Bill Lobdell, longtime writer and editor for the Tribune-owned LA Times and its subsidiaries, has an excellent, insightful piece up on his new blog titled "42 Things I Know," outlining why exactly he left his cushy corporate job and what's wrong over at the LA Times. Much of what Lobdell has to say is pretty much what those of us who work in new media have been saying for a long time now: that print media (in particular, the overfed layers of managers who spend most of their days having meetings about meetings so they can plan more meetings, thereby justifying their spendy salary-and-benefits packages) don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to the real world in the age of the Internet.

The most telling of Lobdell's "42 Things" are the following:

Newspapers were unbelievably slow in embracing the Internet, even though younger reporters have been pleading with their bosses for years to embrace the Web.

Amazingly, it took until 2005 for top editors at The Times to realize the Internet not only wasn't going away but might lead to the demise of newspaper.

Prior to that, the Internet operation at The Times was used as a place to hide reporters and editors who had fallen out of favor.

He goes by "Night," but it's hard to dispute his sunny disposition. Just a few minutes into a conversation with M. Night Shyamalan in a New York City hotel room yesterday, it was obvious to me that the director has managed to occupy such a unique niche in the Hollywood landscape because he's immediately likable. Of course, a little movie released in 1999 called The Sixth Sense didn't hurt, either.

After landing two Oscar nominations and international acclaim for his masterful ghost story, Shyamalan continued to market himself as a brand. Since then, the results have been mixed. Signs was an indisputable hit. Unbreakable has its supporters. Lady in the Water? Not so much. But that failure hasn't prevented the filmmaker from dealing with audacious material: His latest movie, The Happening, finds a married couple (Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) thrust into a world where people inexplicably become suicidal after getting struck by an ominous, unseen toxin. Forces of evil usually remain unseen in Shyamalan's films, and The Happening is no exception to that rule. I spoke to the 37-year-old Philadelphia resident about the personal philosophies guiding his career choices, the polarized reactions to his work, and what the future will bring.

Karina Longworth, the Editor Emeritus of Cinematical, is taking advantage of her mostly-meaningless title to post a diary of her experiences at Sundance. Your new editor wants her to do this every day, but in case she, uh, doesn't, it's because her real job got in the way.

Reading Eugene Hernandez' blog whilst waiting the for the cab to arrive to take me to La Gaurdia this morning, I learned that David Poland and Jeffrey Wells have declared that Sundance 2007, which officially begins tonight, is, in fact, already over. You see, they arrived in Park City a good 48 hours ahead of me, took turns inserting their thermometers in the rectum of the festival, and rushed to their computers to report the reading: cold. In fact, according to Wells, EVERYONE is saying that this year's line-up looks "flat, so-so, nothing to write home about material...a couple of almost-but-not-quite- as-good-as-Half Nelson flicks, and apparently nothing even close to a Little Miss Sunshine-type breakout waiting to happen."

Though tempted to reach for my phone to cancel the car -- a Sundance without a Sunshine is no Sundance for me! -- my more rational self prevailed. Instead, actually invigorated by the prospect of attending a film festival in which an over-hyped (and over-priced) Vacation retread steals headlines (and potential aquisition dollars) from ten or twelve films more deserving of market share, I zipped up my laptop and went downstairs. I went to the airport, got on the plane, and landed a little while ago. I even had my first Chik-fil-a in the Cincinatti airport during my layover. It was good. I ate too many waffle fries, though.

This week, Film Blog Group Hug focuses on Austin, Texas. It's almost too hot to blog here right now, but local writers are managing to share their thoughts on Austin film productions and screenings.

• Heath at Metroblogging Austin describes a day (or two) as an extra on the set of The Hitcher, which is being filmed in nearby San Marcos. Sean Bean was sighted.
• Austin Movie Blog posted some photos of Mark Zupan, one of the rugby players featured in the 2005 documentary Murderball ... as a zombie. Zupan is one of the many local celebs filming cameos in the movie Z: A Zombie Musical. That movie might be interesting to watch just to catch Joe Ely, Mayor Will Wynn, Dale Watson, Sara Hickman, Kinky Friedman and others all in undead makeup.
• Alamo Downtown's long-running Weird Wednesday midnight series has its own MySpace page, where Alamo programmer Lars writes about upcoming films. He recently posted the August/September schedule, which includes TNT Jackson and Chained Heat (pictured above). Some of the film posters and stills posted by commenters are worth a look.
• Wiley Wiggins saw Parents at a recent Terror Thursday screening at Alamo, and recorded his thoughts on the movie as video notes.

Most of the SXSW film festival attendees have returned home by now, and the reports and reviews are starting to hit the Web.

• Scott Weinberg appropriately described SXSW as "movie geek summer camp" because he gets to hang out with all the film writers and see tons of interesting films. He's been posting capsule reviews per day to JoBlo and has already covered the first and second days.
• When I haven't been downtown watching movies, attending the conference, or singing campfire songs with Weinberg, I've enjoyed reading the indieWIRE SXSW blog. A number of different filmmakers have been posting entries about their individual experiences promoting and screening their films or watching other people's movies.
• Cyndi Greening discusses the Blogging About Film panel that included herself and our own Karina Longworth. I was there (and hope to write about it soon myself). It was an interesting panel, particularly useful to filmmakers who want to use blogs to discuss and promote their movies.
• David at GreenCine Daily has been rounding up all the SXSW entries in detail and seeing a few movies himself.
  

I wanted to include one or two lesser-known individual blogs, maybe by Austinites, who are covering the festival more informally (like I did last year on my personal blog). However, I couldn't find anything. If you're writing about the SXSW film festival this year, feel free to post your URL in the comments.

Oh, I know you're just dying for a Snakes on a Plane update. Admit it, this is the only summer flick you're truly looking forward to. I mean, we've got snakes, a plane, Samuel L. Jackson and a title that's so bad, it has us dying to see it. Question: Has that ever happened before in the history of film? Like, ever?

According to the film's blog (Yes, this puppy has officially hit cult status), a bunch of the cast just recently returned to the set for re-shoots in an attempt to push the film from a PG-13 rating to an R. Um, did I just type that right? They are actually trying to give it an R rating? Question: Has that ever happened before in the history of film? Like, ever? Man, this one is full of surprises.

The crew member who wrote to the blog stated that these additional scenes are meant to "up the anty in previously filmed scenes and shoot additional ones." Up the ante? You have a bunch of deadly snakes released on a plane - what, did the writers decide to all of a sudden supply the reptiles with machine guns? Ooohh, I can't wait for the scene in which some cheesy couple wants to join the mile-high club, only to receive a visit from guess who. Oh, c'mon, like I'm not the only one.

[Thanks Peter]

It's a joke we've heard before: those who enjoy either Laws or Sausages should watch neither being made. It's a rule that also easily applies to the contemporary film industry. In other words, here's my scary little industry column - check back once a week, if you dare.

Perhaps the mainstream media can sleep safely after all. For all the hysteria swirling around about how the blogosphere was destined to ruin Oscar season with our obsessive prognostication, I think there’s a kind of studied, hipster-esque detachment going around the film blogs that’s worth paying attention to. How many blog posts have you read in the past month that start something like, “The Oscars are obviously totally worthless, but …”? The fact that the only answer to that question is “more than one” is sign enough that we have some kind of an epidemic on our hands.

So while the MSM Venn diagrams the hell out of the hype surrounding Brokeback Mountain and Crash, and each journalist worth his weight in pullquotes picks a circle and jerks away, I think it’s worth noting that neither film has seemed to interest the blogging rabble until some time this week. It’s evidence that someone is out of touch – although I’m not sure if it’s them or us – that the most interesting and impassioned critical discussion I’ve read on film blogs this awards season instead seems to center around Terrence Malick’s The New World, which, outside of multiple fawn-jobs by Manohla Dargis, has drawn virtually zero mainstream attention. However you chicken-or-egg the relationship between the Academy and the press, The New World is, of course, not nominated for Best Picture, and due to the perceived wisdom on Academy politics, it’s considered a long shot in the Cinematography category, the sole race in which it's been deemed worthy to compete. Tedium over these political guessing games no doubt lies at the heart of the apathy epidemic (whether, on a case by case basis, that apathy is genuine or feigned) - which makes it all the more noteworthy that it’s that exact political miasma that has finally caused the blog troops to rally around the flag.

I’m pretty sure it started last Friday when Dave Carr (blogging for the New York Times as The Carpetbagger, which has improved considerably since I was caught on tape calling it "dismal" in December) passed along the following tidbit culled from a phone call with a ballot-in-hand member of the Academy:

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a Macromedia MAX ticket for next to nothing, the Charles Bronson farm and the Nintendo Revolution controller. Plus, when your done with the full listing after the jump check out the Open Source Weblog for a special live blogging event today (September 17) only.

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including coverage of the most overrated shows of all time, DVD disagreements, and even a Picasso. Enjoy the full listing after the jump.

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a special review contest, celebrity virginity, and even the best Windows emulator for Mac. Enjoy!

Hackaday's Eliot Phillips warns you not to immolate yourself with a DIY flamethrower and encourages you to install Linux on your 2G Ipod mini while new contributor Fabienne Serriere shows how-to add a headphone jack to a Nokia phone.

HD Beat's Kevin C. Tofel explains why the nation won't see ABC in HD next week, tells you about a new HDTV technology called SED, and then finds an HDTV antenna that doubles as a picture frame.