Culturite

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis and Oscar-winning actor and Academy member Forest Whitaker.

Ganis and Whitaker will unveil the nominations in 10 of the 24 award categories at a 5:30 a.m. news conference at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where hundreds of media representatives from around the world will be gathered. Nominations information for all categories will be distributed simultaneously to news media in attendance and via the Internet on the official Academy Awards Web site, www.oscar.com.

1/20, New York, NY (Grand Ballroom)
1/21, New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom)
1/22, Chicago, IL (Metro)
1/23, Los Angeles, CA (Henry Fonda Theatre)
1/24, Los Angeles, CA (Troubadour)
5/11, Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
5/12, Philadelphia, PA (Electric Factory)
5/13, New York, NY (Terminal 5)
5/14, Boston, MA (House of Blues)
5/15, Montreal, Quebec (Metropolis)
5/16, Toronto, Ontario (Sound Academy)
5/18, Royal Oak, MI (Royal Oak Music Hall)
5/19, Milwaukee, WI (Turner Hall Ballroom)
5/20, Minneapolis, MN (First Avenue)
5/24, Vancouver, British Columbia (Commodore Ballroom)
5/25, Portland, OR (Roseland Theater)
5/26, Oakland, CA (Fox Theatre)
5/27, Big Sur, CA (Henry Miller Memorial Library)
5/29, Los Angeles, CA (Wiltern)
5/30, Las Vegas, NV (House of Blues)
5/31, Tucson, AZ (Rialto Theater)
6/1, Albuquerque, MN (Sunshine Theater)
6/2, Boulder, CO (Boulder Theatre)
6/4, Dallas, TX (House of Blues)
6/5, Austin, TX (Stubbs)
6/6, Oxford, MS (The Library)
6/8, St. Petersburg, FL (State Theatre)
6/9, Fort Lauderdale, FL (Culture Room)
6/10, Orlando, FL (Club Firestone)
9/12, Monticello, NY (All Tomorrow’s Parties)

Don’t Twitter via cell phone. Don’t send photos or videos using your mobile. And don’t hold your breath waiting to make or receive a call if you’re in the D.C. area. You’re going to be frustrated. And you may have to wait.

As anticipated, wireless networks, despite preparation, are getting crushed with traffic from an estimated 2 million people who have come to the nation’s capital for the inauguration of Barack Obama.

“The general consensus is that cell phones aren’t working. Text messages are working; it’s just the calls that aren’t working out so well,” said Matthew Schlesinger, 22, a D.C. resident who was in the Mall crowd this morning.

I’m Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House’s new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

Millions of Americans have powered President Obama’s journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country’s future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration’s efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.

Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration’s online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:

Communication — Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.

Transparency – President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President’s executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.

Participation — President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

Except where otherwise noted, third-party content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Whitehouse.gov under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

At exactly one minute after noon on Tuesday change.gov is coming to the White House.

That’s the moment when whitehouse.gov — the website for the past eight years of President George W. Bush — changes hands and the savvy young New Media webmasters of freshly sworn-in President Barack Obama take over.

The new whitehouse.gov is expected to be the window for what is being touted as a bold experiment in interactive government based largely on lessons learned during the most successful Internet-driven election campaign in history.

“The White House is going to be a very exciting place,” said Macon Phillips, director of New Media for Obama’s transition team. “We’re pushing the envelope here.”

Since the November 4 election, the transition team has been “looking at government, how we can open it up, how we can engage citizens,” he said.

The goal is to “continue the same spirit, participation and energy that was so essential to us during the campaign,” Phillips said. “But more than that, to continue to expand it.”

The Web will be the laboratory for what some are calling “open sourced democracy” and a glimpse of what the new whitehouse.gov may look like can be found at change.gov, the official transition website.

Recently retired actor Joaquin Phoenix may be moving his talents into the world of music with a debut Hip-Hop album.

Last October, Phoenix officially announced his retirement from acting, after a 24-year career.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Phoenix’s first Hip-Hop show will commence tonight at an undetermined Las Vegas club.

Chronicling Phoenix’s music aspirations will be friend and To Die For co-star Casey Affleck.

The footage is expected to be compiled for a full length documentary detailing Phoenix’s transition from actor to musician.

Sean “Diddy” Combs is rumored to be the executive producer for Phoenix’s pending debut.

“This is me saying this is who I am,” Phoenix declared before hopping on stage for his hip-hop set.

“This is my story.”

And in case you can’t make it, brother-in-law Casey Affleck (married to Summer Phoenix) is shooting a documentary of Joaquin’s evolution.

“Are there people out there who think I’m a joke? I’m sure there will be. Are there people who think it’s going to suck? Probably, but I can’t worry about that,” Phoenix told press

The war over Watchmen between Fox and Warner Bros. is over. The settlement, finalized late Thursday, has Warner Bros. forking over a chunk of change (including old development costs, plus interest) and a portion of the film’s theatrical revenues. The L.A. Times reports the cash figure at $1.5 million (though Variety says it could be as much as $10 million), while multiple reports say Warner Bros. might be ceding as much as 8.5 percent of the box office receipts. Fox will also get a piece of future sequels or spin-offs (which are unlikely), but it does not appear that the company will be sharing in revenues generated from DVD sales and licensed merchandise.

And so ends months of enormous free publicity for Watchmen, which not so long ago was deemed a marketing-challenged gamble, being that it’s an R-rated, 2 hour-plus superhero epic based on characters nobody knows. But director Zack Snyder’s dark opus now enjoys intense Must See buzz thanks to the mainstream media’s intense interest in Fox’s dogged pursuit of justice, not to mention Warner Bros.’ decision not resolve the matter until six weeks prior to the movie’s March 6 release, just as billboards and TV ads begin flooding the national mediasphere.

Shrinking revenue is the reason that big U.S. newspapers are joining forces to ensure global coverage, per The Wall Street Journal. For example, Tribune–which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune–is in talks with the Washington Post Co. to use its foreign and national coverage. Similarly, the New York Daily News has reached an agreement with start-up GlobalPost to use its network of part-time foreign correspondents. Such agreements would revamp foreign news ops at three of the nation’s 10 largest newspapers.

The former BART police officer accused of shooting and killing a Hayward man will soon return to California.

27-year-old Johannes Mehserle is expected to arrive back in the state by Friday. Wednesday morning, he waived extradition during a hearing in Nevada.

Investigators say he was taken into custody there Tuesday on homicide charges.

The arrest came 12 days after witnesses say he shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a BART train platform in Oakland.

Hundreds of people gathered at City Hall on Wednesday and marched to the Alameda County Courthouse, shouting, “We will march, we will chant, until there’s justice for Oscar Grant!” and “I am Oscar Grant!” Organizers also called for the resignation of county Dist. Atty. Tom Orloff, doubting his ability to successfully prosecute accused police officers. Police in riot gear were out in force.

Addressing the group on Oak Street between the courthouse and the county administration building, Grant’s grandfather rejoiced that “they got the man who killed my grandson.” Oscar Grant Sr. also beseeched the crowd to “keep peace.”

But despite his plea, the demonstration ended violently after a small group splintered off and damaged local businesses and several cars parked along the streets.

In videos that have been broadcast on television and viewed hundreds of thousands of times on the Internet, a uniformed officer later identified as Mehserle stands over a prostrate Grant, pulls his gun and fires point-blank into Grant’s back.

Although six of the officers involved in the incident gave statements shortly afterward, Mehserle contacted an attorney and refused to comment. Nearly a week after the shooting, he resigned from the BART police force and holed up at a family property near Lake Tahoe.