It was a wake that indie veteran Bingham Ray could not have better organized himself.

Except that he did organize it.

In one of the strangely beautiful ironies of his sudden death on Monday, Ray’s planned celebration of the San Francisco Film Society turned into a collective mourning of his death and celebration of his life.

It was a necessary moment for a film community shell-shocked by the sudden loss of a friend, colleague and pillar of their world.

Also read: Bingham Ray Remembered: Film World Mourns Loss of a Pioneer

Ray was young, 57, and in a room filled with the...

I attended the Golden Globes last night for the first time, ever. Some of you may know that I have had... opinions about the Globes in the past. Now I have some new opinions, but haven't necessarily relinquished the old ones:

1. The red carpet is its own little planet, full of beautiful, famous people in a protective coating. While on Planet Red Carpet you can befriend anyone.

2. They serve dinner at 4:30. Nobody eats it.

3. At 4:59 p.m. the servers remove plates of untouched food and pristine dessert like mad dervishes in time for the live telecast at 5 p.m.

4. After the monologue, no one watches the show on the stage. Conversations on the floor are much more interesting.

5. Leonardo DiCaprio can smoke...

People keep asking me what exciting new products I’m finding at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

There’s a lot of stuff that’s impressive: tablets remain pretty big, and there are new improvements on mobile that make stuff quicker, lighter and snazzier.

But nothing I’ve seen here changes the paradigm – except this one.

The Kinect technology that was on display at Microsoft’s opening presentation on Monday night, introducing the first truly interactive television show, can be a game-changer for the content industry.

Microsoft has paired with the classic children’s show, Sesame Street, to create what they called the first “two-way” television experience.

It worked like this: a child watches the show, and is prompted by characters like Grover, Elmo and Cookie Monster...

It’s some kind of high-class tech-media scrum inside the Tryst nightclub at the Wynn Hotel, just minutes after Microsoft Steve Ballmer completed his opening keynote to a couple of thousand faithful followers on Monday night.

You don’t have to venture very far into the packed, ear-splitting room to find the power center of the consumer electronics industry, gathered by Medialink and GroupM.

Ballmer himself is deep in the darkened space, surrounded by admirers. Microsoft and Xbox executives – from media and entertainment VP Blair Westlake to recently retired Hank Vigil – hover nearby.

(At left, Ballmer with MediaLink...