Destroy your TV
Dorothy ‘s latest article over at Forbes.com has some dire revelations in TV advertising. It seems that in the past, most of the ad revenue (billions of dollars) for the Fall season is already committed by now. This year, however, the amount of money committed is exactly nothing – $0.00. That sounds serious. Maybe serious enough for network TV to go off the air? A boy can dream, can’t he?
According to this headline from Engadget, the site is going legit. If that’s the way it has to be, ther’s nothing I can do to stop it. The current owners are selling out for just a few million (US), but it will probably be nice to not get hauled into court anymore. They claim that the site will continue to operate in much the same fashion, only with copyright holders getting some share of the revenue. I can get behind that idea, in theory. Let’s see how it looks in practice.
It’s been a good run for me and Pirate Bay. Hence the sad puppy dog eyes above.
I’m very pleased to have wrapped up the Squarepuser / Artist of the Week project. It was great to go through all of that stuff, especially the ’97 show from Shinjuku Liquid Lounge. I’ve never seen that one posted, except for the torrent i got a year or two ago. The torrent is long gone (off the Dime tracker, anyway) and I’ve never seen the show posted elsewhere. The best part is that it came with no track listing. That forced me to listen to these jams over and over again to get the song titles right. Hopefully this whole exercise will tide me over until August.
The Fretbuzz.net project is coming along nicely. FBDN himself has proven a capable and attentive webmaster and the resource is really stimulating our collective creative juices. The best part is that the sight is active, even if not terribly well visited. We’re not exactly counting hits, but a quick google search this morning revealed that if you just put in the ‘fretbuzz’ we come up tenth – first page, baby! That’s pretty strong, considering the (most likely) scanty readership. This means that our updating (sometimes a few times per day!) is paying off.
I recently found an Aimee Mann bootleg from the Bachelor No. 2 / Magnolia era. It’s a superb recording and there is a sense of commitment and passion in her performance. So, that will get posted this week, along with my comments on this troubling artist.
The work week ended with an aggrieved father who attempted to strangle his daughters killer during sentencing. I was waiting for me cases to be called when, on this other case, the Judge consented to hearing from the victim’s family prior to sentencing. Big mistake. Now, that’s what I call Courtroom Drama. Everything was put under control quickly by the highly skilled (and much appreciated) Camden Sheriffs. Nice work, people.
The next work week begins with the deposition of an officer that killed a 15-year-old boy who allegedly threatened him with a clothes iron. Cop shot that boy dead. I’ve go the kid’s mom as a client in a wrongful death / Civil Rights / Excessive Force (yuh think?) case. So, I’ve got a lot of work to do today to get ready for this clown. He’ll be well prepared.
Sci-Fi stuff of note includes Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality which was on Friday night. I haven’t checked it out yet, but maybe tonight if the work goes well. I’m excited about sci-fi that is strongly connected to this world and this planet. It’s a nice break from faraway planets and alien races. Another project that appears to work along similar lines is Moon, which is getting a UK release next month. I’m not sure if we’ll be getting this one in the U.S.
And, speaking of movies, we went with my mom to see The Proposal yesterday afternoon. Betty White was HUGE!
Rendell, the illustrious governor of my Commonwealth, has proposed to bridge the $3.2 billion budget gap by raising income taxes for a three years. As a second term lame duck in this world-wide recession, he can get away with that suggestion, but that still doesn’t mean it’s going to fly.
Personally, I don’t really have a problem paying higher taxes for a few years, especially considering the alternative of living in a major city without the appropriate civic services of education, police, fire, etc. The argument against is that we will quickly fall down the ever-popular ‘slippery slope’ and taxes will never go down. I simply don’t think that is a concern when politicians must stand for election and taxes are a total no-brainer for the elctorate.
But it made another idea jump into my head. We should be paying higher taxes and we should have been paying higher taxes starting back in 2003, when our elected federal governemnt decided we sould go to war in Iraq. Residents of this country have been getting their heads blown off and having their internal organs reduced to a pulpy mess of blood and sinew ever since that decision was made. From the moment we went to war, we should have been compelled to make sacrifices and to pay higher taxes. But instead, we all sat home and watched reality TV.
Reality TV is bad for you. American Idol is bad for you. Cigarettes are bad for you. Are you starting to get the picture? Tax viewers of American Idol and you’ll accomplish two important goals. You’ll raise revenue and you’ll make the show go away.
Heather Havrilevsky at Salon seems to have liked it, but is not optimistic about the show’s future. This is from Heather’s review:
Imagine if Carmela Soprano woke up this morning, got herself a gun, and blew Tony Soprano’s head off.
Nancy Franklin at the New Yorker definitely liked it. I guess I liked it too – the first episode, that is. Go figure. Let’s see how it goes from here.