What's this?

Is it  possible that I  might be posting to RRR.

Take heart all 1 person still reading this blog.....a new revamp is coming soon....................ish.

Oh NBC, You Have Failed Me Once Again

This is my usual disclaimer that this review was cross posted to both my blogs on Streme of Meme as well as Really Random Reviews.  Yes, I'm that cheap when it comes to blog entries.

Oh NBC, you have failed me.

I know it's day "-2" of the Olympics, but your first soccer broadcast of the match between Germany and Brazil is about as useful as a slide show.

Late Monday night, I had a notification from my TiVo that I had magically been granted access to the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel.  This would give me access to "whistle to whistle" action of every soccer match of the Olympics.

Being the devoted soccer geek that I am, I got up this morning at 4:00 AM to watch the coverage.  I was greeted with a jerky, pixelated mess that was pretty much useless.  Even the audio wasn't coming through.  After about twenty minutes of hope that the problem would be fixed, I just grabbed my laptop and started reading RSS feeds.

Shame on NBC for promising to deliver something and then failing miserably.  A lot of people might point out that this is the first televised event, but they had FOUR YEARS to work on this.  I have never been satisfied with NBC's Olympic coverage.  They paid almost a billion dollars for the rites to the Olympics, and they have never managed to get their coverage quite right.

General Electric (which owns NBC) is very much the Six Sigma poster child.  You would think that the core focus of the televised event would be to manage down the defects in the actual broadcast to at least a five sigma level.  (For those of you that know what I'm talking about, please reward yourself with a latte and a lobotomy today).

I'll be looking forward to the day when NBC's dominance of the Olympics is over.  It's time for some fresh blood.

Really Random Thoughts 004

X-Files: I Figured The Truth Out 30 Minutes Into The Movie

I had a lot reseverations about the new X-files movie.  

Realize that as the parent of a picky three year old, I'm actually prevented from seeing many movies until they reach DVD.

So I decided that my loyalty this summer would be to Chris Carter who kept me entertained for more than a decade with "The X-files."  

I finally found an excuse to go the movies by taking a day off for my birthday and ran right out.

I had really tried to keep off of many of the internet sites that might have given spoilers to the movie.  I was shocked that a lot of the rumor sites had nothing on the movie.  Most of the plot details were kept pretty close to the vest.  

Things I did know going into it.

1.  The movie would not be a "mythology" movie.  It would be more like one of the stand alone episodes.

2.  It took place in a lot of snow.

3.  It co-starred Billy Connolly last known to me as Howard Hessman's replacement on "Head of the Class."

As loyal readers to my reviews know, I never give spoilers.  So I'll do my usual vague job reviewing the movie.

A lot of the plot centers around an abduction that "no longer so special agents" Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are called in to investigate.  With the aid of an apparent psychic with a dark past (Connelly) our heros proceed to uncover a "shocking" truth about the abductor's motives.  This truth seems something that author Thomas Harris would have thought about and rejected from "Silence of the Lambs".  In fact, this movie almost tried to be a bad parody of "Lambs".  

The movie tried to put Scully and Mulder's relationship under the microscope but it just left me feeling confused.  I didn't get any clear indication of anything until the end (which felt contrived and -- gasp -- badly acted).  To add insult to injury, stay after the credits and really get confused by something that happens in a rowboat.

Speaking of the credits, I think that they were visually the most stunning portion of the movie.  I loved them!!!!  If the movie would have been composed of the end title shots the movie would have rated high for me.

The return of one of the series regulars about 3/4 through the movie was the high point for me.  (ok, had to throw an "almost spoiler" in there somewhere.  

Maybe it's the decade since the show was last on the air, but a lot of the "shock and awe" that kept me glued to the TV has fizzled in the wake of such shows as "Lost", "Heros", and the newly resurgent (and soon once again dormant) "Doctor Who". The writers of this movie seem to have clung to a once original formula that has been copied so many times that it no longer feels "fresh".

I would have been happier of Fox would have commissioned one of these a year to be shown on TV.  I think that I would have been more than happy with the movie if it had been shown on the small screen.  

Despite this review, I think die hard fans will still like the movie.  There was a lot of stuff (which you had to REALLY pay attention to) that set up future movies.  

Maybe the next one will be better.

New Blog

Hey everyone.

A little shameless plug for a new personal blog I'm setting up called "Stream of Meme".

I'm attempting to blog at least once a day for a year.  I will have no clue what I'm blogging about until the minute to start to type.  Expect a lot of random stuff from me.

This blog attempt is part of a new series of personal goals that I have decided to undertake this year. 

I have no clue why I make resolutions on my birthday.  I guess I just want to not fall into the "New Year's" camp.

For this site I'll be posting my review of a new board game and a movie that I intend to see later today.  I'm also working on imporoving the social network part of the site.  Feel free to go in and play around.

Be seeing you on SOM and RRR.

Jamie

Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Born from the bitter ashes of the last writer's strike, "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" is another feather in Joss Whedon's already crowded head dress.

Whedon (best known for TV's "Buffy" and Fox cancellation blunder alum "Firefly") decided to go it alone this time, creating a show without the direct financial aid of a major studio.

The show was released to the internet in three roughly fifteen minute installments last week. I waited until all three were complete to write this review, sacrificing "freshness" for "completeness". I wanted to sit back and not get caught up in the moment.

First of all, I have to admit that I am a HUGE Joss Whedon fan. He could spit into a cup (which I could then sell on eBay) and I would call it a masterpiece. Bodily excretions aside, I am going to try and take an objective and considered tone with this review.

"Doctor Horrible" tells the story of a "not-so" supervillian (Neil Patrick Harris) who is attempting to get into the Evil League of Evil. He is constantly thwarted by his nemesis "Captain Hammer" (Nathan Fillion). When the good Doctor finally looks close to accomplishing his goal, he meets Penny (Felicia Day). I'll leave the rest of the plot up you to figure out.

The show essentially follows Buffy's "Once More With Feeling" formula of a sing-a-long. Whedon once again creates the perfect geek musical with a combination of catchy tunes that I can't get out of my head. I found myself singing "With my freeze ray I will stop....the pain" in the shower this morning (there won't be a YouTube video of that).

When I first heard that Joss had cast Neil Patrick Harris in the role of Doctor Horrible, I was pretty much against it. In the first 10 seconds of the show, my doubts were gone. His strong performance carried the show. As with a lot of Joss' characters, the combination of the writing and the performance made me instantly care about Doctor Horrible. It was pretty funny to see TV's original "blogger" (referring of course to that certain MD show that he used to be on) doing a lot more modern take on blogging.

If Harris' leading role was the strength of the show, then Felicia Day's "Penny" was the heart of the show. Her performance was the most complete of any of the big three. She brought an authenticity to her character that I have haven't seen in a long time. In a world populated by super heros and super villians, she seemed the most powerful of them all, just by being herself.

Nathan Fillion was a bit over the top in the show. I guess if I hadn't seen him in a Whedon production before I would have loved his performance. Unfortunately, I have to say that out of the three, I was most disappointed in him. I know his role as "Captain Hammer" was to be a self-absorbed jerk, but I don't know if he had to go that far. He serves as the comic foil, delivering the dry humor with his usual spot on comic timing.

While I'm inclined to put my seal of approval on anything Whedon, this new media experiment was not without its faults. the run time of the three parts is pretty much the length of one television episode. A lot of the flow of the show just didn't work for me (even after watching all three parts). There seemed like a lot of plot that was cut for the sake of brevity. I'm hoping that the release of the DVD will add any cut scenes back in.

This will be a unique media experiment. The show was only available for less than a week on the 'net, though it is still available on iTunes and it's well worth the $4.00 (think of it as a latte for the mind). The DVD release should be the next phase of the marketing campaign and will contain "extras" and a commentary track (or two).

I believe that campaigns like this are going to be the future of entertainment. I'm just glad the Joss has thrown his metaphorical hat into the ring to try and shape that future. I can thinking of no one else I'd rather see defining this new chapter in entertainment history.

Really Random Reminder

I rarely do this but I urge you to check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog from the dangerously diseased brain of Joss Whedon. If you loved Buffy, Angel, or Firefly this is the show for you.

It will be pulled from the 'net on July 20th, so watch all three parts now. They are also available for purchase on iTunes.

I'm going to post a full review as soon as part 3 is completed.

Also, head on over to the Official Fan Site for all sorts of goodies.

Update: as of 10 PM central time it's been very difficult to get on the official site. If you want to view, try the Fan Site.

Really Random Thought #3 Where's My iPod Touch Update?

TWIT LIVE iPhone Coverage Is Fantastic!!!

Leo Laporte is doing a 24 hour live "iPhone-a-thon" over at TWIT Live.  

So far it has been a fantastic trip into the future of live media on the net.  He's using all the power of the web to create a "mobile command center" for iPhone news.  

As the show began on Thursday afternoon,  I had my doubts.  Everything seemed to not be working.  Leo was running through many hoops just to keep the show going, but he pulled it off.  Once most of the kinks had been worked out, the web responded.  As of 5:45 AM US Central Time on Friday, he has had over 200,000 people viewing him and has pretty much always maintained 2,000 -6,000 viewers at any one time.  

Leo has an incredible Rolodex of tech people to draw from.  The interviews have been fantastic, most notably with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (who spilled the beans that he "may or may not be married").  

The real star of the show seemed to be the incredible number of "average" people that Leo has talked to. From the people in line at Apple Stores all over the world, to scores of people with their new iPhones, Leo has talked to them all.  The show feels like his nationally syndicated radio show, only better.  Thanks to the power of the internet (and a ton of webcams) Leo can see and talk to viewers all over the world.  This is a tremendously powerful tool that I believe will set the stage for the how we view live content on the web in the next 5 years.

I believe that years from now, we will all sit back and realize that this was the launch of the first great media event on the net.  Who better to take us down this road that tech podcasting pioneer Leo Laporte? 

If you are reading this before 3PM US Central Time on Friday July 11th, you can still view the live stream at the TWIT LIVE website.

Thanks Leo, for the tremendous coverage.  Now go get some sleep.

Making my life easier with tubemogul

Tubemogul is a free service that allows you to upload your video one time and they will transcode and submit your video automatically.  Thanks to Tubemogul, our videos can now be submitted and shared to 10 different video hosting sites such as YouTube, Yahoo Video, Revver, AOL, Veoh, Blip, and Viddler.  

I found the interface easy to use.  Signing up was a snap. Actually, the hardest part was trying to remember my login and password for all the websites.  Tubemogul has even thought of that.  They will save your login information so you don't have to scrounge around for that elusive password for a site you haven't used in a year.  

I uploaded "Really Random Thoughts #2" and within 10 minutes I was distributed out to almost all the video hosting services.  

Another great feature of Tubemogul is the analytics.  With their dashboard, you can track all your video views and comments all in the same place.  They even allow you to export the raw data so you can impress your friends with the hard evidence that your video of Uncle Johnny getting nailed in the crotch by a baseball bat has actually been watched over 200,000 times.

If you want to get your videos out quickly and efficiently to everyone on the web, Tubemogul is the best way to do it.