemas in LA, each film was introduced via analog introduction (the person stood at the front of the theater and announced what we were about to see.