Film night at the Surf Museum – ‘An Inside Look at Korduroy.TV’ (this Wednesday)

This Wednesday, the last of the movie nights at the California Surf Museum ends with “an inside look at Korduroy.TV”. Doors open at 6:15pm and the show starts at 7pm. More details via Surfline: The California Surf Museum is proud to highlight surf film-making in its non-traditional approach.  Our final Big Wednesday film night will …

Modern world: Bookstores with cafés increase sales – those without decrease

As Independent Booksellers Week gets into full swing, the Booksellers Association has released figures to suggest outlets with cafés are likely to have higher sales than those without. Figures based on a survey of 40 BA members reveal that bookshops with cafés saw a 3% growth in overall turnover in 2011, whereas those without experienced …

California has lost its Republicans – not one holds office in our most populous state

Fading into irrelevance The party of Nixon and Reagan holds not one statewide office in America’s most populous state California gave America two of its five most recent Republican presidents. But the state party has fallen on hard times since the days of Nixon and Reagan. After having fallen for decades, the number of registered …

Craft beer is rising in America – matching the elegance of beer in Europe

This column is focused on “craft” beer, as opposed to the big brands that still dominate beer sales worldwide. The terms “craft beer” and “micro-brew” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are actually distinct from one another. Micro-breweries produce less than 15,000 barrels of beer per year, while craft beer can be produced by breweries …

Vimeo adds soundtrack features in a push to keep supporting independent filmmakers

Vimeo has always sought to differentiate itself as a platform for high-quality video content. Now the IAC-owned video platform is now adding features to help creators enhance their videos and make even them more attractive to viewers. The latest update makes a big push around improving videos by adding soundtracks, and it’s got two main product …

New corporation type – B Corporation – for sustainable “benefit corporation”

B Corporations are a new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. (It’s like a LEED certification or Fair Trade certification, but for a business, not just a building or a bag of coffee.) B Lab, a non-profit, describes the B Corporation movement like this: When you support …

A documentary on the next big thing in gaming – Independent developers of 2-3 people

Great things are continuing to come out of Kickstarter, especially their huge jump in funding and million dollar projects. Here is another one: Indie Game: The Movie A behind the scenes look at the tiny, passionate teams of imaginative programmers and level designers who spend years and thousands of dollars slaving away towards realizing lifelong …

Robert Redford Discusses the State of Independent Film at the Sundance Film Festival

Video: Bing Bar at Sundance 2012: Robert Redford Discusses the State of Independent Film “Documentaries have replaced investigative journalism”

Despite the posh and circumstance, Sundance is still committed to independent films

Sundance Institute founder and president Robert Redford made it clear during the Sundance Film Festival’s opening press conference Thursday afternoon that Park City and Sundance are two different places. “Sundance is not Park City,” Robert Redford said to a group of international journalists at the Egyptian Theatre. “It’s a place where this all started back …