C-U Blogfidential

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about Playboy content producer Greg Johnson previewing the upcoming “mobisode” series INTERNS for University of Illinois undergraduate students at Lincoln Hall. Also, your editor grouses about the usual suspects.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the signing of veteran actor Hal Holbrook to appear at LincolnFest in downtown Champaign on March 12-15, 2009. Also, your editor bitches about ill-chosen words by well-meaning people.

Interview on Champaign Web site SmilePolitely.com with Joshua Caudle, the new owner of the Lorraine Theatre in Hoopeston, IL.

Article in Bloomington daily The Pantagraph about the taping of a television special at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in downtown Bloomington, IL, called SKATING FOR LIFE BENEFITING SUSAN G. KOMEN FOR THE CURE, that will air on the NBC network Saturday, October 25, 2008.

Boardman’s Art Theatre in Champaign, IL, is playing the Sundance Film Festival winner TROUBLE THE WATER from October 6, 2008, through October 9, 2008, with directors Carl Deal, Jr., and Tia Lessin in attendance.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the hiring of program coordinator Kate Brickman to oversee the transformation of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign basic cable station UI-7 to an academic and community-oriented service.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about a new documentary called MEMORIAL STADIUM: TRUE ILLINI SPIRIT that will premiere on local PBS station WILL-TV Channel 12 this Tuesday, September 9, 2008, at 7 p.m.

Articles in the Chicago Tribune covering the formal departure of Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper from the long-running movie review program AT THE MOVIES, to be replaced this fall by Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment Television and Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the opening of the brand-new Stardust Drive-In near the intersection of Route 130 and 14th Street in Charleston, IL.

Article in Bloomington (IL) daily The Pantagraph about a multimedia group installation titled “Test Pattern Sound Check” going live at University Galleries, Center for the Visual Arts, on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal.

Article on Champaign Web site SmilePolitely.com that talks about the success and tenacity of That’s Rentertainment and Parasol Records against a highly altered merchant landscape in Champaign-Urbana that does not favor local establishments selling products for “intellgent consumption.”

THE INFORMANT has begun principal photography in Macon County, and the Decatur Herald & Review wants you to track Matt Damon’s every move. Or, not.

Articles in Champaign daily The News-Gazette and Danville daily Commercial-News about the debut of Thomas Bender’s documentary HOOPESTON during the final installment of the New York Underground Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives in New York City.

Article in Bloomington (IL) daily The Pantagraph about Hollywood filmmaker Graham Streeter visiting Bloomington-Normal to scout locations for his upcoming narrative feature NORMAL FOLK, which will star Normal resident Marty Murphy as a woman living with severe autism. Also, your editor says what has to be said about location shooting locally.

Articles in Decatur daily Herald & Review about the impending location shooting of Steven Soderbergh’s next studio picture, THE INFORMANT, in Decatur, IL, this April and May. Also, your editor scolds a well-meaning group for taking initiative on something that wasn’t theirs to begin with.