In what has to be the most ironic post he's ever written, Mark Cuban put a piece up today on his own blog explaining his decision to ban bloggers from the Dallas Mavericks locker room. Now, Cinematical isn't a sports blog, it's a movie blog, but Cuban, of couse, also owns HDNet and Magnolia, companies we work regularly with, and so naturally I found some of the things he's had to say about his decision a bit ... disconcerting.

According to a story on the Dallas Morning News (which should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, since they currently employ Tim MacMahon, the only blogger banned from the Mavs' locker room thus far), Cuban responded to questions from a reporter about the ban by saying "What I do care about is being fair to all bloggers," and that there's "not enough room in the locker room, nor enough media passes to fairly accommodate everyone." The DMN seems to think Cuban's decision was intended as retribution against MacMahon for writing a piece criticial of Mav's coach Avery Johnson. Cuban says it's not.

• Mike at Techdirt claims the trouble is that most theaters aren't offering a good social experience anymore (I feel like we're cattle at certain large chains), but they fail to see this as the problem. He also notes that they're missing the point entirely about the competition of movies on DVD.
• John Rogers at Kung Fu Monkey proposes the best way to improve the theatergoing experience and draw crowds back to movie theaters: hire bouncers disguised as ushers. He has a point: the Alamo theaters in Austin rarely get obnoxious, because the theater chain devised a discreet way for patrons to complain about noise. (Or as their house ad says, "Don't talk or Ann Richards will take your ass out.") [via GreenCine Daily]
• Scott Kirsner at CinemaTech explains the difficulties that theaters will face as the length of time from theatrical to DVD release decreases, and suggests a number of clever ways in which theaters might choose (or have already chosen, in some cases) to attract audiences.
• Unrelated: A couple of entertaining themes are traveling around the world of film bloggers this week. Edward Copeland has been asking bloggers to post lists of their choices for the top ten worst Best Picture Oscar winners. Also this week, girish put out a call for bloggers to write about Abel Ferrera, which has produced some fascinating essays. I regret not having time to tell my story about seeing Ms. 45 in London in 1989.
  
• Finally, also unrelated: Peter Nelhaus posted a great entry this week about William Castle horror films that I had to mention, I enjoyed it so much. The photos from Mr. Sardonicus are especially creepy.

• The Gurgling Cod normally focuses on food, not film. However, this week, The 'Fesser provides tips on the best ways to prepare cuisine using ... Oscar nominees.  I'm particularly amused by the Phoenix Family Turducken, but you might prefer Keener carpaccio or braised shank of Giamatti.
• At The New York Times, David Carr (aka The Bagger) compiles a list of all the annoying pseudo-news about the Oscars that he hates. The list includes Oscar bloggers: "As a group, they are forced to feed a perpetual-motion machine with all sorts of rants, non-sequitur links, and theories built out of chicken wire, gum, and duct tape." And The Carpetbagger isn't part of that machine? Oh-kay. [via The Reeler]
• Doug Cummings at filmjourney reviews all the Oscar-nominated shorts, figuring (correctly) that most of us haven't heard of or seen the films even in their recent limited tour of the U.S. Now I feel guilty that I missed the shorts on their two-day run in Austin last week.
• Edward Copeland describes the first time he felt the Oscars betrayed him, and invites the rest of us to do the same. He also lists a number of Oscars that he believes were mistakes, from the silent era through the current decade. [via Green Cine Daily]

• Over at The House Next Door, Matt Zoller Seitz invites everyone to participate in a Robert Altman blog-a-thon on March 3 in anticipation of the director's honorary Oscar.
• Speaking of Oscars, Anne Thompson at Risky Biz Blog (aka the Hollywood Reporter blog) shares belated but fun details about the Oscar nominees' lunch she attended recently.
• Also on Seitz's site, guest blogger Jeremiah Kipp interviews film critic Charles Taylor about his experiences at Salon and why Taylor thinks he was fired from that publication. I was less interested in the firing story and more intrigued by Taylor's opinions about the purposes of film criticism.
• Cinema Strikes Back now has its own forum, The Movie Lounge, where film geeks are discussing The Hills Have Eyes, Shaw Brothers movies on DVD, and the ever-popular Daniel Craig.
  
• Susie Bright doesn't write often about mainstream film; her blog focuses on sexual issues. However, she found video on the Web of the lesbian sex scenes in Bound, on which she worked as technical advisor, and dishes about her involvement with the Wachowski brothers' film. (Susie's site is NSFW, by the way.)