NY Times Sunday Magazine: “How We Watch Stuff”

Yesterday’s New York Time’s Sunday Magazine is a must read. Dubbed “The Screens Issue,” there are several worthy articles. Here are links to the best of the bunch:

The Screening of America (A.O. Scott):
Scott talks about how cinema is still relevant, perhaps even more vital even if, in fact, the actual time viewers spend in movie theaters is down… way down (12 hours per year compared to 973 with cable/satellite TV).

The Visionary (Questions for David Lynch):
Lynch answers questions about watching movies on small screens (hates it), the practice of meditation (loves it), and him being described as “an American surrealist” (agrees with that).

The Sitcom Digresses:
How of all narrative formats, the sitcom may be the one that has best adapted to contemporary narrative approaches based on new technologies.

Moments That Mattered:
My favorite article of the bunch. Writers, directors, bloggers, musicians all weigh in with important moments on all ‘screens’ in 2008.

The zeitgeist seems to have a strong whiff of ‘what does new technology mean for stories and storytelling,’ witness several other article of late including this one. Something worth tracking and discussing in ‘09.