| BET Rolling Out 16 Original Series
BET Networks plans to launch 16 new original series, including its first-ever attempt at scripted shows, writes Mediaweek. Two years ago, BET chairman and CEO Debra Lee made programming original series a priority for the Viacom Network. Since then, the budget has been significantly boosted. Shows in the works include Somebodies, a single-camera scripted comedy about a group of post-collegiate slackers based on a film by the same name, and Wifey, a scripted drama that focuses on a widow who takes over her husband's hip-hop record label. The network grew its total prime time audience 11 percent in 2006 and upped its 18-49s by 11 percent, but it lost 13 percent in prime during the first quarter of this year. Some of that can be chalked up to an worse-than-expected reaction to the network's high-profile acquisition of HBO's The Wire.
'Trees on a Slope' and Psychology of the Korean War
I am British and I live in South Korea, but I don't speak Korean. That makes me feel like an insect skimming along on the surface of a pond, never really sure what's happening below. So I decided to take some positive steps to find out more about this country, and where better to start than with its fiction?
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The pursuit of life, liberty and happiness — in English
I've been taking lessons to learn Spanish for a while now, and it's given me a new understanding of how difficult it is to learn a new language. And there's no question that if I lived in a Spanish-speaking country and had to study and work and shop in Spanish as I struggled to learn the language, the challenges would be greater. But there's also no doubt that the rewards would be greater, too. Mastering the language of a country opens doors of opportunity, plain and simple. In the United States, English is by no means our only language, but it is the language of economic success and upward mobility. More important, it is the language of our national unity and political discourse. And just as opportunity is the birthright of all native-born Americans, it becomes the inheritance of all new Americans.
If We Taught English the Way We Teach Mathematics...
Imagine that your only contact with "English" as a subject was through classes in school. Suppose that those classes, from elementary school right through to high school, amounted to nothing more than reading dictionaries, getting drilled in spelling and formal grammatical construction, and memorizing vast vocabulary lists -- you never read a novel, nor a poem; never had contact with anything beyond the pedantic complexity of English spelling and formal grammar, and precise definitions for an endless array of words. You would probably hate the subject.You might come to wonder what the point of learning English was. In response perhaps the teachers and education system might decide that, to help make English relevant to students, they need to introduce more "Applied English". This means teaching English students with examples from "real life" (for varying degrees of "real") where English skills are important, like how to read a contract and locate the superfluous comma.
Bulls one of several story lines in playoffs
The NBA playoffs started this past weekend with a few intriguing matchups, such as the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets vs. San Antonio Spurs.
However, I am most looking forward to seeing the Chicago Bulls defeat the World Champion Miami Heat.
The Nets and Raptors series should be filled with excitement and story line by featuring Vince Carter's return to Toronto in a playoff series.
The Raptors may not be the most experienced, but I feel as long as they can learn fast with their group of young players they should take the series in six games.
I believe the Lakers series to be compelling just for the fact that the most talented NBA player, Kobe Bryant, is playing in it.
Bryant scored 81 points in a game last year and in a series against a Suns team that loves to score and play no defense.
Pepsi Ice Center a big draw
BLOOMINGTON -- Jade Fung is getting the chance to learn figure skating while Emma Killian wants to try her hand at ice hockey.The girls are among more than 300 children who are participating in the current spring programs at the Pepsi Ice Center, located adjacent to the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in downtown Bloomington. The center, with a regulation NHL-sized rink, is operated by the city's Parks and Recreation Department and is part of the overall $35.8 million project that includes the Coliseum.The center opened in May, just a few months after the Coliseum, and has consistently seen more people sign up for classes and programs than projected. In addition, the center's open-skate times have drawn crowds of 200 to 300 people at a time. Demand for ice time has outpaced expectations to the point the city had to buy 100 more pairs of rental skates because the original 320 pairs were not enough.And the facility and its operation continue to be well received by parents who see the center as an alternate form of quality recreation for their kids.“In the first year, I was told if I had 100 kids participating the city would be happy," said Richard Beck, ice center manager.In the first set of classes held in the heat of last June, Beck said more than 250 children enrolled in Learn to Skate classes — a program that has grown to include about 380 children in classes held over the winter.Now taking her third class, Jade, who is 5, is enjoying herself.“Sometimes we fall on the ice, but we don't get hurt," she said as her mom, Collette Fung of Bloomington, put her skates on.“For us to do ice skating we would have had to drive out of town and we wouldn't have," said her mother.
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New York Citys Greek Independence Day Parade was cancelled on April 15th because of the Northeastern storm and rescheduled for April 22nd. This did not interfere with the 1821 Independence Day events held by Greek-American societies. Panchiaki "Korais" Society celebrated a unique Greek Independence Day social with a lavish Greek buffet dinner on Wednesday evening, April 18th. The focus of the program was to hold the eighth annual 2007 scholarship program for two St. Johns students of the Modern Greek Language and Literature program at their center on 43-15 202 St. in Bayside. Nikolas Kaloudis of Kambia and Karounia, Chios and Taki Sarantis Kokkinos of Leonidion, Greece were each awarded a $500 scholarship for excellence in Modern Greek language.
"I would like to thank the Panchiaki Korais Society for their generous scholarship and all their help in the community," said Nikolas Kaloudis.
Who dares take the 'Q' out of Japan's 5-star kyushoku?
Is one of the great institutions of Japanese cul- ture succumbing to a slow, gnawing attack? It may be. I tell you, if this icon is lost, all we'll have left of the culture will be a few cartoons and some rusting karaoke machines. The Asahi Shinbun newspaper reported on March 17 that some schools in the Osaka-Kobe area are methodically cutting costs on students' lunches, leaving them with just two little dumplings and some boiled veggies to sustain them. For those readers who have not brought up children in the Japanese school system, this may not loom as so large an issue. But having sent my four children to Japanese schools, from kindergarten to high school, I can tell you that there is nothing more important in the educational system than kyushoku (school lunch). Ask any Japanese kid, and I'm sure they'd say the same.
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