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DECATUR When David Lanterman took over ownership of the Lincoln Theater 4 in January 2011, he knew changes were coming and not just to the 90-year-old movie house.

Aside from cosmetic work to refurbish the building, his greatest task as owner has been one that is facing all operators of small, independent theaters: the movie industrys switch to digital film and projection equipment. But even though he knew the switch was coming, that doesnt mean the $70,000-per-screen conversion costs were any easier to bear.

We knew that the switch was coming, but it gained so much speed in the last year that it forced us to make it happen much sooner than I initially expected, said Lanterman, who resides in Lincoln. I thought we would have a good three years or so, but there was more pressure than expected. It wont be possible to run a theater on only 35 mm in a few years as more and more films are released on digital. Youre going to have to change or close. And many will close, especially the small places.

The outlook is the same for independent theaters all over Central Illinois and, by extension, around the country. Many simply dont have the funds necessary to make the initial investment to acquire the digital film equipment. Others, such as the Lincoln Theater 4, have made the transition successfully and hope to recoup their investment in the next few years through compensation programs with studios and digital equipment companies.

Lantermans theater began all-digital shows March 2.

The case of the Lincoln Theater 4 is particularly unusual, however, as the buildings four screens already had been outfitted with digital equipment when he took over, but he was unable to assume the lease on these projectors from the previous owner. Instead, the theater returned to older 35 mm projectors that were fortunately still on hand until Lanterman could afford to bring back the digital equipment.

I couldnt have even bought the digital equipment they had here if I wanted to, so we had to wait, he said. Were able to do it now because of our community support, which has been beyond even what I was hoping it would be. The people have a sense of ownership, a realization that this is our theater. Our attendance is up around 25 percent from what it was at last year.

Not all small theaters have the resources to make the initial conversion, however. Some, such as the one-screen Onarga Theatre, are turning to their customer base in hopes of raising the entire $65,000 needed to stay in business. If the ongoing fundraiser fails, then another small town will lose its theater, leaving customers to drive 30 or 45 minutes to larger cities such as Champaign or Kankakee to see a movie at a national chain. And yet, owner Randy Lizzio is optimistic.

I think it can succeed, and the amount of money we raise will continue to slowly rise, said the Onarga Theatre manager of four years. Were going to keep chipping away at the total and hosting fundraisers. I know our meter doesnt look too good right now, but you never know how things will change.

The meter Lizzio refers to represents the path to the necessary $65,000, and can be viewed at the Onarga Theatre website. Currently sitting at about $3,000, its a daunting hurdle for film lovers in the small town to overcome, especially given that Lizzio refuses to raise ticket prices from the $5 range or increase the cost of concessions.

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Cost to go from reel to digital may close some smaller movie theaters

There are tens of millions of e-book lovers, and their ranks are sure to be boosted by the latest iPad along with improved Kindles, Nooks and their rivals.

My sister, a retired fourth-grade teacher, has finally succumbed; Dorothy reads faster by enlarging the words on her tablet. And my wife favors e-books when she stretches out in bed. Clearly, the time has come for a well-stocked national digital library system, not to replace brick-and-mortar libraries but to augment them.

In the 1990s, William F. Buckley Jr. my political opposite wrote two columns supporting my basic vision. He even recommended it to Newt Gingrich. Years later, we still lack a coherent national e-library strategy. (Last week, seven patrons of the Lexington Public Library were waiting for seven copies of the e-book of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer's novel. In this case, because of legal restrictions and related technical precautions, a digital copy is just like a paper copy only one library patron may check it out at a time.)

Through greater purchasing clout, a national digital library system could give taxpayers far more for their money, adding to the inherent economies of e-books. A first step could be a foundation-financed buyout of OverDrive, the current e-book supplier for many libraries, if the owners agreed.

Frustratingly, Washington does not grasp the full potential of a national digital library system truly serving the masses. In effect, at least unofficially, President Barack Obama's administration has farmed out the issue to a group hosted at the president's old law school, the Harvard-based Digital Public Library of America initiative.

Ideally, its talented people can come up with a well-crafted online strategy to help public libraries and others encourage family literacy, mitigate the fourth-grade reading slump, distribute appropriate text and multimedia content to help upgrade our work force, and stimulate the brains of the millions of baby boomers who soon will be retiring (some, like my wife, with serious mobility limitations). Not one current school librarian or other K-12 educator sits on the 17-member steering committee.

And yet, the national digital library issue is in many ways a K-12, job- preparation and anti-poverty opportunity in disguise. Studies show a strong connection between children's academic achievement and access to books at home.

E-books are just swarms of invisible electrons, but children still could notice them. Librarians and teachers, for example, could post drawings of scenes from e-books on the walls, and they could talk up appropriate local titles mentioning people and landmarks known to the students.

And "recreational reading," whether the electronic or paper variety, could help nudge children and parents toward the more serious variety, and build skills and knowledge of many kinds. Many academics, alas, look down on popular-level books.

This is partly why we need two tightly intertwined but separate national digital library systems, ultimately one academic and one public. Both could be universally accessible to Americans and ideally others, and with plenty of shared content. Separate systems would help avoid or reduce clashes over such issues as scholarly monographs versus best-sellers.

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Commentary: A national digital library system is long overdue

Exclusivity. Its one of those things you cant put a price on. Er, or rather, you can. Usually an ENORMOUS one.

Designer purses, hand-tooled leather shoes, finely tailored suits; in the fashion world, being unique costs big. Same thing for cars . . . most of the time.

Now, if you run out and plonk down 60 or 70 grand on an E-Class Mercedes or 5-series BMW, its going to take all of five minutes before you find yourself parking at the mall next to somebody who bought the exact same car, except in a nicer trim level. So save your money. If you really want to stand out, buy a Nissan.

Specifically, this Nissan right here. Its the Maxima, and its one of those cars that youll only find one or two of in stock at your local dealership, and few out on the roads. Nissan doesnt build or sell a lot of them, although it maintains that its the flagship sedan for the brand.

The problem is two-fold. First, Nissan has at least two flagship cars already: for performance, the GT-R, and for green creds, the all-electric Leaf. The Maxima tends to get overshadowed by these well-publicized giants.

Second, cost. When launched in 2009, the redesigned Maxima SV had a price that lapped right up against the bottom pricing-rungs of the Infiniti G37 sedan. Add Infinitis often-aggressive lease rates into the mix, and the Maxima actually becomes more expensive than a comparably equipped G.

For 2012, Nissan has reduced the price of the Maxima somewhat. As tested, this SV Sport is now $40,230 before freight, and base models start at $37,880, down $1,920 since last year.

Still, thats a lot of coin to spend on a Nissan. Is it worth it? I certainly think so, and heres why.

Design

When sculpting a car, designers often give a name to the style theyre trying to achieve. For the new-for-09 Maxima, the concept was liquid motion.

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Maxima worth the price

The clinic offers a full spectrum of services for children, adults and couples in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, for both local and expatriate clientele.

Both are qualified to work in their home countries: Canada and the United States, respectfully, as is their third partner, a neuropsychologist who specialises in assessing and treating developmental disorders in children.

Jefferson uses gestalt techniques to treat the symptoms and disorders his expatriate clients seek help for primarily depression and anxiety but is eclectic in his approach, adding cognitive techniques and role play. Marshall says she relies on narrative therapy, which she describes as helping people re-story their lives.

People with shattered or self-defeating narratives and those with chapters ripped out or forgotten are encouraged to reconstruct the stories they tell about themselves in order to make sense of their lives and alleviate distress and negative behaviour that results from unhealthy scripts that have been imposed.

Both Marshall and Jefferson have been away long enough to know there really isnt that much of a difference between those who leave and those who stay. The issues are the same but the stories are different, Jefferson says.

Marshall is quick to admit that some people would not end up in therapy at home, but do so here because they lack support systems, like long-term friends and relatives.

Sometimes all they need is to be reassured that what they are feeling is natural, she says in answer to questions about culture shock, which can be triggered by relatively trivial things, like constant bartering and the custom that foreigners should pay a bit extra because they have more money.

People get infuriated by having to pay more. Then, they freak out at themselves for freaking out, Marshall explains. Culture shock, however, is usually pretty easy to get over once identified, and most people do so within a few months, both therapists agree.

On the contrary, they dont ask clients who complain at overcharges whether they also object to being paid far more than their Khmer colleagues.

That would be antagonistic, Jefferson explains, adding, that some therapists do use antagonism as a technique to jolt clients.

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Expert advice from expats | 7 Days | The Phnom Penh Post - Cambodia's Newspaper of Record

I came to Cambodia to cover the fighting, especially in 1997, Amat says. I became interested in Cambodian culture. But at the same time, I became interested in foreign communities living in Cambodia. This was a poor country at that time. It started with nothing. There were a lot of expats and many expressed a lot of arrogance towards Cambodian people. I felt so much shock by the way these expat families treated the locals. This was the idea for me to write a book.

Amat says that many expats first come to Cambodia as tourists with an idealised picture of the countrys people and its natural beauty, leading to unrealistic expectations when they decide to settle here over the long term.

When they just visit as a tourist, Cambodia is like what they saw in postcard, a beautiful country. When they decided to live, then they turn to the back of the postcard and they begin to face a lot of culture shock: bad traffic, poverty, beggars.

Rather than confront these issues, many instead decided to form their own expat communities and separate themselves away from local people.

They dont really open the window to Cambodia. They dont try to speak the language. They are not interested in the culture. When they finish their job, they just go to the foreign bars, have beers with friends. They live in Cambodia, but they dont really live with Cambodians.

Frdric Amat took at least seven years to compile the activities, routines and problems of the expat community into his book. Of particular interest to him were those foreigners who travelled to Cambodia to look for a prospective partner.

A lot of single men come here because its easier for them to find love in Cambodia than their own country. They go to the bars in Cambodia. Some of them have the Cambodian girls from the bars. I write about the girls in the bars, who do not adhere to the usual traditions of Cambodian girls, he said.

In the last chapter, Amat gives his formulation for how expats can enjoy life in Cambodia to the fullest. To him, Cambodia is not a hard place to live and people are not hard to communicate with; the only barrier lies in foreigners refusing to truly open themselves to the society. If they open their mind a bit, they will enjoy their life here.

Jrme Morinire, the publisher of Cambodias Tuk Tuk Editions publishing house, has printed 4,000 copies of Amats work in English, with distribution planned for Thailand, Laos and Myanmar in the coming weeks.

Mostly our writers wrote books about Angkor temples or the Khmer Rouge; this is the first time that weve published a work about peoples daily life, their social life and their culture, Morinire said. - Expatriates Strange Lives in Cambodia is available at Monument bookstores and the airports in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap for US$12.

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Expatriates’ Strange Lives in Cambodia | 7 Days | The Phnom Penh Post - Cambodia's Newspaper of Record