MTV Overdrive - Controlling Your Own Entertainment

Do you have a broadband connection? Do you like music videos or some other kind of MTV content? You can stream a lot of their stuff from their Overdrive site. I guess I'm one of the old school types who likes his MTV to be full of music videos and not Newlyweds, Punk'd, etc. (Isn't that what MTV156 is for?) With Overdrive you can create a playlist of music videos and they'll play in order with only an occasional break for a 30-second commercial. I wish the videos were of a bit higher quality - played at full-screen they're very pixelated. Oh well. It's Overdrive 1.0.

Awesome I Shot That! New Beastie Boys Movie

Building on an earlier post about the digital video revolution - I finally looked into the new Beastie Boys feature film I've been hearing a lot about. Here's the blurb:

A formally innovative feature film experience, the Beastie Boys handed out 50 cameras to audience members at their sold-out performance in New York’s famed Madison Square Garden in October 2004. These 50 different passionate perspectives shot from the point-of-view of the audience take the viewer deep inside the world of a live Beastie Boys show.

Additional Infoz:

Beastieboys.com - Main site for the Beastie Boys!

Awesome I F'n Shot That - Feature Film Official Site

Official Trailer - Check out the trailer in Quicktime

You Think That's Good Salsa?

Some commercials that I find eminently funny are the new Axe Keep Your Cool commercials. I like The One Upper, Mother Hen, and Fake British Accent Guy.

Check out the commercials online.

What's your favourite commerical on TV currently? Or since TIVO/DVR have you not seen a commercial since late 1998? Drop comments below.

A House-keeping Note

Links from many of my old posts will not work due to the archiving practices of sites such as Yahoo News and StarTribune.com. In the future I will make sure posts make sense without having to click-thru to ensure readability.

-Joram

Movie Fridays

In Early Development:
I spotted this graph in a Yahoo News story:

A new big-screen movie, apparently featuring the early adventures of Trek forefathers James T. Kirk and Spock, and boasting the handiwork of Lost creator J.J. Abrams, is being primed for a 2008 release.

Very interesting. While I've yet to sit down and watch the DVD seasons of Lost - I've only heard good things about their plotlines and show dynamics. In my opinion - if you nail these two criteria for Trek you'll have a great series. I'll keep an eye on this one. More info at StarTrek.com.


Upcoming Release:

X-Men 3 - The Last Stand. Check out the Official Site for the trailer. Back in the Fandom.com days I was following the release of the new movie very religiously. I'm hoping with a shift of directors (to Brett Ratner of Rush Hour fame) that they can still maintain the feel of the first two movies. It looks like they've at least put the right amount of money into the budget! For additional coverage of the movie I recommend CHUD.com.



This Weekend:

Predictions:


Big Winner: United 93 - Everyone is talking about it - Plus it's first to market after 9/11. I think America is ready for it.
Big Loser: RV - Robin Williams vs. cranky RV. Snore. 10 million tops.
Surprise Performer: Stick It - performs well with MTV crowd and dads volunteering to take kids to it.

Drop a comment below if you dig this subject matter!

Digital Shorts

I am very excited about the rise of digital short films hitting the mainstream. My friend Josh tackles the hip-hop angle on a couple of SNL's best. (ChronicWHAT?!) I'm into giving the power of entertainment to the masses. Having spent a couple of years in Hollywood - I only got a taste of what's wrong with commercialized productions; i.e. too many sequels, cookie-cutter scripts, etc. The digital revolution will change how we create and consume our entertainment options.

The sun sets on an old blog... and will rise again with a new one

Well it's good to be back online. I'm testing some features for the blog.

Yahoo! News - Tempers Flare During 'Taboo' Board Game

I love this game...

Yahoo! News - Tempers Flare During 'Taboo' Board Game: "CONWAY, Ark. - The party game wasn't the only thing taboo. Three men were arrested on felony charges after a game of Taboo went awry at a Conway home.

Officers were called to the home Sunday after two men threatened others with guns because they were losing the game, in which one teammate gives clues about certain subject matter, but using certain words is taboo. "

Open up those icy gates

You know you live in Minnesota when...

Open up those icy gates: "About 27,000 ice blocks are in place. The ice rink has been Zambonied. The ice thrones are in position. Even the windshield washer fluid is ready to spew from the ice fountain. "

Yahoo! News - Looking for porn? Now you can just Booble it

HILARIOUS

Yahoo! News - Looking for porn? Now you can just Booble it: "LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Online pornography aficionados got a boost when a US entrepreneur launched a new search engine for raunchy Internet material dubbed 'Booble.com'. "

Real Men Need Poker Night / God, sex, cars, really good scotch and a lot of five-card stud. Might just be essential to your health

Real Men Need Poker Night / God, sex, cars, really good scotch and a lot of five-card stud. Might just be essential to your health: "But maybe I've been wrong all along. Maybe there are ways to do this sort of thing right. Maybe I've been neglecting an important aspect of life, that of the Gathering of Like-Minded Ones, the Reinforcement of the Gender Thing, the Great Weekly Bonding Event.
Because I now find I want to start a poker night. A real one. Sort of.
I want to gather a cluster of a few friends every week and have them bring buckets of spare change and whip up some exceptional food and enjoy much laughter and discussion and raunchy jokes and music and expensive scotch, and stay up too late until the last hand is played out and the last drop of whiskey is enjoyed and everyone goes home buzzed and askew and tired.
Because it's necessary. Because discussion and camaraderie and frequent deep laughter are dying arts. Because the Net is an isolating beast and television is slow poison and the world is increasingly bitter, and we all appear to be increasingly combative and wary and fearful. "

Hell yes

MSN Hotmail - Message: "Quote of the Day
'It's time President Bush played it straight with the American people. President Bush has shut the people out of government and told them they have no right to know what he says to special interests in the Oval Office. As President, my administration will be an open book. We need a higher standard of leadership in Washington.'

- Wes Clark "

Yahoo! News - White House Opposes UN Report on Obesity

Think the advertising lobby sent a couple bucks someone's way for this?

Yahoo! News - White House Opposes UN Report on Obesity: "The WHO report recommends eating more fruits and vegetables and limiting fats and salt. It also suggests governments limit food advertising aimed at children and encourage their citizens to eat healthier foods. Taxes and subsidies could be used to reduce the price of healthy food and make them more attractive to consumers, the report said. "

MSNBC - Coms Gone Wild

MSNBC -: "Will computers ruin consumer electronics?
So now everyone has returned from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, bearing extravagant tales of the digital audio-video miracles soon to arrive in everyone's living room. The glorious digital convergence is here, and customers will soon have a whole new set of audio-video choices from names like Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Microsoft. And all I keep thinking is: please, spare us.
advertisement

Why? It's because I know what's going to happen next, and it won't be pretty. The reason is inherent in a joke I used to tell to personal computer executives, but which I stopped telling because they never laughed. The joke was this: 'You people love standards. You have so MANY of them.'"

HBS Working Knowledge: Entrepreneurship: Balancing Priorities on Schedule

ahhh time management - something we all need to work on...


HBS Working Knowledge: Entrepreneurship: Balancing Priorities on Schedule

Franken to help launch liberal radio network to oppose Limbaugh

Yeah! Franken is one of the funniest guys going - plus he's from Minnesota!

Franken to help launch liberal radio network to oppose Limbaugh: "Satirical superstar and St. Louis Park native Al Franken has signed on as a prime player with Central Air, a new politically liberal radio network. Franken will host a daily talk show, his agent confirmed on Monday. When the New York-based network goes on the air later this year, his show is expected to run from noon to 3 p.m., going head-to-head in many markets with conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh."

Ahh Movie Awards That I Like

CHUD - Cinematic Happenings Under Development

Everybody else gives out hopelessly meaningless awards if they happen to have seen a lot of movies this year, so why not me? The year has been a bizarre mix of the who-gives-a-shits? and the oh-God-will-Hollywood-PLEASE-make-a-movie-not-by-committee?, but still, there were a handful of movies that fired on all or some cylinders, so I figured I’d trot these awards out again – started at Fandom a long time ago in memory of the “flame” nickname somebody hit me with on an AICN talkback back when I wrote stuff for them. Take all of this as merely opinion and an opinion that would likely be altered in one way or another at some other point in the year or after I’ve had more time to think about the flicks I’ve seen more recently. There are some films I haven’t yet seen, unfortunately (only 120+ films are represented here – nowhere near the 248 in competition for Oscar nominations – with sad exceptions such as The Company, The Girl With the Pearl Earring and others I haven't seen yet), but whatev – I did my best.

- if you're looking for one of the more unique voices on the internet for all things film - check out my friend, Smilin' Jack Ruby's, list of awards. You won't regret it!

Color him Ivy: Ventura to be Harvard fellow

Color him Ivy: Ventura to be Harvard fellow: "'He's extremely street-smart about politics and government,' Hillsman said. 'He will have a good time there, and he will bring more to the program than it brings to him.' Hillsman said Ventura's course or seminar likely will be one of the most popular of the spring term. 'Undergrads will really, really take to him,' Hillsman said. 'They don't come with an agenda attached.'"

Hell yeah Jesse! One of my favourite self-made men. Ventura got me into politics at an early age - who knew I'd turn out to be a little more progressive than he is, but I appreciate his fighting the fights. (are you listening Dems?)

A New Year - A New Blog

Greetings everyone - in 2004 I'll be trying Blogger a whole lot more. Should be a blast!

Cheers!
Joram

Dream Com

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Retail (416.00)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe ($117.66)
(2) Corsair 184-pin DIMM, DDR400 SDRAM, 512MB, XMS Extreme (132.00 x 2 = 264.00)
(2) Maxtor 160GB Ultra ATA/133 Calypso Quiet (145.99 x 2 = 191.98)
Sony DRU-510A DVD-R/RW, DVD+RW/+R Combo IDE INT (148.96)
Sony 52x52x24x CD-RW IDE INT (79.99)
D-Link 3-Port FireWire + 2 Port USB 2.0 Adapter Card (58.51)
Black/red glowing Badass case (approx 150.00)
4 fans (approx 30.00 each = 120.00)
ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB AGP w/TV-Out & DVI (469.00)
(2) 17" Sony SDM-X93B (black) (684.74 x 2 = 1369.50)
Sound Blaster® Audigy™ 2 ZS Platinum Pro (204.86)
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Bundle (122.00)


Estimated Cost as of today:
3712.46 with monitors
2342.96 w/o monitors
1669.19 w/o monitors, vidcard, and sound card