C-U Blogfidential

C-U Blogfidential needs to step it up in tandem with Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond if there is to be actual growth during Year 4.

Article and video in Bloomington (IL) daily The Pantagraph about the grand opening of the Stadium 14 cinemas in Normal on Friday, February 27, 2009. Also, your editor is suddenly rarin’ to bitch again like in the good ol’ days.

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.

Your editor grumbles at length about the opportunity missed by the Illinois Film Office at their inaugural “IFO Night at the Movies” in Savoy on June 30, 2008, to educate and connect with downstate media makers.

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.

On three consecutive freelance jobs that cut in during the current C-U Confidential dance, your editor demonstrates the three basics of print media: writin’, illustratin’, and designin’.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the Lincoln FilmFest, planned by former Ebertfest executive director Nancy Casey and C-U historian Dannel McCollum, to take place March 13-15, 2009, at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign. Also, your editor ruminates about a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

C-U Blogfidential starts off Year 3 with growing confidence and occasional hints of annoyance.

It’s moments like these when the words and actions of other “movie people” in the area simply get your editor’s goat. Therefore, your editor bitches.

Your editor doesn’t have much to add regarding the NIU shootings except for the obvious – we feel for the victims.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about Carl Deal, who won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary filmmaking at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for the feature, TROUBLE THE WATER, along with Tia Lessin. Also, your editor bitches about bad reporting by others that indirectly thwarts the C-U Blogfidential mission.

Articles in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the discussion of an independent recommendation to establish a fifth local public-access channel that would be jointly operated by Champaign and Urbana. Also, your editor bitches about something he already bitched about earlier this year.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the taping of a segment for NBC’s The Today Show in Champaign-Urbana featuring University of Illinois men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber, freshman walk-on player Jeff Jordan, and his father Michael Jordan. Also, your editor bitches (for the first time in a while) about a usual suspect.

Your editor plays hooky from C-U Blogfidential to travel both forks down the publishing road, providing words + pix for “The Eclectic Screening Room” and the way-out layout for “Bachelor Pad Magazine.”