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Artificial Intelligence is “fundamentally reshaping computing and will transform how stories are told, produced and experienced,” asserted Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang as he accepted the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award via a recorded message during the 76th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards.

“It has been three decades since Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’ revolutionized cinema with CGI. Now with AI, we have a new canvas for the next generation of storytelling, a renewed opportunity to wow and captivate audiences in new ways,” he said.

Also during the ceremony, which was held Wednesday at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center, software developer Adobe received the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award, as well as an Engineering, Science and Technology Emmy for the development of its Substance Painter.

Accepting the Farnsworth Award on behalf of Adobe, product manager Erica Schisler said, “Farnsworth had hoped and envisioned the television bringing everybody together…...

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang and Adobe were two of the big winners of the 76th Engineering, Science and Technology Emmys. While Huang was the recipient of the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, Adobe will be receiving both the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award and an Emmy for its Substance Painter product. The ceremony will be held on Oct. 23.

The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to an individual whose contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. Huang was awarded the honor due to Nvidia, a company he founded and where he has served as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors over the course of his career. Nvidia was the company behind the Gpu (graphics processing unit) in 1999, which sparked the growth of the modern PC gaming market, forever changed computer graphics and led to the modern era of AI.

The Television Academy today revealed the recipients of the 76th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards, which honor an individual, company or organization for developments in broadcast technology. See the full list below.

The ceremony is set for Wednesday, October 23, at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood.

“The Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are a testament to the incredible ingenuity and creativity that power our industry,” said Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy. “We are thrilled to honor these innovators who have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible, shaping the future of television for generations to come.”

Here are the winners of the 76th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards and a brief description of each award:

Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award (Honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.)

Jensen Huang

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award

Adobe Inc.

Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards

Adobe Inc. for the development of the Adobe Substance Painter

Tom Ohanian, Ken Goekjian, Joel Swan and Victor Young for the development of the Avid Multicamera System

Paul Pan, Yanchong Zhao, Tie Su, Shimeng Bei for the development of the Dji Ronin Series

Stuart Geman, Kevin Manbeck, John Mertus, and Michael Braca for the development of the Drs™Nova Film and Video Restoration Software

Benjamin Graf for the development of Accentize’s dxRevive Pro

Jeremy Hochman, Chris Byrne, Colin Cook and Justin Nicolaides for the development of Megapixel’s Helios LED Processing Platform

Craig Seidel for the development of the MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework

The Tiffen Company for the development of the Steadicam® Volt™...

Heading into the Academy Awards on March 10, with Golden Globe, BAFTA and Grammy wins behind him, “Oppenheimer” composer Ludwig Göransson would seem to have the original score Oscar sewn up.

The Swedish composer, already an Oscar winner for 2018’s “Black Panther,” spent nine months writing three hours of music for Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic. His combination of orchestral and electronic elements, often given prominence in the storytelling, deepened the movie experience.

“We had three months of experimenting and writing, coming up with the sonic landscape of the score,” Göransson says, and that was before Nolan even shot a foot of film. During the editing process, “they’ve already put my music in those scenes,” and it’s then a matter of tweaking and carefully conforming the music to the cut.

The “Oppenheimer” score ranges from “an intimate personal journey to an operatic piece,” Göransson notes. He used a 65-piece...

Two songs from “Barbie” are Oscar-nominated, part of a diverse collection of songs and musical scores nominated for the 96th annual Academy Awards.

“What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, and “I’m Just Ken,” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, were chosen by the 390 voting members of the Academy music branch. Three “Barbie” songs were shortlisted (Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” being the third) but only two can be nominated, per Academy rules.

The “Barbie” songs are already considered frontrunners, and if either number prevails on March 10, the Oscar will go to a pair of songwriters who already have one of those golden statues. Siblings Eilish and O’Connell won for 2021’s James Bond film “No Time to Die,” while Ronson and Wyatt were two of four 2018 winners for Lady Gaga’s song “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born.”

They will compete against Jon Batiste...

Hollywood’s postwar shift to social consciousness addressed familiar issues like bigotry and discrimination. On his way to making his gargantuan, serious epics, famed director George Stevens paused for this almost entirely forgotten contemplation of American anxiety in the business rat race, with a side order of alcoholism and potential adultery. Ray Milland is the troubled ad man who tries to help the drink-impaired actress, Joan Fontaine. Wife Teresa Wright waits patiently back home, but for how long? Is Stevens just dabbling in neorealistic doldrums, or did he feel the wave of dull existential despair as well? It’s one of his least-known films.

Something to Live For

All Region Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #199

952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / au 34.95

Starring: Joan Fontaine, Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Richard Derr, Douglas Dick, Harry Bellaver, Paul Valentine, King Donovan, Kasey Rogers, Douglas Spencer, Mari Blanchard.

Cinematography: George Barnes

Production Designer: Hal Pereira,...

Ghosts are famous for their flexibility, spiraling through keyholes and up from the floorboards in search of their next mark. But movies about ghosts can be flexible too. Three classics of the genre, The Uninvited, House on Haunted Hill and The Innocents, demonstrate that there’s more than one way haunt a house.

These films never appeared on any triple bill that I know of, but I’d like to think they did, somewhere in some small town with a theater manager that knew a good scare when he saw it. How could the programmer resist it? Each film is united by a beautiful black and white sheen, eerie locales and their ability to scare the bejeezus out of you. But they’re also alike in their differences, coming at their specters from distinctly different vantage points.

1944’s The Uninvited, a three-hankie haunted house tale with a dysfunctional family subplot,...

Heading for Spring Break somewhere? Long before Girls Gone Wild, kids of the Kennedy years found their own paths to the desired fun in the sun, and most of them came back alive. MGM’s comedic look at the Ft. Lauderdale exodus is a half-corny but fully endearing show, featuring the great Dolores Hart and the debuts of Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton.

Where the Boys Are

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date July 25, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, Jim Hutton

Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton, Frank Gorshin, Barbara Nichols, Chill Wills.

Cinematography: Robert Bronner

Art Direction: Preston Ames, George W. Davis

Film Editor: Fredric Steinkamp

Original Music: Pete Rugolo, Neil Sedaka, George Stoll, Victor Young

Written by George Wells from a novel by Glendon Swarthout

Produced by Joe Pasternak

Directed by Henry Levin

Ah yes, in 1960 first-wave Rock...

By Lee Pfeiffer

George A. Romero, the maverick independent filmmaker who changed the movie industry forever with his low-budget, high grossing 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead", has passed away at age 77 from lung cancer. Romero represented the true "guerilla filmmaker" when he and his partners cobbled together the meager production budget for "Night of the Living Dead", which was shot locally in Pittsburgh, where Romero had attended college, and used non-seasoned actors in starring roles. The movie, shot in B&W, quickly became infamous for its unprecedented grisly depiction of flesh eating zombies preying upon people trapped in a remote country house. Most critics were aghast but audiences responded with enthusiasm. Romero's film inspired a generation of young horror moviemakers but although it grossed many millions in profits, a snafu regarding the copyright prevented Romero and his investors from fully capitalizing on the phenomenal success of the movie.

Sound mixer Kevin O’Connell had lost out 20 times before last night’s ceremony.

Forget Moonlight, Emma Stone or even Asghar Fahardi, the most heart-warming winner at the 2017 Oscars was Kevin O’Connell, who picked up the best sound mixing award for Hacksaw Ridge.

Sound engineer O’Connell had previously been nominated 20 times without winning, leading The Guardian to dub him the “unluckiest nominee in the history of the Academy Awards”.

After finally winning the Oscar for Hacksaw Ridge alongside Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace, O’Connell said: “I can’t even tell you the experience that it was for me. As much as I thought I was going to know what it felt like, I didn’t.

“And I have to tell you, it was the greatest feeling in my entire life and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had, especially to work with these guys and I’m so grateful. It’s amazing...

The biggest, most lavish hook-up between Hollywood and the Pentagon was this Anthony Mann-James Stewart collaboration, a morale & recruiting cheer for America's intercontinental bombing air force, the service that kept the peace by holding up our side of the balance of fear. Strategic Air Command Blu-ray Olive Films 1955 / Color / 1:66 widescreen (VistaVision) / 112 min. / Street Date October 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sullivan, Alex Nicol, Bruce Bennett, Jay C. Flippen, James Millican, James Bell, Rosemary DeCamp, Harry Morgan, William Hudson, Strother Martin, House Peters Jr. Cinematography William Daniels Film Editor Eda Warren Original Music Victor Young Written by Valentine Davies, Beirne Lay, Jr. Produced by Samuel J. Briskin Directed by Anthony Mann

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In the 1950s America was spending its enormous military budget on a fantastic array of advanced weapons technology, the most expensive of which was...

By Doug Oswald

Released as a burn-to-order DVD from the Universal Vault Series, some may be quick to add that they should have kept “The Conqueror” in the vault. The movie is notorious for being one of the worst movies in Hollywood history. Much has been written about how terrible this movie is so I’m going to avoid jumping on that bandwagon. After all, calling this movie bad is like calling out water for being wet.

The movie is also a part of a conspiracy theory of sorts because many of the cast and crew died from cancer and some have connected those cancer deaths to the location filming in St. George Utah which was the stand-in for the Gobi Desert. St. George is downwind from where the above ground nuclear testing occurred in Nevada. Indeed, many involved with this movie did succumb to cancer including lifetime smoker John Wayne...

Olive's new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras -- plus a never-before-seen widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better -- we can all compare theories about la Crawford's color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be? Johnny Guitar (Olive Signature widescreen edition) Blu-ray Olive Films 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 but heavily discounted Starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams. Cinematography Harry Stradling Film Editor Richard Van Enger Original Music Victor Young Written by Philip Yordan from the novel by Roy Chanslor Produced by Herbert J. Yates Directed by Nicholas Ray

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Wow, it's already been four years since Olive released a...

By Todd Garbarini

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 65th anniversary screening of John Ford’s 1950 film Rio Grande. The film, which stars John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson, and Harry Carey, Jr., will be screened on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actor Claude Jarman, Jr., who appears in the film as Trooper Jefferson “Jeff” York, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss his role and career.

From the press release:

65Th Anniversary Screening Of Rio Grande, And Tribute To Maureen O’Hara

Tuesday, January 12, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

As a tribute to Maureen O’Hara, we present the final chapter in director John Ford’s Cavalry trilogy (following Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon). Rio Grande works affecting variations on some of the director’s favorite themes. While there is an...

or, Savant picks The Most Impressive Discs of 2015

This is the actual view from Savant Central, looking due North.

What a year! I was able to take one very nice trip back East too see Washington D.C. for the first time, or at least as much as two days' walking in the hot sun and then cool rain would allow. Back home in Los Angeles, we've had a year of extreme drought -- my lawn is looking patriotically ratty -- and we're expecting something called El Niño, that's supposed to be just shy of Old-Testament build-me-an-ark intensity. We withstood heat waves like those in Day the Earth Caught Fire, and now we'll get the storms part. This has been a wild year for DVD Savant, which is still a little unsettled. DVDtalk has been very patient and generous, and so have Stuart Galbraith & Joe Dante; so far everything...

Sam Fuller's superior western classic stars Rod Steiger, Brian Keith, Charles Bronson and Sarita Montiel, and takes on a tall stack of potent issues. A Reb sharpshooter denies the South's defeat, and goes west to join the Sioux nation where he can continue his war against the Yankees. This spin on 'The Man Without a Country' is one of Fuller's best thanks to a generous budget, unflinching action violence and committed performances. Run of the Arrow DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1957 / Color / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date July 7, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 19.49 Starring Rod Steiger, Sarita Montiel, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Jay C. Flippen, Charles Bronson, Olive Carey, H.M. Wynant, Neyle Morrow, Frank DeKova, Tim McCoy, Chuck Hayward, Chuck Roberson, Roscoe Ates, Angie Dickinson, Carleton Young. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Film Editor Gene Fowler Jr. Original Music Victor Young Written, Produced and Directed by Samuel Fuller    

Reviewed...

'Hold Back the Dawn': Olivia de Havilland behind Charles Boyer and Paulette Goddard 'Hold Back the Dawn' 1941 movie: Olivia de Havilland steals show as small-town teacher in love Olivia de Havilland shines in Mitchell Leisen's melodrama Hold Back the Dawn, a sort of opening bracket for the director's World War II-era films. Adapted by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett from Ketti Frings' semi-autobiographical story, Hold Back the Dawn stars Charles Boyer as George Iscovescu, a Romanian dancer unable to enter the U.S. from Mexico due to immigration quotas imposed at the onset of the European conflict. Paulette Goddard is his scheming former partner, Anita, who marries an American to gain entry into the country only to immediately leave the duped husband. George adopts the idea – a naïve small-town schoolteacher visiting a Mexican border town is his prey. As the unsuspecting teacher, Olivia de Havilland radiates understanding and sympathy.

Mvd, will release John Coltrane "So Many Things: The European Tour 1961" 4-Disc Set, March 10, 2015:

"...the music Coltrane made on this trip took audiences to the very cutting edge, leaving many questions unanswered, even for the saxophonists most ardent fans. For some he had taken the fundamentals of modern jazz to a breaking point, thrusting it into 'the realms of higher mathematics'.

"To others, Coltrane was the voice of progress, bravely reasserting the exploratory nature of jazz, daring to push through a process of continual reinvention, taking himself, his fellow players and those who flocked to hear him on an impassioned journey of discovery, night after night.

"The impact of Coltrane and his regular quartet sidemen - pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones - was made doubly controversial by the leaders last-minute decision to add the formidable multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy.

"Playing over 30 concert appearances in under three weeks,...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Of the 114 titles eligible for best original score at the 87th Academy Awards, five of French composer Alexandre Desplat’s scores have made the list: Godzilla, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Monuments Men and Unbroken. The final nominees will be announced Jan. 15.

Desplat has become one of the most prolific composers in Hollywood since his first Hollywood film score for 2003’s Girl With a Pearl Earring, and he has received six Oscar nominations in eight years. His first nomination came for 2006’s The Queen and was followed by 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2010’s The King’s Speech, 2012’s Argo and 2013’s Philomena. If he is nominated again this year — for one or more of his scores — he will have upwards of seven nominations in nine years, yet Desplat has never won. He joins five other...

Unless you're prediction-loving, number-crunching wizard Nate Silver, you probably find statistics pretty boring. But stats concerning the Academy Awards have always been fascinating, mostly because the Oscars are just plain weird, and riddled with anomalies.

The ceremony got its start in the late 1920s, when movies were just making their transition into sound, and early nominees and categories reflected the sheer chaos of those halcyon days of what would eventually become Hollywood's golden age. (Though, of course, any film aficionado worth his/her salt would have a strong opinion about the exact dates that that age entailed.)

As the Oscars tradition continued, the awards became a bit more traditional themselves, settling into a predictable pattern of narratives that have stayed relatively consistent to this day. But there are always idiosyncrasies hiding in the woodwork, and the Academy Awards have them in spades. Here, we've collected some of the most distinctive...

The 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival will honor legendary actor, filmmaker and humanitarian Jerry Lewiswith a multi-tiered celebration of his remarkable career. Highlighting the tribute, Lewis will have his hand and footprints enshrined in concrete in front of the world-famous Tcl Chinese Theatre IMAX. In addition, Lewis will be on-hand for a screening of one of his most memorable films: The Nutty Professor (1963). Marking its fifth year, the TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 10-13, 2014, in Hollywood. The gathering will coincide with TCM’s 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film.

“Jerry Lewis is a very important name whenever movie comedy is discussed and enjoyed,” said TCM host Robert Osborne, who also serves as the official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival. “Jerry has provided the world with great merriment and laughter, while also showing, in such films as Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy,...

By Raymond Benson

It’s not a title that readily pops into one’s head when recalling the great horror films throughout the decades. A British production released when Universal Pictures’ line of horror franchises had declined and Val Lewton’s minimalist Rko productions had reached their height, The Uninvited has remained fairly obscure, in the U.S. anyway, but has also consistently maintained a solid reputation as one of the great, classic haunted house pictures. In fact, The Uninvited could be the first film to treat ghosts seriously rather than as an instrument for humor.

Directed by Lewis Allen and starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey and gorgeous Gail Russell in her first film role, the motion picture was released by Paramount in early 1944. Milland was a minor star at the time who would shoot to super-status the following year by winning a Best Actor Oscar for The Lost Weekend.

‘Shane’: Alan Ladd stars in classic Western to be screened at the Academy The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a 60th anniversary screening of George Stevens’ classic Western Shane, starring Alan Ladd as a lone and mysterious gunslinger, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 7, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Besides Ladd, Shane, a 1953 Paramount release, also stars Jean Arthur in her last movie role, in addition to Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance. (Photo: Alan Ladd in Shane.) "A gun is a tool, Marian, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything," Alan Ladd’s Shane tells Jean Arthur’s homesteader wife and mother. "A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." That may sound like your usual National Rifle Association bullshit, but in the...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 22, 2013

Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Criterion

Ruth Hussey and Ray Milland investigate things that go bump in the night in The Uninvited.

The 1944 horror-mystery film The Uninvited, directed by Lewis Allen (Suddenly), was groundbreaking for the seriousness with which it treated the haunted-house genre.

A pair of siblings (Ministry of Fear’s Ray Milland and The Philadelphia Story’s Ruth Hussey) from London purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price. It doesn’t take too long before the two are caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave.

Rich in atmosphere and such genre staples as a tragic family past, a mysteriously locked room, cold chills, and bumps in the night, the gothic-flavored Uninvited remains an elegant and eerie experience, featuring a classic score by Victor Young (Written on the Wind...

By Darren Allison, Cinema Retro Soundtrack Editor

When considering the scores for movie Westerns, film music collectors often refer to classics such as Max Steiner's The Searchers, Dimitri Tiomkin's Rio Bravo or Victor Young's Shane, all of which are, of course, fabulous scores. Monstrous Movie Music have again, (and in keeping with their refreshing style), ventured into new territories with the release of Paul Dunlap’s Western score to Hellgate (1952) (Mmm-1972). Rather surprisingly, this CD marks the first full release to feature Dunlap’s film music. The composer was incredibly prolific throughout his career scoring diverse projects which spanned from many of The Three Stooges movies to the cult classic Aip horrors including the Teenage Frankenstein/Werewolf series of films. For a B movie western, there was something a little different about Hellgate – it was really rather good! Hellgate was directed by Charles Marquis Warren, a tough...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 28, 2013

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey get deceptive in The File on Thelma Jordon.

The 1950 film noir drama The File on Thelma Jordon is directed by noir veteran Robert Siodmak (The Dark Mirror).

In the film, Barbara Stanwyck (1953′s Titanic) is the titular Thelma Jordon, a woman who seduces the married Assistant District Attorney (Wendell Corey, Hell’s Half Acre) and pulls him into a web of theft and murder. When her aunt’s mansion is burglarized and the woman is murdered, Thelma calls the Assistant Da to help her cover up evidence that may incriminate her. When she emerges as the prime suspect, the infatuated Assistant Da tries to sabotages the prosecution.

Featuring gorgeous cinematography by George Barnes (Spellbound) and a alluring score by Victor Young (The Quiet Man), the movie makes its DVD and Blu-ray premiere with this release.

Drum Beat from 1953 starred Alan Ladd and Charles Bronson and was based on a true story about a violent Indian uprising in the 187os. It’s an impressive and exciting outdoor adventure but Hollywood studios were churning out hundreds of westerns in the early 50′s so it’s not too surprising that Drum Beat, though so superior to many, hasn’t received its due. The most notable thing about Drum Beat is that it provided Charles Bronson with his real break-through role as an actor. Bronson’s scene-stealing performance as an Indian chief received a lot of attention and paved the way for his long and successful career, but Drum Beat is Not available on DVD.

Drum Beat was based on a little-known occurrence in 1873 where (for the only time) an American Army General was killed during the wars against the Indians. The Modoc tribe, lead by their chief, Captain...

“I’m gonna let them find you on their own,” Jeffrey quietly says to himself, invoking Frank, who will appear again in a few minutes. Turning away from the camera, his ear might actually hear the song on the soundtrack, Ketty Lester’s version of “Love Letters,” released as a single in 1961:

The song was written in 1945 by Victor Young and Edward Heyman, and appeared in the film Love Letters, which starred Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. Adapted by none other than Ayn Rand (“People should be able to build what they want to build, when they want to build it, how they want to build it,” Lynch said in 2001) from the novel Pity My Simplicity, the trailer suggests Freud Gone Wild: “Buried within these bleak, forbidding walls were haunting memories, memories of violence and disaster.” Of her adaptation of the film, Rand wrote to a friend:

You want...

The most compelling aspect of the master class that Michael Feinstein recently taught at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, N.Y., was that by the time the two hours had elapsed, he had encountered—and made strides to correct—just about every problem faced by not only new but seasoned singers.Affable and amusing, as he always is on the bandstand, and consistently complimentary, Feinstein was there to help shape up eight wannabes taking a course taught by the singer La Tanya Hall, who performed behind him during his annual Christmas show at the New York club that bears his name, Feinstein's at Loews Regency. As this observer can attest, Feinstein was right to praise the participants for the quality of their voices and was also right in his introductory remarks to say he was there to assess their "truth in expressing the music."Awarded an honorary doctorate in...

In Charles Bronson news, two of his westerns, Once Upon A Time In The West and The Magnificent Seven, made this weeks list of Top Ten Westerns here at Wamg, but there’s an outstanding western that Bronson costarred in very early in his career worthy of discussion that most readers are probably unfamiliar with. Drum Beat from 1953 starred Alan Ladd and was based on a true story about a violent Indian uprising in the 187os. It’s an impressive and exciting outdoor adventure but Hollywood studios were churning out hundreds of westerns in the early 50’s so it’s not too surprising that Drum Beat, though so superior to many, hasn’t received its due. The most notable thing about Drum Beat is that it provided Charles Bronson with his real break-through role as an actor. Bronson’s scene-stealing performance as an Indian chief received a lot of attention...

Mining is a dangerous business. But it might be getting a little safer thanks to wireless tech, a key part of a new underground comms and miner-locating network dubbed Accolade.

The system has been developed by L-3 Communications (#39 on our list of the Most Innovative Companies) in response to the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, which was signed into law shortly after the Sago, West Virginia disaster that killed 12 miners.

At heart, the idea of Accolade is simple: A number of data networking nodes are dotted throughout the mine's tunnels, and they can be placed up to thousands of feet apart, depending on the geometry and conditions in the mine. This "mesh" communicates with a ruggedized cell-phone-like handset that each miner carries, and which has a unique identifier ID. The ensuing network lets miners communicate with each other wherever they are, and to the surface controllers using both voice and text,...