All about debuts - Matoumba

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 3.17.10

- 20 hours and 49 minutes ago

I can see Gus Van Sant making a Twilight movie if he's allowed to do it in his minimalist "death trilogy" style. And maybe if Sofia Coppola made Breaking Dawn she could use the money she makes on a more interesting film later. But Bill Condon? He's the one director in Summit's wish list that I can't see doing the thing. Sure, he did a Candyman movie so he can do horror -- which the Oscars told us Twilight is. And he also got spooky and paranormal more than 20 years ago with his directorial debut, Sister, Sister, as well as with his early scripts for Strange Behavior and Strange Invaders. But otherwise he's mainly a biopic guy these days. And this is why I hope he at least takes a meeting regarding this Twilight offer and turns his gathered research into a film about the series' creator, Stephanie Meyer.

I'm only calling it Gods and Monsters 2 because it's 2 for Tuesday, and because it would also deal with a person behind a very successful horror franchise. I guess better titles associated with the James Whale-centered film might be Bride of Gods and Monsters or simply Gods and Monsters Too. I just love the ridiculousness of those "Too" sequels. Anyway, I honestly don't really know much about Meyer other than her religious background and the fact that she never thought she'd make it as an author. Whatever, I'm sure the guy who gave us Kinsey and Dreamgirls and who will give us a serviceable Richard Pryor biopic in the near future can figure out an angle.

All I'm going to say is, age issue aside, Gods and Monsters costar Lolita Davidovich for the lead. And to Summit: once your cash cow has dried up, milk the cow's mom for something related, like a biopic, might still get the fans in the seats. Just get the Twilight kids to show up as themselves for cameos.

Filed under: Remakes and Sequels

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Generation I: Middle Children of the Information Age

CrunchGear

- 22 hours and 5 minutes ago

Every generation thinks that they are the first. The first to feel this way or that, the first to make this or that revelation, the first to do and make things that we find later have been done and made since before we could record their doing and making. But while these illusory and fleeting firsts are common to every generation, there are true firsts being achieved constantly, though they are often subtle enough that they are not noticed even by those in their midst. My generation has been lucky enough to be part of a very important first.

The personal computer (in all its forms) has grown to be, I would say, the single greatest potential source of prosperity in history. It has enabled the internet and a consequent democratization of all sorts of arts and information, as well as the ongoing destabilization of financial institutions via distributed money transfers. The revolution, and it really is one, is ongoing. How unlike the world of 2000, of 1990, is the present day? And 2020 will be doubly, triply removed. As technology further enables itself, the positive feedback creates a greater rate of advance, and thus our acceleration; if this interests you, you should probably go talk to Mr. Kurzweil, since he’s done a bit more work on the idea. I’m not concerned with the singularity, however: my object is the generation to which I belong. I propose that this generation, which I am going to call Generation I for a number of reasons, is the only one to which the rate of advancement of technology was exactly fitted. At no other time in history, and perhaps never in the future, will there be a group of people whose own growth and maturation is so perfectly reflected in the principal technological and cultural advancement of the age.

It’s a serious claim, but I hope to show that it’s founded in observation and not egomania. And let me remark further before I begin, that I am not claiming any special merit for this generation, only a special situation. Lastly: I will speak of “advancement” or “progress” as if they were objectively measurable, when clearly there is much to be said on what those concepts actually consist of. But for the purposes of this article, let us consider them to be, say, the progressively sophisticated bending of the natural world to our needs and wants.

As even a casual student of history (read: a grade-schooler) can see, the rate of technological and cultural advancement has ever accelerated, of course with some interruptions due to warfare and subjugation. This is first observable in the length of “ages” — the stone age, 40,000 years. The bronze age, 2000 years. The iron age, 1000 years. There are too many books written on this topic for me to spend many words on this, and at any rate this acceleration is palpable to those of us living in the modern first world. Moore’s Law was once a simple prediction; now it’s practically a force of nature.

Let us look at recent history, to prime our minds for the idea of what I would call a “generational technology.” The car is a perfect example. Prototyped in the late 19th century, manufactured widely in 1915, increasingly affordable and common over the next 30 years, then producing a “car culture” in the 50s and 60s, followed by an increasingly consumerized nature as the automobile was integrated completely into civilization, and cities and lives began to be designed around it. Today the integration is complete, and perhaps we are on the verge of another change, to a post-car world. I don’t know. But the divisions in the car’s history, you see, are a lot like generational periods. The specific dates and years aren’t important, as generations are a sort of rolling concept, and the lines are wherever the historian finds them convenient to be. So let us look at the stages of the car, which I have also given names (I’m a coining machine today):

Hammer stage: During this time, the concept and platform of the automobile were being determined by the founders and inventors. Things like setting down how many wheels a car will have, which method of propulsion it will use, the materials it will be built from, and so on. There was surely some bickering here, as there was between AC and DC when prototyping electrical devices, but one fundamental form is almost always selected, and for the car it was four wheels, front engine, and internal combustion. This stage is performed entirely by an older generation of inventors, investors, and engineers.

Paper stage: This is the period where the creators turned the design over to the marketers, who made it into a product. Extra features were created within the confines of the pre-established framework, manufacturing methods were improved, the whole process made faster, and other steps taken to make the technology affordable and attractive. For the car this was of course improvement in reliability, luxury, and speed, among other things. It is a stage of intense competition among marketers, who must both inform and sell to the public, to whom the idea of the car (in, say, 1925-1940) is still new and barely affordable. They are largely ignorant on the subject and are likely skeptical.

Tinker stage: Once the car was adopted by consumers at large, as cars were by the close of World War II, the next (very numerous) generation grew up with the “new” technology taken — I don’t want to say for granted but perhaps as granted. The car culture of the 50s and 60s was a result of a generation of people in tune with an important and exciting technology, a generation as familiar with the car as they were with the clock. There was an expansion of the purposes of the car during this time, as well as a great improvement in their quality, since this generation, having grown up with cars, would work to provide the advancements that were not possible under the auspices of either their parents or the inventors, whose ideas were likely no longer applicable. This positive feedback loop, as in other technologies, leads to a second push and prepares the way for the fourth stage.

Mirror stage: Once the car had been proposed, adopted, and grown up alongside of, in the three previous ages respectively, it was ready to become fully integrated. Not just because it had gotten to a certain level of affordability or reliability, but because it was an integral part of the modern person’s life already, and now the task was to shape civilization around it. While the highway creation act in 1956 obviously wasn’t driven by 10-year-old baby boomers, the obligation of government and industry to acknowledge the growing importance of the automobile was clear enough once it was recognized at large as foundational. In this stage nearly everyone is part of the process; the automobile has impressed itself on civilization, and civilization must now reflect it more fundamentally. The term Mirror Stage is actually an existing psychological one (as well as an excellent game), and refers to the period at which a child becomes captivated with its own image. I thought it loosely appropriate.Essentially: invention, introduction, internalization, integration.

But is there another stage? I don’t think so. The cycle is complete: the changing world births a new technology, the technology is popularized, refined, and eventually fuels the next change. I chose the car as a representative because it is familiar and its effects clear, but with a little work I think that the model I’ve just suggested can be applied to pretty much any technology, from aqueducts to longbows. But this isn’t a longbow blog — so let’s move on.

Note that, in the example of the car, each stage is relegated roughly to a generation. The inventing generation sells to the adopting generation, which brings up the integrative generation. Furthermore, the inventing generation cannot be the adopting generation, and the rate of progression in this case prohibited the adopting generation from being the integrative generation; for the car it took around 50 or 60 years, arguably more, for it to reach its Mirror stage. My belief is that Generation I (born roughly between 1975 and 1985) is the first generation, and possibly the last, to see and be a part of every stage: to be a part of the genesis, popularization, refinement, and counter-refinement of their age’s defining technology.

Now, I don’t claim we invented the personal computer; nor, I’m sure, would those who are cited as inventing the computer. Like the automobile, the computer was a long time coming and was enabled by advances in many other technologies and disciplines. Early computing was as an exercise in logic, mathematics, and electrical engineering, and its early advances academic. What defined the automobile, and what has defined both the computer and the age in which it has proliferated, was not in fact the creators (brilliant though they were), who were the implements of history, but the people who used them and guided their use. For the car, that definition was stretched out over long decades, and people grew old while automobile technology remained young. For the personal computer and the internet, the infancy of the technology coincided with the infancy of my generation, its adolescence with our adolescence, its growth with our growth, in such a pas-de-deux as has no precedent in history and, for all we know, may have no equal in futurity.

Generation I is the middle child of the information age. To be born a few years earlier would mean to see the personal computer and the internet as an new and exciting gadget, like the VCR or Walkman. A few years later would be to arrive late to the show: to grow up in the presence of computers, smartphones, and the internet, but not to grow up with them. Taken for granted, these things become black boxes; on the other hand, seen as just another set of devices and applications, they lose their transformational potential. I think the timing is very important, but of course as part of the generation, I am prone to that error.

Our readers will probably remember that computers around 1980 were ugly, limited, and expensive machines. They performed a few of the functions will still value today (word processing, calculating, games) but had no GUI and little connectivity. I don’t want to overstate the parallels, but just for clarity in what I am driving at, consider that an apt comparison might be to a young child, able to see and crawl, or walk totteringly — fundamentally intact, you see, but encumbered with limitations that can only be changed with time and effort.

I remember learning just enough of my dad’s old work computer to find tic-tac-toe and play it on the flickering amber screen. A few years later, primitive UIs are emerging, so primitive that the command line is still unarguably the more powerful tool. Just as Generation I begins to learn to read and to speak, the PC can be communicated to in what we understood as plain language. The first truly popular computers proliferate, running DOS, and a few of us were lucky enough to play with one of the later Apple II models.

In 1990 the GUI and the more complex tools it enables begin to flourish and become fundamental to the PC experience, as Windows 3.0 and the Mac Classic hit the market. Shortly after that, the first affordable modems. BBSes, AOL and its chatrooms and fake internet, and then the revelation of the true web with Mosaic, Internet Explorer, and so on. I won’t waste your time with further details you’re almost certainly familiar with (having lived through them), but you must see the way things are not moving at the rate of a stage per generation like the car. No – they moved more quickly, but not so quick that we lost track. This particular speed of maturation (from “infancy” to “adulthood,” which we may define as, say, Windows XP or OS X; after that I believe the core functionality of the PC OS has not been substantially altered), which is roughly the same as the speed of maturation for a human being, and Generation I has the privilege of being the computer’s twin sibling, if you will.

Though the virtue of being born at the right time is not ours to claim, nor is it simply a novelty that Generation I has grown up in tandem with a world-defining technology. As we grew up with it, we have seen and participated in all the stages of generational technology. We witnessed as children the squabbling between Atari, Microsoft, Amiga, and all the others as the beat the raw metal of computing technology into a shape the world could use. We knew it when it was young, and then we helped it become a household technology by simply being in the household, the way baby boomer kids grew up around cars and ended up knowing cars better than any generation before them. However, cars as a technology practically stood still for the car kids’ formative stages. Not so for us: every year the computer was changing its case, its OS, its capabilities, its interface — everything changed about it, but we still recognized it, the way we’d recognize an old playmate year after year who, though changing in size, aspect, and ability, we still know. That is how Generation I knows the computer, the internet, the smartphone, and whatever comes next. Not as a series of devices, but as the natural progression of a friend whom we know by sight in spite of the changes wrought by time and culture. Perhaps it is best expressed that we know the ghost in the machine, that which has informed and guided the progression of the technology from household appliance to a tool as fundamental as the wheel.

Captain Nemo took pride in the Nautilus “moving through a medium of movement.” He meant the ocean, of course, a place that is never the same one instant to the next, but which he nonetheless knew and navigated freely because… well, because he had a submarine. The metaphor doesn’t extend that far. But the idea of moving in a moving medium is a powerful one. To truly understand the way that the world changes around you, and to not only be able to survive in it but to thrive, to navigate, to direct that change, that is the privilege of a generation born into movement.

I see in my flight of fancy I’ve really built up Generation I into quite a ridiculously grand thing, and in doing so made the same mistake that I described in the first sentence of this article. I did not mean to do so, but the simple boon of being born alongside a world-changing technology is not minor: it matured with us and has shaped us as much as we have shaped it, and that means that we are on the front line for the Mirror Stage of the information age. Can you forgive me for being excited to be a part of a sea change in civilization, a change in infrastructure perhaps more fundamental than the integration of the automobile? Few events in history are the equal of this impending shift, if I’m not mistaken. I of course don’t claim it for myself or my generation; it is a glory we will share in, but which we may be able to uniquely enjoy. Imagine being the childhood friend of the first man to set foot on Mars. It’s no credit on yourself exactly, but you just may understand him more fundamentally than anybody else.

What’s that I hear you saying? That we haven’t actually contributed much to the progress of the personal computer and the internet? Very true! If I’ve claimed otherwise I’m very sorry, because Generation I, like the baby boomer generation in the 60s, isn’t quite ready to make our mark. The fact is we’re just starting out. What was the work of the baby boomers? Was it driving cars around fast and knowing how to clean a carburetor? Hell no. Their task wasn’t just to know the technology that would shape their world, but to shape their world. And that’s our job as well. What changes the world will know in the next 20 years are impossible to predict, but you better believe that Generation I are going to set their shoulders to it. The Mirror Stage awaits.

And why Generation I? Before us is Generation X, or so we are told. I’ve heard people my age, or my brother’s, as Generation Y. It’s no use naming a generation before their purpose is clear; otherwise the Greatest Generation would be called the Kaiser Kids or something horribly inappropriate. Generation I occurred to me as I was writing this piece, and as far as I can tell it’s the most evocative of that which truly defines us.

Generation I reflects the burst of technology which in the last decade (as we ourselves have made our real-world debut), has become commonplace, and the prefix “i-” has become a universal indicator of tech. Yes, it’s a bit of a capitulation to Apple, but let’s not fool ourselves: the iPod and iMac immediately became so synonymous with personal technology that i- became generic almost overnight. So we’ve got Generation i. To be honest, I’m not sure if I prefer i or I. I think that, like other instances of the letter, capitalization may vary.

Generation I is also Generation Me: the increasing independence and compartmentalization of the social order that is the result of the personal computer and the internet, our totem technologies. It’s the paradox of instant connection and constant isolation.

And Generation I is Generation One. This is the most important of all. The coincidence of timing that resulted in us being born with silicon in our mouths also charges us with a serious responsibility — though what it may be is yet unknown. No generation is warned of the tribulations ahead, though with luck our task will be suited to our unique position. But why the One? If, as I suspect, we are in fact the first wave of a new, tech-integrative sort of people, then surely the kids born after us, into a world already possessing high-speed internet, Wikipedia, and GPS smartphones, are Generation II. What better than to start giving version numbers to our offspring? Seems like something Generation I would do.

I’d like to conclude with an apology. If you’ve read this far, there’s a good chance you’re seething with anger at having been excluded from what I seem to think is the most awesome generation of all time, who invented everything worthwhile and will do everything important in the future. I want to correct that potential misconception, though I understand where it’s coming from. Obviously the pioneers of the information age are largely baby boomers, and of course Generation X is one of the great utilizers of technology. And for that matter, kids today fulfill many of the conditions that I think make Generation I so special. I can only say that I tend to get carried away, and that our special situation is really the main thing we have going for us. Am I reaching? Very likely. Am I romanticizing? Most certainly. Let’s chalk it up to youthful vigor.

It is probably true that every distinct generation is born into a confluence of circumstances that is consequential in its own way. Too often, though, I have felt that people my age have been maligned as a passive generation, one of consumption and luxury. That’s actually true as far as it goes, but there is much beneath the surface; who would have thought that the boomers, flower children and hot-rodders in the 60s, would be galvanized by the civil rights movement and Vietnam, emerging to become the most powerful demographic in the country, and perhaps the world, for decades running? It is toward such heights that Generation I must drive itself. We must show ourselves equal to the special favor we have been granted, and do our part to carry the world into the next age, whatever it asks of us.

Note: if you comment about how this article was too long for you to read, your comment will be deleted. Who cares?

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The Playstation Move makes its advertising debut

Updated Archos 13 laptop to roll out next month

Demo-Listen Derby for Indie Musicians

First WiMAX phone to debut next week?

SXSW Review: Lebanon, Pa.

Image Acquires Rights to George Harrison's Handmade Library Titles

Cinematical

- 1 days ago

Late Beatle George Harrison may no longer be with us, but his film production work lives on thanks to indie home entertainment giant, Image. The company has announced the acquisition of Harrison's Handmade Films library, a collection of titles produced by the rock icon which showcases a wide range of movies covering multiple genres. The DVD/Blu-ray and electronic debuts are set for undisclosed times. The label's first theatrical release is the seminal Terry Gilliam flick, Time Bandits, which was one of several of Handmade's titles under threat of a remake several years ago, but nothing has come of it to date.

The fantasy adventure tale about a young boy who befriends a group of time-traveling dwarves isn't the only hit to Harrison's credit. "The Handmade library contains some of the greatest and most influential films of the past thirty years," said Ted Green, chairman and CEO of Image. "Their legendary expertise with home entertainment is the perfect match for our picture collection." That collection also includes movies like the British gangster drama The Long Good Friday starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren; Neil Jordan's 1986 noir Mona Lisa, which Kids' director Larry Clark is developing into a remake -- starring Eva Green; the black comedies and farces How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Withnail and I, A Private Function with Michael Pain (Monty Python) and Maggie Smith (Harry Potter), and the nutty Water starring Michael Caine and Valerie Perrine. [after the jump: what about that Harrison/Scorsese documentary?]

Filed under: Deals, Distribution, Home Entertainment

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Palm's AT&T launch pushed back to summer?

Scenes (Songs) We Love: "Little B**ch" from 'Sixteen Candles'

Cinematical

- 1 days and 1 hours ago

It was during the somewhat underwhelming tribute to filmmaker John Hughes, during this year's Oscar telecast, that my eyes misted up ever so slightly. I realized what a big part of growing up his movies had been for me (and I know untold others). In fact, I still get a twinge of nostalgia when I catch one of his films on a Sunday afternoon. But as much as I may love his films, if I had to pick my favorite Hughes' comedy, I would have to go with Sixteen Candles. Unlike so many other '80s films, it's a movie that isn't bound by age, what decade it is, or even what passed for fashion sense, it just remains a very funny movie, and one of Hughes' best. So for today's Scenes (Songs) We Love, I went with a song that maybe isn't the most well known from the film, but it was a big hit around my house thanks to an older sister with a taste for all things 'Mod' -- and she was a redhead, how cool was that? So, if are you unfamiliar with the awesomeness that is The Specials, may I introduce you to "Little Bitch."

The Specials had formed in 1977, but by 1981, most of the original lineup was long gone. The song would have been relatively old by the time Hughes got his hands on it for Candles, since it was on their 79' debut self-titled album. You have to be pretty familiar with the film to place the track, because if you blink you'll miss the classic ska song. But for the curious (and the obsessive) out there, it is the soundtrack to one of my favorite comedy dances of all time, Joan Cusack getting down in a neck brace; like I said, it's easy to miss. However, it is a perfect example of Hughes' spectacular taste when it came to music in his films, and how he would find songs that maybe weren't pop hits, but exposed teens, and pre-teens like myself, to what good music was -- and Cusack doing the new-wave twist was the icing on the cake.

After the jump; I know you know you're just a little bitch!

Filed under: Comedy, Music & Musicals, Fandom, Scenes We Love

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Best of FingerGaming: From Street Fighter IV to The Graveyard

GameSetWatch

- 1 days and 2 hours ago

[Every week, we sum up sister iPhone site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent -- and increasingly exciting -- portable games platform, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Mathew Kumar and Jonathan Glover.]

This week, FingerGaming covers Capcom's iPhone port of Street Fighter IV and interviews IGF winners Randy Smith, Jetro Lauha and Jani Kahrama.

Also in this set of stories are the advent of The Graveyard on Apple's system, the top-selling and highest-grossing apps, and a number of other notable news and analysis pieces.

Here are the top stories from the last seven days:

- Street Fighter IV Now Available in App Store
"The iPhone version of Street Fighter IV includes eight playable characters -- Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, Guile, Dhalsim, Abel, and M. Bison. Each fighter retains his or her full move set, including specials, focus attacks, and ultra combos."

- Road to the IGF Mobile: Spider’s Randy Smith
"Having recently won the IGF Mobile Best iPhone game award, FingerGaming spoke to industry veteran and Tiger Style head Randy Smith about the studio’s stunning debut heading into the IGF."

- Top-Grossing Game Apps: Monopoly Overtakes Final Fantasy
"EA’s Monopoly finishes as this week’s highest-grossing game in the App Store. Square Enix’s former chart leader Final Fantasy drops to second place, while Backflip Studios’ physics puzzler Ragdoll Blaster 2 takes third in its debut week."

- Eliss Creator Reveals Faraway for iPhone
"Faraway retains Eliss’s outer space setting and vector graphic style, and introduces a new single-input gameplay mechanic revolving around gravitational pull."

- Top Free Game App Downloads: FingerZilla, Sniper Strike Lead Daily Rankings
"Inert Soap’s destruction sim FingerZilla captures the free app chart’s top spot. Donoma Games’ shooter Sniper Strike finishes at second place, as BayView Labs’ virtual aquarium Tap Fish takes third."

- Road to the IGF Mobile: Stair Dismount Developer Secret Exit
"Taking time out from working on their sequel to Zen Bound, Stair Dismount mastermind Jetro Lauha and cohort Jani Kahrama took time out of their busy schedule to speak to FingerGaming about the development of their IGF Mobile finalist sequel."

- Gameloft Shows Off Splinter Cell: Conviction, Zombie Infection at GDC
"Splinter Cell: Conviction is a third-person shooter built using an upgraded version of Gameloft's N.O.V.A. engine, while Zombie Infection clones the survival horror gameplay of Capcom's Resident Evil 5."

- Top-Selling Paid Game Apps: Alpine Crawler World Debuts in Top Three
"Dimension Technics’ physics-based offroading sim Alpine Crawler World sees fast sales in its premiere week, and finishes behind All-in-1 Gamebox and Doodle Jump in today's chart."

- Indie Art Game The Graveyard Arrives on iPhone
"Indie games developer Tale of Tales has released a free iPhone version of its 'explorable painting' The Graveyard, with a paid edition offering the possibility of a different ending."

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AOL Autos debuts official iPhone app for new car shoppers

Autoblog

- 1 days and 2 hours ago

Filed under: Car Buying

AOL Autos iPhone app - Click above to learn more and download

Our brethren over at AOL Autos are having a big day today. They've just launched the official AOL Autos iPhone app, which you can download for your iPhone or iPod Touch by clicking here. The cost of the app is zero pesos, so there's nothing to lose by trying it out.

You'll want this app if shopping for a new car is in your future. Why? It basically takes all of that research you did at home on your computer and crams it into a mobile app that goes with you. That way you can visit a dealership armed with all of that information about pricing and options at your finger tips.

The app allows you to narrow down your new vehicle search by price, type and style, or you can directly hit the vehicle you want by make and model. Once you've found a model, you can pick a trim level and select options, and the app will keep a running tally of what the vehicle costs as you go.

There are also photo galleries for each vehicle, expert opinions, user reviews and the ability to save models that you've built and send them to your friends and family. We've talked with the AOL Autos folk and are encouraged to hear that this won't be an app that gets forgotten in the App Store. Their team is already working on updates to improve functionality and add new futures, which will debut in the coming months.

We know what you're thinking: Where's an Autoblog app for the iPhone? Good question. First, do us a favor and go download the AOL Autos app. The more popular their app is, the more incentive our bosses have to unleash the Autoblog news flow in an iPhone app for your portable pleasure.

[Source: AOL Autos]

AOL Autos debuts official iPhone app for new car shoppers originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exclusive Sneak Peek at the 15th Annual Gen Art Film Festival

Cinematical

- 1 days and 3 hours ago

The 2010 film festival season is well underway, and after attending back-to-back monsters like Sundance and SXSW, there's always a huge part of me that looks forward to the Gen Art Film Festival and its simple pitch of seven shorts, seven features and seven parties spread across seven days in New York City. To help spread the word this year, the good folks at Gen Art have put together this tantalizing sneak peek at the films premiering between the nights of April 7th-13th, 2010, and they've handed it over to Cinematical to debut. Why? Because we're cool like that.

I've heard people refer to Gen Art's fest as "the best of the fests" since they usually program films that were very successful at other festivals; sort of like a highly entertaining playlist featuring some of the films festival audiences liked best this past year. And for their special 15th Annual Gen Art Film Festival, they're bringing out the big guns -- screening Sundance audience award winners (like happythankyoumoreplease, a film which you'll be able to watch the first footage from in the video after the jump) and Slamdance audience award winners (like The Wild Hunt), as well as other fest favorites like Mercy, Tanner Hall, Teenage Paparazzo, Waiting for Forever and Elektra Luxx (a personal favorite of mine).

Check out this special exclusive sneak peek at all the films screening at Gen Art this year after the jump, then hop on over to their official website for more info on the festival, like schedules and ticket info.

Filed under: Fandom, Exhibition, Gen Art, Trailers and Clips

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WiMAX-enabled HTC Supersonic rumored to debut on Sprint at CTIA

Jolicloud netbook OS heads for international debut

Leak re-confirms HTC Supersonic for Sprint at CTIA

Exclusive First Ride: 2011 Ford Edge Sport

Autoblog

- 1 days and 4 hours ago

Filed under: Performance, Crossover, Ford, Quick Spin

Yee-Ha! in a 2011 Ford Edge Sport - Click above for high-res image gallery
Manufacturers used to roll out all-new cars every five-to-eight years. Somewhere around the halfway point - usually year three - much hoopla would be made about new front and rear fascias, the addition of some standard features and some new option packages. (*Yawn*). These changes were designed to give shoppers a reason to look at a car that was getting long-in-the-tooth.

Ford Motor Company sung by this songbook for decades, but it's not any longer. As we've seen with the Escape, Fusion and Mustang, the Ford brand is rolling out significant product changes any time they darn well please. For example, the 2010 Fusion could have been a standard refresh, but instead included three all-new powertrains, a significantly upgraded interior, and the expected front and rear fascias.

Introduced as a 2007 model at the close of 2006, the Edge was Ford's second attempt at a more car-like crossover. (Anybody remember the Freestyle/Taurus X ... uhh, not so much.) Heading into its fifth year of production, the Edge needed some serious attention. It just got it: We reported so on the eve of February's Chicago Auto Show.

Following the new model's public debut, Ford offered Autoblog an exclusive opportunity to ride in a 2011 Edge Sport with some development engineers so we could have an early, behind-the-scenes look at their handiwork. The new Edge doesn't go on sale until later this Summer, but you can read all about our experience at the Dearborn Development Center right now after the jump.

Gallery: First Ride: 2011 Ford Edge Sport