Mexico awards its highest honor for foreigners to three Americans

Two San Diegans — a scholar who found fulfillment studying Mexican migrants and a refugee who built a successful spa in Baja California — are receiving Mexico’s highest honor for foreigners, it was announced Wednesday. Wayne Cornelius, 66, a longtime professor at the University of California San Diego, was selected “for his work of more …

Short films/commercials from Wes Anderson – starring Brad Pitt, Jason Schwartzman

Anderson starred in and directed an American Express “My Life, My Card” commercial, which chronicled the “filming” of an action movie starring Jason Schwartzman. Anderson acts as if he is being interviewed by someone from American Express for the ad, while walking around completing tasks on set, a scene paying homage to the movie “Day …

Rick Steves episode diary – filming in Venice – an enchanting behind-the-scenes

We’re nearly finished filming two new TV shows on Venice. Thinking back over a very productive day, I realize how much I love this work. Our scripts are about 3,400 words per half-hour show. They are split between “on-cameras,” with me talking directly to the camera, and “B-roll,” where we “cover the script” with footage …

Sneak Peek – 30 upcoming TV shows for the Fall (with trailers)

The Los Angeles Times has put together this great page of upcoming TV shows. Called the Fall TV Previews it lists every new show with a description and trailer. I’ve already found four I want to watch – Elementary, Next Caller, Arrow, & Vegas. Every May, the television networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers …

YouTube is dropping in monthly views – but gaining in “engagement”

YouTube is getting smaller in a metric that used to mean everything: views. Since December, views on YouTube have dropped 28%, and March views are only slightly above what they were a year ago, startling for a site accustomed to breakneck growth. It’s an intended consequence of the Google-owned site’s shift from…snack-size content to a …

Hulu participates in TV’s upfronts – internet television has finally arrived

Just a few years ago Hulu, the online television site, was something of a novelty. A lot of people knew about it and watched it, but it was just another website. That all changes this week as Hulu participates in “upfronts”. Hulu is in this position because of some staggering numbers: Revenue of $420 million …

Aaron Sorkin releases trailer for his new show – The Newsroom

He became a giant of television for creating The West Wing, then the toast of Hollywood for The Social Network…now Aaron Sorkin, is set to launch one of the most eagerly anticipated media events of the season. The Newsroom, which begins on the cable channel HBO on 24 June. A trailer has been released online, …

Warner Bros brings out all the Batmobiles for DVD special features

The Dark Knight Rises is just a few months away from hitting cinemas, and there’s already talk about the film’s home video bonus features. Last Friday, Warner Brothers held an event just outside the offices of Legendary Pictures in Burbank, California. The showcase spotlighted all five Batmobiles seen throughout the years, from the ’60s camp …

Best Buy to close 50 stores in the U.S. and 11 in the U.K.

Selling consumer electronics isn’t as easy as it used to be for Best Buy. The big-box retailer is closing 50 stores and compensating employees based on customer service after its fiscal fourth-quarter sales fell short of expectations. The company today reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $1.7 billion, on revenue of $16.63 billion, up …

Is live streaming going to take over?

Famed author and technology journalist, Steven Levy, posed a question/bet on his Google+ stream: My bet (literally) is that most of the video we watch in 10 years will be live — whether a persistent connection with friends or co-workers, streams from the cameras of friends and strangers, or the increasing amount of pro entertainment …