Back on The Range With Pavement, “Offside” Director Jailed, and Ebert Speaks Again

 
Three cheers for manual labor in film! (Guardian UK)
 
Jafar Panahi, the Iranian director of the 2006 festival hit “Offside”, has been imprisoned by his government for supporting that country’s progressive Green Movement. (BBC)
 
Despite being the “It Country” of the 20th Century, the U.S.A. has never had a national tourism board, something a recently passed bill might fix. (NYT)
 
Brits are debating the relative merits of nationalizing the Queen’s Royal Collection of priceless art. (Guardian UK)
 
Did you know that men and women contract different kinds of diseases when traveling? Women tend to get gastrointestinal ailments and UT infections whereas the boys get more insect-transmitted illnesses, frostbite and STDs. No surprises, right? (NYT)
 
And what green beast, its hour come round again, slouches towards Tribeca to be born? (ArtInfo)
 
The Smithsonian Institution has turned down the opportunity to display the suit O.J. Simpson was acquitted in, which reinforces our faith in them. (Salon)
 
Frankly, this footage of cancer-silenced film critic Roger Ebert sharing a new computer program that replicates his lost voice with his wife got us more choked up than any movie we’ve seen in the last few months. (Gawker)
 
Pavement performs an off-balance version “Range Life” in their first public performance in 10 years. Just like old times. (Sound of the City)
 
“I think comedies are the redheaded stepchild of the movie business. I don’t understand why the Oscar folks don’t look at comedies. Comedies are so much harder to do. Anybody can vomit out their lines in a serious movie, but to make it funny is harder. I really do believe that. It really is unfair that they’re overlooked, I think.”—Zach Galifianakis. (Vulture)

Image: “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.