'Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond' by Paul Sherman -- Web special: $12 including shipping!

R.I.P., Karen Schmeer

Sad news out of New York City, as Boston editor Karen Schmeer has been hit and killed by a car carrying robbers making a getaway from a CVS. Schmeer edited many of the most prominent documentaries covered in Big Screen Boston, including Martha Swetzoff's Theme: Murder, Errol Morris' Mr. Death (she was Morris' regular editor), Robb Moss' The Same River Twice and Lucia Small's My Father, the Genius. She was only 39.

Everybody's tryin' to get into the act...

It seems as if spoofing Boston has become a cottage industry in the last week, what with The Daily Show's priceless coverage of the special Senate election, 30 Rock's Boston episode (with Julianne Moore's intentionally[?] overblown accent), and, now, the AMC Blog's take on bad Boston movie accents. It's actually only a so-so list, leaving out a major offender (Anne Bancroft in Malice) and including some characters (Kate Winslet's in Little Children and Joe Pesci's in With Honors) who are, if memory serves, never even established as being from Boston. Besides, would anyone really want to sit through two hours of Joe Pesci trying to do a Boston accent? That'd be retahded!

New class at BCAE on moviemaking--local and Hollywood

A heads up for those that might be interested... The relationship between Boston and Hollywood is the topic of a new class at the Boston Center for Adult Education called How Hollywood Works: Getting Into the Movies, which meets Feb. 4, 11 and 18. Charles Hoyt, who is teaching it, knows his stuff--he's even showing an episode of Route 66 that was shot in Boston during the first class. Depending on my schedule, I may be joining him during that meeting. Guests at other classes come from such places as the Mass. Film Office and Emerson College.