End of the year is coming

I originally intended to have a post (or three) up by now listing my favorites in movies, music and television for the year. The thing is, since Christmas I have been busy with work, a stack of movies and a mild case of laziness that has kept me from putting the lists together. I’m going to do it, you can count on that - it might not be until a little bit into the new year.

As a little preview, and in an effort to put something here worth reading, I encourage everyone to check out “Eastern Promises.” I finally watched it this morning and it ended up being one of my favorite films of the year.

A look into the Russian mob in London, a compelling story with some twists and turns that make it one of the most compelling mob movies ever. I just picked up “A History of Violence” the Viggo Mortensen / David Cronenberg film that pre-dates Promises. I’ll probably check that one out early this coming week.

Merry Christmas!

I’ll be working on Monday before heading home that afternoon so I’ve decided that I won’t be blogging until after the holiday. I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and I’ll see you later this week with my year end wrap up.

We’re just friends, I sware

I was going through my iPhoto library and I found this photo of me at the Coke store in Vegas. I enjoy it, so I wanted to share it on the site.

My eyes, they’re going bad

I am realizing it more and more these days but I need to get my eyes checked. It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I last had a good eye check. I can tell just by looking at the world that my vision has changed dramatically. Just reading what I am typing now is steining my eyes.

In the new year and I am resolving to get this done, buying a new pair of glasses and changing the way I look in the process. Gotta love having to wear glasses. And no, I don’t plan on getting contacts, I just can’t imagine having something touching my eyes all the time. Creepy.

The Writers Strike

It has been over a month now since the Writers Guild of America, the people that bring the majority of scripted television and film, kicked into gear. We’re starting to see the impact of the strike on TV as many shows are quietly turning over to repeats.

December is some what of a strange time to be realizing this as many television shows go into repeats around this time for a few weeks - the first major break of the year. There were a few Christmas and holiday themed shows, including “30 Rock,” “Monk,” “Psych” and specials like “Shrek The Halls.” There has been good content.

The new year will bring a few new shows, including a “Terminator” revisit that has me a little interested, but over all television will really noticeably slow down in the new year. A few episodes of “House” and “Bones” will find their way onto Fox and an episode of two are left for “Grey’s Anatomy.” The pain will come in with the flood of poorly conceived reality shows. I’m not looking forward to seeing that.

The late night talk shows also look to be returning, making deals with the WGA to make that happen. This is giving non-writer employees the opportunity to get back to work. I’ve given my support to the writers throughout this whole deal, I encourage everyone to read up on it and make their own decision.

My support comes with a disclaimer however. While I support the unions efforts in ensuring writers - and ultimately everyone involved is paid in the new technology spectrum, I encourage both sides to end this - compromise so everyone is happy. There are a lot of people out there who lost jobs because of the strike. It’s a difficult time to be dealing with that.

This new technology realm, which includes services like Hulu, that I wrote briefly about, where writers are receiving no compensation. The ad supported service is a new revenue stream for the studios and production companies. What they don’t tell you is, this takes away from possible streams in older sectors of the market. Re-runs, DVD sales and syndication take hits in viewership when people can log onto a Web site to watch the same content. The production companies and studios are side stepping residuals writers (actors and other employees) receive.

The music industry has something similar in the ring tone world. Unless a contract otherwise states, the sale of ring tones based on songs are revenue streams for record companies while the artists never see those residuals.

I hope to see an end to this soon. As a writer in a different realm, I can understand where they are coming from. But at the same time, I hope people keep their fellow members of the industry in mind. Bring back the Office and Heroes, please.

Roswell on Hulu

I recently received a beta invite from Hulu.com, an online service with full length TV shows on from NBC, Fox and a few other locations. When I first logged on I was presented with a big screen for Roswell, one of my all time favorite shows.

When you get a chance, check out there service, until then - here is the FULL first episode of Roswell.

They have the full first season of Roswell on there by the way.

HD DVD vs. BluRay: the real numbers

The following is an e-mail I wrote to a friend regarding some numbers I looked up on the whole HD DVD vs. BluRay battle. I felt like sharing:

The real numbers on BluRay vs. HD DVD
To: Derek
From: Me

I’ve been doing some research on the whole BluRay selling 2.7 million players (cough including PS3s).

Right, well here is what I’ve found.

PlayStation 3, since launch, which as we know all have BluRay players have sold nearly 2.1 million units alone. Umm, that means about 600,000 dedicated bluray players have been sold. Lets say that 20 percent of those PS3s are being used as BluRay players - a number I think is too high, but I’ll be optimistic for them, that would put them at about 200,000 meaning there is ABOUT 1 million BluRay players out there REALLY. And that is OPTIMISTIC!

Now for the HD DVD side of things, about 1.5 plus the 90,000 plus residual HD-A3s that were sold following the Walmart sale fall out. In my mind - that means there are more active HD DVD players than BluRay. That number is supported by the sales figures of software on Amazon and subscriptions on Netflix for HD DVD over BluRay.

I will admit, more BluRay discs have been sold - I will say this is due to the Disney and Sony movie factors - there are more big name titles on that format - for now. I think you are going to see an influx of HD DVD tiles that are going to be “MUST HAVES” because there are more active HD DVD viewers than Sony wants to admit.

I bet by mid 2008 we’ll have a $100 HD DVD player as the standard entry price. BluRay will hit the $100 sale by next Christmas and will stabilize at $250 for entry. If they can’t keep a $100 model on the floor by the start of 2009 - I think BluRay will be in some real trouble.

If I had a little more motivation, I would cite my research, I’m giving this to you as is. I encourage everyone to look into the numbers for yourself. Things to keep in mind - BluRay still has the studio support - an important factor, but HD DVD has the lower price tag - an undeniable factor.

Thoughts?

Happy Holidays 2007!

I’ve been getting pretty neglectful of this blog lately and I’m sorry to the handful of people that actually visit this thing regularly. There have been a few things going on lately that could warrant a little discussion on the blog, and I’ve talked about doing some other posts for the last few months, but ultimately laziness and a busy work schedule has made the blog a second fiddle in things.

If you have a chance, check out the Bourne Ultimatum. Fantastic flick. I peep’d the HD DVD a couple days ago and I have to say, the film stands as one of the best I’ve seen this year. It won’t be up for any Oscar discussions, but I do think it deserves it. That just points out the reality of the award season - when a film as strong as the latest Bourne movie can be ignored in favor of some pretentious fare that no one really truly enjoyed. At any rate, the movie - and it’s conclusion make for an enjoyable experience.

I ran the numbers when it comes to the BluRay vs. HD DVD battle. Funny thing happened. If you really look at the numbers - there aren’t many stand alone BluRay players out there. Sure you’ve got the PS3, which plays BluRay movies, but when you realize that most people aren’t using it for that - the battle is a little more even.

I hope to write more on that whole thing in the near future, but laziness and the annoyance of my upstairs neighbor’s stereo is making me want to wrap this up now. Note to people in apartments - think about your neighbors please.

If I don’t get another blog post out before Christmas, I just want to say happy holidays, no matter what your beliefs.

Minnesota Pro Sports. . . a love and disapointment

We love our pro sports teams here in Minnesota. . . well some of them at least. As the Vikings continue to give us hope for a playoff birth, the Timberwolves have broken our hearts by trading Kevin Garnet. We lost Hunter to the Angels.  Then there is the Wild. I love ‘em, but I’d be hard pressed to name one player. Sorry Per.

At any rate - I have the Chicago Bulls, I’m holding onto the Twins for now and the Vikings are giving me hope - just hope it’s not false hope.

Sports in Minnesota - it’s a wild (ehum) ride.