Thursday, March 13, 2008
Health Food
It’s been probably 25 years or more since I had a bag of Fritos. Then, onday they had a bunch of various chips at my office. So I grabbed a bag of Fritos and was amazed how much better they tasted than the other ones they had.
Now I know why. Less is more. And a lot healthier.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Bwa ha ha!
When you have Keith Olbermann going postal on Clinton, you have to admit this is a hilarious race. Even if the end result is going to suck no matter who wins. It’s a circus.
Clinton is being exposed as the nutty fraud that she is. The Clintons have probably lost black support for all time after this. She’s done.
It’s also hilarious to watch self righteous Clinton stooge Elliot Spitzer go down in flames this week. Another ethically challenged politician from the “most ethical administration in history”.
Honestly, Dems, do you understand what us Clinton critics were saying now? They are a nightmare in the body politic. They are poison to your party. They systematically did untold damage to the Democrats, as Bush has to the Republicans.
If only Washington, DC had a big flush chain attached to it. The public needs to get rid of the lot of these alleged leaders. Time to clean house!
The Future of Civilization
Perhaps you’ve seen this vidcast by Michio Kaku. If not, it’s worth a look.
American Idol Top 12
It was Beatles week, and the idols were given the chance to do their renditions of classic songs. her were mixed results, but when they were on target, it was great.
They also have a new set, and it’s fantastic looking. Very similar in some ways to the animation in the credits.
I have to say, this season of American Idol has the best talent overall, of any season I have watched (4 on). When people stumble this season, they still do a decent job. There are no Sanjayas here.
That said, last night the “leading contender” David Archuleta showed us that he is far from perfect. He stumbled badly enough by forgetting his lyrics, twice, that he should have got a serious brow beating from Simon. Simon did scold him, but not has harshly as he normally does to people who stumble that bad. This is largely because he’s their golden boy.
But look out, David! Two singers are threatening to take your status. And they are two who seemed in danger of being let go only a few weeks back. The first being Chikezie who who did “She’s a Woman”, starting off with a bluegrass arrangement and then turning it into a rock ballad. It was awesome. I knew the guy had it in him. The judges loved it. He’s definitely safe.
David Cook is the other star of the night. Turning in a stellar version of Elanor Rigby, making it a kind of alt-rock cover. The judges loved it as well.
Three of the women also shined to varying degrees of success. Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Amana Overmyer. They didn’t do quite as well as the two boys, but they were very good. Carly belted out “Come Together”. Brooke White does an emotional version of “Let It Be” on the piano. She gets up afterward crying with emotion, almost disbelieving she’s on live TV on a big stage with screaming fans in the audience. She’s definitely safe. Amanda does a get down-and-dirty cover of “You Can’t Do That” that sounds like some crazy bar-club performance. But it totally works. And the interesting thing is, she said she was unfamiliar with the song when she picked it up. Now, if she would get rid of that stupid hairdo.
As for the rest, I’ll start with the best and word my way down.
Jason Castro was good, solid. Not exciting, but decent. He sang “If I Fell”, which is a fairly quiet song. Dude needs to do something less mellow for a change.
Syesha Mercados’ “Got to Get You Into My Life” was also solid. But a pretty straight forward cover of the Earth Wind and Fire version.
Michael Johns did “Across the Universe”. He sang it well, but that song should have a cosmic feel. He merely did it justice. He also needs to be more theatrical when doing songs like this.
Ramiele Malubay was a pretty, dull interpretation of “In My Life”.
David Hernandez did a corny, blah version of “I Saw Her Standing There”. Too bad, because I think he’s one of the better male singers this season.
Kristie Lee Cook did a country fried version of “Eight Days a Week” as if she were on Hee Haw. I kind of like the country arrangement, but she handled it wrong, trying to sing it too much with runs in the middle. It flopped. And she may be getting the axe tonight. Too bad because she’s one of the best looking contestants as well as having some real talent. But I think she has trouble finding her way.
David Archuleta finished the show in the Pimp Spot, which is where they stick people they think will do the best closer. But he totally tripped and goofed “We Can Work it Out” while attempting the Stevie Wonder version. Cracks are starting to show in David A’s veneer. I think the kid may find the pressure too much, being at the top. We’ll see how he holds up. But he’s safe.He’s this season’s teeny bopper favorite.
So there you go. Not a bad night over all. My picks for who might go is either Ramiele, for being boring or Kristie Lee Cook for being too off target. And maybe David Hernandez for being corny. I’m calling it for Ramiele. Just a hunch. KLC has fans and Hernandez wasn’t that bad.
UPDATE:SPOILER! Wow, David Hernandez gets it. I had a feeling that the news about him having been a stripper in gay bars would get him. The voters on Idol are harsh to gays or gayish people. I don’t even know if David H was gay or not, but that’s that. Too bad, He was really good. But this week he wasn’t.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Ha ha
Man From Earth Producer Speaks
A week ago I wrote about file sharing and how I think free file sharing will be the new business model for film makers. The film The Man from Earth is mentioned in the article. Teh producer of the film read my post and had some things to add.
It’s nice to see that people are still blogging about my film. It’s been out on DVD for several months now and most of the commotion and “chatter” has died down a bit.
So where do I start?
Eric, “Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth” is my first film as a producer. While I have written many unproduced screenplays that sit in my desk drawer, producing a movie has always been a dream of mine. When the opportunity came only to not only produce a film, but producing a script penned by the late, great Jerome Bixby, I jumped at the chance. I put much of my own personal money, my family’s money along with friends and business associates, and three years of my life into it. I could not be prouder of the final result. Unlike many first time producers, we actually were fortunate enough to get distribution for the film and I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to go to my local Circuit City and buy my own movie (which I did).
Piracy was inevitable. I knew that going into this. When we got wind that the marketing budget for the film would be very small, I was thrilled at first when I saw all of the attention that it was getting online. The screener that was sent out to retailers was pirated and my film was getting a TON of attention. People were watching it and loving it and I was loving the fact that they were loving it, so much so, that I threw caution to the wind and sent that email to one of the P2P websites (www.rlslog.net) that turned out to be the equivalent of pouring gasoline on the fire. My film was getting a ton of attention, more and more people downloaded it and we flirted with the mainstream press (“Movie Producer Thanks Pirates For Stealing His Movie”). Since then, we have gotten over 10,000 votes on IMDb, with an 8.3 rating, the trailer has been streamed online close to 200,000 times, I’ve had more traffic to our website than I ever would have imagined. The awareness is great. But has it translated into sales?
Unfortunately… no.
While I absolutely meant what I said when I wrote “Our independent movie had next to no advertising budget and very little going for it until somebody ripped one of the DVD screeners and put the movie online for all to download…. People like our movie and are talking about it, all thanks to piracy on the Net!” , the key words here are “talking about it”. Sales and rentals have been “okay” and probably stronger than they would have been thanks to the awareness generated from P2P. And, while we did set up a PayPal “donate” link on our http://www.manfromearth.com website and people from all over the world generously donated what they could after watching our film through P2P, the real truth is that the donations were a mere fraction compared to the tens of thousands of times the f ilm has been downloaded over the net. We are far from breakeven. If EVERY person that downloaded the movie actually donated $5 we might actually be a profitable film. When you look at a movie like “Transformers”, well, that movie grossed $700,000,000 worldwide and sold 10,000,000 DVDs is first week out. Anyone could download “Transformers” from P2P the week the movie opened in the theaters. You can’t tell me having sold 10,000,000 copies in the first week that many of the same people that downloaded it didn’t go out and buy a copy too? They had to. The sales numbers prove it. I don’t believe piracy hurts some of these big media companies as much as it affects independent filmmakers who struggle to try something new and different and offer an alternative to the same big budget pabulum they are used to eating. While piracy helped generated awareness, the fact is that the majority of the people that downloaded and watched it for free, paid nothing to do so. While that may not hut the BIG studios all that much, it adversely affects independent filmmakers when you don’t pay to watch their film.
At the end of the day, while I agree, I just don’t think it’s enough for you to just say that P2P “exposes people to material they never would have seen and allows them to try and sample new music, art, and literature”. While P2P very well may serve that purpose, why don’t you offer a suggestion on how big media or an independent filmmaker can not only embrace P2P but suggest a viable business model that P2P users will embrace as well? Again, while I agree with you the P2P is an amazing promotional tool, I still am struggling for my movie to break even.
I do want to say THANK YOU to you and to everyone who rented and bought our DVD or graciously donated whatever they could. Every cent we have collected does not go to line our pockets, but is distributed to everyone who worked on the film. I’m really glad you liked it and I appreciate you mentioning it. To those who havent seen it yet, It’s available on Netflix and Amazon (and all other retailers).
Thanks for letting me rant. I look forward to your response.
Eric D. Wilkinson
Producer
Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth
The business model is working itself out. In the case of films, I think the answer is to offer special editions so people are interested in purchasing teh hard copy because there is some collector gimmick involved. And I’m sure legal downloads that offer the film for a lower price than a DVD is another way to go, but that business model is still in its infancy.
I buy DVDS, but a lot of the ones I buy are used because its cheaper and I don’t feel they deserve full price. The dollars I spend may not add to the movie’s take, but they already made money when they were sold to the rental chain.
Wired did an article recently describing why free is the future of Business. I think they’re right, but we still have to figure all the ins and outs yet.
The Creepy Gnome Strikes Again
Perhaps you heard about the “creepy gnome” which was caught on video in Argentina.
Apparently, new footage has been captured recently which is causing a stir.
Cat of a 1000 Faces
Monday, March 10, 2008
Bionic Eye
There is one, and it looks pretty real.
Too bad it doesn’t glow in the dark. But you can always get one of these contacts.
Leaving Hillary
Reading left wing blogs has been a lot of fun lately. Mainly to read all these Dems realize that Republicans have been right about the Clintons all along. They just couldn’t see it. Now we have two Hillary supporters who have publicly switched sides to Obama. They’re both worth a read. This one really leaps out at you.
I voluntarily left the Hillary Finance Committee after I discovered more than $3, 000 in unauthorized charges from HRC campaign on my own VISA card! And that set off a wave of overdrafts and $400 in bank charges that I was stuck with. And thE compliance officer Allison Wright at Hillary VA headquarters refused to reimburse me for the charges. And the senior finance reps who I notified about more than $3, 000 in Unauthorized Visa Charges: never once apologized or empathized with my plight…Much less send me a “sorry for all the trouble” note and a check!
Unbelievably, it took me more than a month of pleading and begging VIA email to get the money back. I was told verbatim:
“Kathy Callahan, you are going to be with us all the way to the White House…So let’s leave the money where it is and we’ll save time on inevitable future donations and transactions!”
Is that crooked or what? Taking money from your unpaid staff without their consent and trying to pass it off as a donation.
And this one by a Clinton supporter who now agrees that she’s a monster.
There are lots more blog entries like this all over the left wing web. Daily Kos sounds like the Rush Limbaugh show for all the Hillary bashing you see there now. It’s pretty funny. But I’m glad some people are coming to their senses on the Clintons. It’s a start,.
Copyright © 2008 James D. Hudnall. All Rights Reserved
This page has been viewed 3671443 timesPage rendered in 0.4844 seconds
Total Entries: 2440 / Total Comments: 4861 / Total Trackbacks: 0
Most Recent Entry: 11/19/2008 04:58 pm / Most Recent Comment on: 11/19/2008 10:42 pm
Total Members: 77 / Total Logged in members: 1 / Total guests: 37 / Total anonymous users: 0
Most Recent Visitor on: 11/19/2008 11:55 pm
The most visitors ever was 847 on 11/15/2007 03:28 am
Current Logged-in Members: Dave Marron
