We went to see The Blind side yesterday. I am a big sports movie nut and Kate liked the preview, so we were good to go. I was caught by surprise when the movie starts with the Joe Theismann injury. It took me about two seconds to realize that is what the video was. The movie takes a couple of minutes before they make clear the connection between the video and the shot.
I remember that Monday Night Game. I was watching in the living room. It was 13 years old when I saw it. At that time it did not effect me at all. I knew it was a hard hit, but I had seen hard hits before. I had seen people go off the field before. It did not mean much to me.
I also watched that video again back in 2000. At that time it seemed like just nasty video. I did not have an emotional attachment to me. I thought it was cool to see it again. This time I knew the result. I knew that Joe Theismann would not play another game, but he would have a good career as a play-by-play announcer.
Watching it again now, before the Blind Side I was really taken by surprise. I have no doubt that this is how the book the Blind Side starts. Having read Money Ball, this totally fits Michael Lewis' style.
This time watching the video, on the big screen, it really effected me. I saw the video in an emotional way that I never saw it before. It really made me think in a way I never thought before. It might be, this is the first time I have seen the video being older than Joe Theismann at the time. He was 36 when he got hit by Lawrence Taylor, I am now 37. I understand something about work and jobs that I never thought about before. The idea of one hit ending Joe Theismann career is something that I was not ready for before seeing a feel good sports movie.
I really felt like I took a shot to the stomach right at the start of the movie. It really did a lot to frame how I felt for the first 20 minutes of the movie. I thought it was a pretty interesting technique to set the tone for a movie.
The movie is pretty good, It does not crack my list of best sports, or best football movies. It might crack my list of best Sandra Bullock movies
The more I see John Hodgman, the more I think he is a comic genius. I love him on the daily show, but he does not even show a quarter of his talent. Watching his above video really shows his skill. I was just amazed by this. His Ted talk about Aliens was really funny. When I see these clips I want to see more and more of John Hodgman.
The problem is that he is already on the best platform for his humor, The Daily Show. I cannot see how he can make use of what he does really well anywhere else in the mainstream media. I cannot see him getting a tv show of his own, a sitcom would not work, and I am not sure what else would work. There is so much in these clips. Maybe he will be able to make an internet future for himself, but will that make any money. I want to see more of John Hodgman, but I have the feeling I won't.
Last week there was a lot of talk of Hulu becoming a subscription service. The reaction to this has been all over the map. Everything from it is a great idea to everyone will go back to being a pirate. Of course no one know anything until the details come out.
If you look at Hulu now, you will see that most of the A-level content only goes back a few episodes. You cannot catch up for a whole season on Hulu. It is there if you missed an episode or if you want to watch episodes on the internet around when they air on TV. The premium content, like the Showtime Show Weeds, you only get clips.
In the best of all worlds the current free content stays free. Subscription content is only for things you would otherwise have to buy the DVD to get or full episodes of premium content. If that was the subscription service Hulu offered, it might be successful.
The problem with this model is clear. A successful pay wall will cause more programs to go behind that pay wall. In part because networks control the shows, there are still lots of hands in those pockets. If someone sees a new revenue stream, everyone will want to swim in it.
This year people have been talking a lot about cutting the cord of cable TV. This works, as long as not many people do it. TV networks and producers count on the revenue from cable subscriptions to make their business work. If enough people stop paying cable bills the whole business model will stop working. Right now cutting the cord works, if you want less content to watch. Yeah, I cannot watch all the networks that get with my cable, but I sure watch a lot of them.
I think that people who are looking at Hulu as source of free TV will be upset in a while. If everyone wants TV for free we will be stuck like crap like I'm a Celebrity get me Out of Here and The Hills as the only new content to watch. That is not really the world I am looking forward to.
I am digging the promotional material for the Watchmen. I think they are doing a good job getting people excited for the movie. I am not sure of other movies have done this, but this is the first time I have noticed it. Check out The New Frontiersman's Flickr photostream
It's an Internet Party, Don't let it clog your tube
Laughing Squid linked to this video of an internet party. When I say internet party, I mean the party when you personify the most popular sites on the net. It is pretty funny. I really like Ebay and paypal. I also like that the sites are all college age. It says something about who is important on the web.
This is really a game of chicken. Both Sides think the other side needs them more. Both sides think if they do not need to give in. Both of them think they are better off in control.
They are both wrong is the problem. NBC thinks it can make more money with other online providers. They want to make different bundles because they think it will bring more revenue. What NBC is missing what customers love about iTunes. not needing to buy albums, just cherry picking ones they want. If NBC wants to force customers to buy content they don't want to get what they want, they are making a mistake. They run the risk losing customers to other content.
The mistake that iTunes is making is that they are opening the door to other download providers. NBC, Sci-fi, and USA networks have been the cornerstones of the iTunes Video store. If content is king, other providers will play ball with NBC to get this content. Those providers what a chunk of what iTunes has.
The interesting thing about NBC's decision for me is how a year ago it was a big story how iTunes saved the Office. After being saved by iTunes the Office has become a hit. One of the anchors of NBC's Line up. It is funny to me how this would not be important to NBC.
My guess is that NBC has no way to figure out how many people who viewed the Office on iTunes. They think they could get that many people on their own site when they launch it. The problem is that NBC is trying to be in more control when they do not understand the world they are operating. This is a major problem.
One interesting bit was this.
In addition to the pricing issue, NBC Universal wants iTunes to stiffen anti-piracy provisions so computer users would not have easy access to illegal downloads.
What are they talking about. Do they want Apple computers not to work with bittorrent? Do they want iTunes files harder to crack? Do they want more control over the Mac platform. All three of these are bad ideas. I want to know what they want.
The Big Gap is the place between early adapters and average consumers. The Big Gap is the difference between a single company being able to carve out a business and a whole industry being able to thrive. The Big Gap is often the difference between what people are saying and what they are doing. Right now that big gap is between Apple being able to sell TV shows on iTunes and the average customer wanting to pay for TV show downloads.
A new report from Forrester Research says people are not willing to pay for TV show downloads. This does not surprise me at all. People feel that they are already paying enough for TV. People pay a lot of money for cable, they do not want to pay more for other TV.
Only a sliver of the video-viewing masses -- about 9 percent -- have the know-how, time, money and patience to surf the Internet for programming, according to the Forrester report.
I am in that 9 percent, but I am still not willing to do it. I missed a couple of important episodes of Heroes, but I am not willing to pay $2 an episode to catch the ones I missed. I will just watch something else instead.
I know that television producers have made a lot of money with TV shows on DVD. TV shows DVDs have been big sellers. I think that people see downloads as different than DVDs. I think the downloads are not as friendly or collectible as the DVDs. Until people can burn downloads onto DVD I think this problem will continue.
Television producers face a real problem. They will have a problem passing along any more cost along to the consumer. Consumers are going to spend their money else where. The 30 second ad is coming to an end. Television producers and networks have to find a new way to get advertisers messages across. That might mean less revenue for them. That will turn the world of television up side down.
Lets see if the Apple TV has any power to change this. I do not think it will.
You should watch the video for the O-Phone. I do not think this video is funny because it is making fun of Microsoft. It is funny because it is making fun of marketing. It is making fun of the way people try to promote products. It makes fun of how people take bad designs and try to tell you the design it good. That is why this video is worth watching.
The world of internet video is getting cooler everyday. I think that this video is another example. I just worry that there is no way to find all of it. I am not sure there will be a good way to find any of it. I guess I will have to just count on my friends for now.
You can watch the movie at home or at the office, but the license agreement prohibits you from watching it in 'hotel rooms, motel rooms, hospital patient rooms, restaurants, bars, prisons, barracks, drilling rigs' and certain other locations.
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Sometimes it takes a new technology like video downloading to make old technology, like renting a DVD from Netflix (Charts) or Blockbuster, look really good. In comparison to Unbox, a DVD rental is faster, cheaper, easier, more flexible, and delivers more choices and a better picture.
The review talks about how it takes a long time to get the program, how the quality is not as good as a DVD, and how restrictive the DRM is. I think that this is going to be the problem with download services for a while. I hope that these drawbacks get figured out before illegal downloads break the market.
I read some blogs and blog columnist say they were disappointed at Apple that iTunes 7 does not have HD support. They want shows and movies in at least 1080i resolution. Whenever asked about download bandwidth and time constraints, they say that Apple should use BitTorrent or a system like it. I hear people all the time talk about BitTorrent like it is free bandwidth.
Could a commercial service like Apple's iTunes Music Story use a shared distribution system successfully? I am not sure what the technical barriers to this would be. My guess is that it would not be as easy as it seems. Even if it was really easy, I am not sure what kind of customer experence it would be. I am not sure a technology like BitTorrent would support the kind of business Apple or Amazon wants to build.
I am both happy and sad that music videos are no longer really important for musicans. It was cool when videos were little movies. Some had nothing at all to do with the songs. Now you have to see the band play in ever video. They are no longer interesting at all.
If you want to go back to the old days of MTV, check out these 80's Videos.
I have been playing with Abazab over the last couple of days. Really, I have been playing with shooting video with my phone and trying to post it to Abazab. I have had my phone for a few weeks, but I have only now started taking videos.
Check out my abazab playbox. For right now I have it on my home page. I know what home pages are old ideas. No one has home pages. I am just putting it there until I figure out what to do with it. I am not sure where to put it so people will see it. I might just have to put it a couple of places.
I learned about abazab from MJ. It is in beta right now, we have to give it a little leaway if things seem strange.
I am not sure what I should put up on Abazab. Right now I can only get 15 second clips from my phone. Fifteen seconds is cool, but there is not that much I can do with it. I could post little things everyday. If it cool enough that I am thinking of getting a web cam. It is someplace I could post video content and share it with other people.
Tell me if there is anything you would like to see me publish.
There are lots of things which I do not agree with Henry Rollins about, but this is not one. I really hope that Ann takes Henry up on his offer. That would be a great couple.
I think it is pretty big news that Google Set to Sell Video From CBS, NBA. I cannot think of anything else that Google charges end users for. I wonder where this is leading their business. Are we going to see a big shift in the way they do business? I wonder what kind of info Google wants to sell to us.
