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Greta Kaemmer can really grill you. Hurling questions with rapid-fire velocity, Kaemmer, who is better known as Memsaab, astounds you with her encyclopedic knowledge of Indian cinema. Sample this: How were Mehmood and Meena Kumari related in real life? Don’t know. In which Hindi film do two actresses play the same character? Duh. And in which film does Shammi Kapoor do a nautch girl number? I’m logging off…
Memsaab is part of a growing group of foreigners who love Indian cinema as much as any desi. Accomplished in Hinglish, these men and women are passionate about all things Bollywood. Take Maria, a German blogger and diehard fan of Shah Rukh Khan who was so upset with the lack of a German release for Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna in her country that she flew to New York to watch the film: First day, first show. Or Bastet, another German blogger who writes, “Being a Bollywood fan in Germany is not easy. We undertook a 200-km-long trip to Amsterdam (to see KANK). At that moment, we didn’t mind that the film was in Dutch and not in English subtitles.”
Both Maria and Bastet are part of a growing online craze that according to German journalist and author Brigit Pestal is now going offline as well. Pestal, who has written a book on Bollywood cinema and its influence on German speaking countries, estimates that there are 50,000 viewers of Bollywood films in Austria and Switzerland and one million viewers in Germany. She says, “Hardcore filmi fans in Germany go for Bollywood dancing at night. They wear saris, bindis, bangles and even learn some Hindi. About 70% of these fans are female.”
But the craze is not just confined to Germany. Kwanghyun Jung, runs an 8,000 member-strong internet club in South Korea which shows one Hindi film a month and till recently ran Bollywood dance classes. Says Jung, “We don’t see movies silently in Korean style but rather in Indian style, which means making a lot of noise, laughing loudly at every joke and abusing the villain.” This is what attracts Korean audiences to Bollywood movies. As to the choice of films, he says that almost all movies screened are SRK movies because members aren’t interested in anyone but him. “We also make Shah Rukh T-shirts, cups and some members carry his photos. Even their cellphone screensavers are SRK images.”

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

I started playing golf in 2001, and though it has only been a few years, the game has enhanced my life in ways I would never have imagined. It’s given me the chance to travel to places I wouldn’t have visited and meet some really inspirational people. I’m generally a sports addict and when I was young I used to watch golf on TV, but it was only when Tiger Woods appeared that I thought, wow, I’ve got to try a bit of this.
I still love watching sports but now I get to see things live. I’m going to the Ryder Cup in Louisville, Kentucky, this year, which I’m really excited about. I’ve travelled a fair bit to see golf in South Africa. They love their golf down there and the country has produced some of the world’s highest-ranking golfers: Ernie Eels, Gary Player, Bobby Locke.
The pedigree runs deep and the courses are some of the best and most beautiful in the world. Pearl Valley is one of the newer ones near Cape Town, which had only just opened when I first played there but this year it hosted the national championships. There are lots of bunkers if you hit a wayward shot – I seem to remember I spent a lot of time in them.
There are also very good caddies in South Africa and the country offers brilliant value for money, even considering the cost of the flight. Because of South Africa’s climate, the courses tend to be in great condition, which really inspires a better game. As a destination, it’s nice to see black people empowered in a way they weren’t 30 years ago.
When I visited Cape Town, I stayed at Camps Bay. I rented an apartment overlooking the sea and spent a lot of time on Ocean Front, the main dining strip, eating the freshest seafood I’ve ever tasted – it’s caught right there in the bay. South Africa is home to some stunning beautiful people; it’s a great setting for people-watching and golf, two of my favourite sports.

independent.co.uk

Give or take a nickel or two, that was the price we soccer junkies paid when the UEFA European Championship was conducted four years ago in Portugal. Not to go see a match in Lisbon, but to watch the tournament on television via pay-per-view. ESPN rescued us from that tyranny by securing the rights to the entire event — being staged concurrently in Switzerland and Austria — and placing the matches on its family of networks. In exchange for this, ESPN ought to be forgiven for “Dream Job” and “Madden Nation.”
All the rest of what you’ll need to know (most of it, anyway) in order to follow what some incongruously refer to as “Europe’s World Cup” is contained right here:
Five essential facts
5. This is the biggest international tournament outside the World Cup. Some purists claim this event is better because there aren’t any weakling entrants from Asia or North America. There are 16 squads drawn into four groups, with the top two from each advancing to the quarterfinals. And because these teams keep stepping on each other in qualifying for this tournament and the World Cup, there is a greater intensity throughout this event than in some early World Cup games.
4. England’s not coming. Because of some bureaucratic bungling at England’s Football Association that led to incompetent Steve McClaren being selected as manager, which led to David Beckham being prematurely dropped from the squad, which led to an embarrassing nil-nil tie with Macedonia, England fell one point short of qualifying.
That failure removed one of the most passionately followed teams from Euro 2008, as well as the star-power attached to Beckham, John Terry and Steven Gerrard. But there’s still plenty worth watching.
3. Greece is your defending champion. That’s easy to forget. Greece is not among the first names most would mention when pondering the list of European soccer powers, but the Greeks won with defense, chemistry and a sense of opportunism at Euro 2004. It’s doubtful they’ll be able to replicate that magic, but their success gives hope to a capable team such as Croatia.

sportingnews.com

Will an on-demand world, in which viewers can watch what they want when they want, drive schedulers to therapy?
Television executives say traditional network schedules will remain the dominant programming paradigm for some time. But HBO’s series “In Treatment” may provide a look into the future.
The critically acclaimed series starring Gabriel Byrne averaged 2 million viewers per episode.
The wrinkle: HBO says only 12% of them saw episodes in the weeknight prime-time slots in which they made their debuts.
HBO airs its shows multiple times, on its main network and its multiplex channels. Most of the people who watched “In Treatment”—68%, in fact—watched it during a subsequent airing.
Another 9% saw it on digital video recorders. Another 7% watched the show on HBO On-Demand through their cable operators and another 4% saw the show through a digital provider, including HBO.com, iTunes, Amazon Unbox or an affiliated Web Site.
Subscribers will be able to watch more shows online as HBO for Broadband rolls out.
“We create programs that we think people want to watch, and then we let them watch where and when and how they want,” said Dave Baldwin, executive VP of program planning at HBO. “If I were scheduling one of the major networks, contemplating the changes in platforms and technology, I would look to get my resume in order and try to get out of there.”
Not so fast, say other network schedulers.
“The majority of people still watch television the old-fashioned way,” said Preston Beckman, executive VP of strategic program planning and research at Fox. “That doesn’t mean it’s always going to be that way. But I believe that in the short run, or as long as I have to worry about it, which is another three or four years, what I do I have to do the way I’ve always done it.”

tvweek.com

Omaha buzz: No. 16 over No. 1 sooner or later
No. 16 over No. 1 sooner or later
Will a No. 16 seed ever topple a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament?
Portland State coach Ken Bone, whose 16th-seeded Vikings play top-seeded Kansas today, seems to think so.
“It can be done. It will be done,” Bone said. “I’m not saying it will be done (Thursday) morning or the next day or next year, but at some point, sometime a 16 will beat a 1. I think we all know that. It’s just a matter of when it happens.”
Kansas coach Bill Self agrees.
“It’s going to happen,” Self said. “I hope it’s not anytime in the very near future. But it’s going to happen.”
Self talks up Portland State
Speaking of Portland State’s seeding, Self thinks the Jayhawks’ first-round opponent is better than a No. 16 seed.
“After watching tape, I told our guys, ‘How are these guys a 16 seed?’ ” Self said. “They do a lot of the same things we do. They play fast. They share the ball. All of them can pass. All of them can stretch the defense from the perimeter.”
Portland State has won a school record 23 games this season and went 14-2 in the Big Sky Conference.
“I really like their team. That’s not coach speak,” Self said.
The hideous elbow injury that Wisconsin’s Brian Butch suffered last season became a cult classic.
More than 130,000 viewings of it on YouTube.com made Butch famous. But he isn’t among those who have taken time to watch the injury that ended his season.
“I have not seen it, and I don’t plan on seeing it,” Butch said. “It was pretty ugly just the way it felt. I can only imagine how it looked. I tried to actually look at it once during the offseason, and I had to turn my head.”

kansascity.com