Apple had their event today and announced a new iPad.
It has a screen with four times the current resolution, qualifying it as a retina display. There's a faster processor to handle all those extra pixels. A game demo'er said "This new device has more memory and higher screen resolution than an Xbox 360 or PS3" which is pretty impressive, but not that interesting to me. I've been more drawn to board games on the iPad. They beefed up the rear camera, including 1080p video, but I don't see that being a big win as it's still an awkward device to hold as a camera. There's voice dictation but not full Siri.
Also it now supports 4G LTE networks (you still have to pick an AT&T or Verizon model). This supports speeds of up to 72 Mbps. I'm not sure how that works since that can max out a 3GB plan in under 6 minutes. I'm not sure that the added speed would mean anything to me. It's a new network and at least Verizon says Boston is well covered but I'd want to see for myself.
The memory configurations and prices (and colors) are the same. So for the same money you get a much nicer device. But I'm not seeing much to make me want to upgrade an iPad 2. The retina display is the most compelling piece but I can't complain about the iPad 2. If the wireless coverage were much better than that would be another consideration but that's more important to me on my iPhone. At this point I'm still sticking with my iPad 2 and looking to upgrade my iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5 later in the year.
They also announced updates to iWork, Garage Band, iMovie and a new iPhoto for iPad app that looks very nice if you're into that sort of thing. I could easily see using it at night on vacation after moving photos from a camera's SD card to the iPad. It's crazy that it's only $5 and I'm curious to see comparisons with Adobe's $10 Photoshop Touch announced a few days ago.
Apparently the new device is called "The new iPad" so after the "iPad 2" it's now back to "iPad". Which is a little odd since they are still keeping an iPad model in the lineup. There's only a 16GB model (black or white) but it's only $399 for wifi only and $529 for wifi+3G. So they're dealing with the lower end of the market but not making a smaller screen version. This makes a lot of sense to me.
This is a cute question: Better Buy: An iPad or One Share of Apple?
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Monday, March 05, 2012
Let us praise 1962
CBS Sunday Morning had a segment, Let us praise 1962. "What's hard to believe is how many of the cultural institutions that kicked off in 1962 are still with us today."
It goes on to list a number of things like: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, James Bond movies, Spider-Man, and the environmental movement.
I found some others: US Navy SEALs, the US embargo against Cuba, color supplements in the Sunday paper, the world's first commercial communications satellite, the countries: Algeria, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Vatican II, Washington Dulles International Airport, the Hulk, Thor and Diabolik. David Fincher, Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey, Jodie Foster, Jon Stewart, and Steve Carell. Roger Clemens, Patrick Ewing, Jerry Rice, and Evander Holyfield.
It goes on to list a number of things like: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, James Bond movies, Spider-Man, and the environmental movement.
I found some others: US Navy SEALs, the US embargo against Cuba, color supplements in the Sunday paper, the world's first commercial communications satellite, the countries: Algeria, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Vatican II, Washington Dulles International Airport, the Hulk, Thor and Diabolik. David Fincher, Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey, Jodie Foster, Jon Stewart, and Steve Carell. Roger Clemens, Patrick Ewing, Jerry Rice, and Evander Holyfield.
Our Corrupt Politics: It’s Not All Money by Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein reviews Abramoff's Lessig's books, Our Corrupt Politics: It’s Not All Money by Ezra Klein. Lessig replies.
Politics Q&A: Lawrence Lessig on the 2012 Primaries
Conor Friedersdorf wrote in The Atalntic, Politics Q&A: Lawrence Lessig on the 2012 Primaries. "The Harvard professor and campaign-finance-reform advocate reflects on the corrupting influence of money in American politics."
It's not long and is worth reading. Here's one of the killer quotes: "We're talking about 196 people in the United States who've given 80 percent of the money in super PACs. So a country that is supposed to be responsible to the people has got to be ashamed of a system where 196 people are having so much effect in how these campaigns develop. "
It's not long and is worth reading. Here's one of the killer quotes: "We're talking about 196 people in the United States who've given 80 percent of the money in super PACs. So a country that is supposed to be responsible to the people has got to be ashamed of a system where 196 people are having so much effect in how these campaigns develop. "
Rabittooth
Rabittooth.com has a number of photoshop manipulations of sci-fi and movie stuff. This was my favorite:
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Corporate Tax Rate Faulty Tax Logic
David Cay Johnston on Congress’ potential faulty tax logic regarding corporate tax rates.
"Investors often complain they are taxed twice on their profits: once through the corporate income tax and again through taxes on their dividends and capital gains.
But if the AEI’s argument is correct — that workers bear the burden of the corporate income tax – then investor complaints that they are taxed twice are false. Under the AEI argument, it is workers who are taxed twice: first through lower wages due to the corporate tax and then through levies on their wages, however low they may be.
Double taxation of investor returns was the logic used to justify the capital gains tax cuts in 1997 under President Bill Clinton and in 2003 under President George W. Bush, who also included dividends.
Without double taxation of corporate profits, that justification evaporates. Workers can now use AEI’s arguments to bolster their arguments for higher pay and lower taxes. I put this to Mathur of the AEI, who agreed that it is reasonable to conclude that double taxation is falling on workers. But, she said, lowering taxes on workers would not encourage investment."
"Investors often complain they are taxed twice on their profits: once through the corporate income tax and again through taxes on their dividends and capital gains.
But if the AEI’s argument is correct — that workers bear the burden of the corporate income tax – then investor complaints that they are taxed twice are false. Under the AEI argument, it is workers who are taxed twice: first through lower wages due to the corporate tax and then through levies on their wages, however low they may be.
Double taxation of investor returns was the logic used to justify the capital gains tax cuts in 1997 under President Bill Clinton and in 2003 under President George W. Bush, who also included dividends.
Without double taxation of corporate profits, that justification evaporates. Workers can now use AEI’s arguments to bolster their arguments for higher pay and lower taxes. I put this to Mathur of the AEI, who agreed that it is reasonable to conclude that double taxation is falling on workers. But, she said, lowering taxes on workers would not encourage investment."
GOP Primaries
I've been mostly bored with the GOP primaries lately but Up With Chris Hayes had a good segment on it this morning with former RNC Chairman Michael Steele. It seems that after the 2008 election, they looked at the two primaries and wanted to emulate the Democrat one a little more. They saw McCain locking it up early and the Democrats had a heated contest between Clinton and Obama. For six months the Democrats got all the press and the Republicans hardly any.
So they made primary rule changes to draw out the primaries. They talked about two in particular. Rule 16 is that if you violate the rules you lose half your delegates. This has happened to Florida. The other was Rule 15 which said any primary before April 1st had to proportionally allocate delegates. This means that it's harder for someone to lock up the delegates early and end the contest.
I'm not sure what the deal is with Arizona, I thought they were winner take all, but maybe I'm wrong or maybe they lost half their delegates (and I'm too lazy to look it up). The other thing I vaguely knew from the Ron Paul camp but didn't really understand is that all the caucus states haven't actually assigned delegates. They do that later at state conventions, the caucus's are just guidelines. The Ron Paul camp has been tracking this closely and hope to win over the delegates at the state conventions.
Oh and there are also super-delegates which someone (probably Romney) will need to get enough delegates to get the nomination.
So the reality is, it's really unclear who's winning the GOP primaries and it's impossible to know by how much. Certainly the process is winning in that the GOP is getting all the news coverage. I've been tweeting to @ThisWeekABC that so far in 2012 they've only had one elected Democrat on the show (MA Governor Deval Patrick last week). Of course the other thing (as was also mentioned on Up With Chris Hayes today) the Republican primaries seem to be about picking an ideologue as opposed to someone who could win the election. I'm okay with that. Even George Will suggests that conservatives should give up the hope of winning the White House and should concentrate on Congress.
So they made primary rule changes to draw out the primaries. They talked about two in particular. Rule 16 is that if you violate the rules you lose half your delegates. This has happened to Florida. The other was Rule 15 which said any primary before April 1st had to proportionally allocate delegates. This means that it's harder for someone to lock up the delegates early and end the contest.
I'm not sure what the deal is with Arizona, I thought they were winner take all, but maybe I'm wrong or maybe they lost half their delegates (and I'm too lazy to look it up). The other thing I vaguely knew from the Ron Paul camp but didn't really understand is that all the caucus states haven't actually assigned delegates. They do that later at state conventions, the caucus's are just guidelines. The Ron Paul camp has been tracking this closely and hope to win over the delegates at the state conventions.
Oh and there are also super-delegates which someone (probably Romney) will need to get enough delegates to get the nomination.
So the reality is, it's really unclear who's winning the GOP primaries and it's impossible to know by how much. Certainly the process is winning in that the GOP is getting all the news coverage. I've been tweeting to @ThisWeekABC that so far in 2012 they've only had one elected Democrat on the show (MA Governor Deval Patrick last week). Of course the other thing (as was also mentioned on Up With Chris Hayes today) the Republican primaries seem to be about picking an ideologue as opposed to someone who could win the election. I'm okay with that. Even George Will suggests that conservatives should give up the hope of winning the White House and should concentrate on Congress.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
February Things
In addition to watching the Oscars and seeing a lot of movies in preparation for that I did a few other things in February.
I saw the play God of Carnage by the Huntington Theatre Company and a couple of days later saw the Roman Polanski film version, Carnage. It was interesting comparing a theatre and film version of the same material. The play was written by Yasmina Reza and first performed in Europe in 2006. It opened on Broadway three years ago with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. It won Tony's for best play, director and actress. It's about two couples who meet in an apartment to discuss a violent incident between their eleven year old sons. The play is in real time and covers just over an hour. The conversation starts out almost civil and then degenerates. There are a lot of fun insults but the situation does feel a little forced as you wonder why doesn't the visiting couple manage to leave the apartment. Polanski's cast (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly) were first-rate, so I'm not surprised they were better than the Huntington's cast. I was surprised that for a story that takes place in one room, I thought the film did a better job of feeling claustrophobic than the stage. The film set was much smaller than the stage and the camera afforded different angles. One character constantly takes phone calls to the annoyance of all the others. He steps away a bit but given the stage it was hard to tell if it was a polite distance or not. Also there was one scene where a character spoke at length and everyone else was still; I wasn't sure if it was meant to be thoughts or a pause in time or real-time. Finally Polanski added two scenes during the opening and closing credits. The first is of the incident with the kids in a park. It's a long shot and there's only music so it's still unclear exactly what transpired but it distracted me and I didn't think it was a good addition. The final shot I won't describe, but I loved it and it made up for the first.
Wynton Marsalis is doing a two year six lecture series at Harvard. I went to the third in that series, "Meet Me at the Crossroad". It was history lesson of American music up to the 1950s. He had a band on stage and played lots of examples. It was 3.5 hours long so I won't completely summarize it. There's more here. They played a lot of examples of American music from the 19th century and noted how while there was tremendous segregation, musicians just want to play good music and are willing to borrow from everywhere. As people travelled, their music travelled and in particular rhythms were borrowed. I didn't realize America invented the rhythm section. As public schools flourished in the late 1800s, people got really good music educations. He snipped that even at a juvenile prison, a 10 year old Louis Armstrong could get a first class music education and free trumpet and now we're cutting music programs from public school. Rhythms kept getting more complex through bebop and then the big bands started fading and in a post WW-II, GI-bill American, for the first time teenagers had disposable income and math and science became more important than music education and rock and roll recording companies took advantage of that.
The story of Shackleton's expedition to the south pole is amazing. I was intrigued by a performance at Arts Emerson called 69ยบ S. The Shackleton Project . "Theatre, dance, puppetry, photography and film unite in an impressionistic, stunning and evocative series of tableaux vivants, taking us on an artistic and emotional journey that explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and the environment and reinvigorates the spirit of foregoing individual glory for the sake of collective survival." It's turns out the key word in that description was tableaux and that means very little motion. It was only a little over an hour and it felt like forever. Rather than a story it was more like 9 dioramas with four foot tall puppets controlled by people on stilts. The set was kinda interesting, but that's all that was.
I went to Phoenix to visit some friends and we spent one day in Sedona. It was my first time and yes the rocks are very red. It also happened to be during the Sedona International Film Festival so we saw three films: The Big Fix, Cracks, and The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch. The first was an effective documentary on corruption by BP and Washington in the gulf oil spill cleanup. The Q&A was helpful as they presented some of the later information in a more balanced way that I wish had made it into the film. Cracks was girls school story that lost its way and was a little week. Largo Winch is based on a comic series I hadn't heard of and is Bond-like adventure story but the espionage is corporate rather than governmental.
Most recently I saw Stephen Tobolowsky tell stories for the third time. This was a fund raising event for IFFBoston held at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. He's really an amazing storyteller, both engaging and insightful. His stories are true and they happened to him and he's led a surprisingly eventful life. I've been listening to the podcast, The Tobolowsky Files on long drives and I highly recommend it (not for kids). I get it via iTunes.
I saw the play God of Carnage by the Huntington Theatre Company and a couple of days later saw the Roman Polanski film version, Carnage. It was interesting comparing a theatre and film version of the same material. The play was written by Yasmina Reza and first performed in Europe in 2006. It opened on Broadway three years ago with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. It won Tony's for best play, director and actress. It's about two couples who meet in an apartment to discuss a violent incident between their eleven year old sons. The play is in real time and covers just over an hour. The conversation starts out almost civil and then degenerates. There are a lot of fun insults but the situation does feel a little forced as you wonder why doesn't the visiting couple manage to leave the apartment. Polanski's cast (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly) were first-rate, so I'm not surprised they were better than the Huntington's cast. I was surprised that for a story that takes place in one room, I thought the film did a better job of feeling claustrophobic than the stage. The film set was much smaller than the stage and the camera afforded different angles. One character constantly takes phone calls to the annoyance of all the others. He steps away a bit but given the stage it was hard to tell if it was a polite distance or not. Also there was one scene where a character spoke at length and everyone else was still; I wasn't sure if it was meant to be thoughts or a pause in time or real-time. Finally Polanski added two scenes during the opening and closing credits. The first is of the incident with the kids in a park. It's a long shot and there's only music so it's still unclear exactly what transpired but it distracted me and I didn't think it was a good addition. The final shot I won't describe, but I loved it and it made up for the first.
Wynton Marsalis is doing a two year six lecture series at Harvard. I went to the third in that series, "Meet Me at the Crossroad". It was history lesson of American music up to the 1950s. He had a band on stage and played lots of examples. It was 3.5 hours long so I won't completely summarize it. There's more here. They played a lot of examples of American music from the 19th century and noted how while there was tremendous segregation, musicians just want to play good music and are willing to borrow from everywhere. As people travelled, their music travelled and in particular rhythms were borrowed. I didn't realize America invented the rhythm section. As public schools flourished in the late 1800s, people got really good music educations. He snipped that even at a juvenile prison, a 10 year old Louis Armstrong could get a first class music education and free trumpet and now we're cutting music programs from public school. Rhythms kept getting more complex through bebop and then the big bands started fading and in a post WW-II, GI-bill American, for the first time teenagers had disposable income and math and science became more important than music education and rock and roll recording companies took advantage of that.
The story of Shackleton's expedition to the south pole is amazing. I was intrigued by a performance at Arts Emerson called 69ยบ S. The Shackleton Project . "Theatre, dance, puppetry, photography and film unite in an impressionistic, stunning and evocative series of tableaux vivants, taking us on an artistic and emotional journey that explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and the environment and reinvigorates the spirit of foregoing individual glory for the sake of collective survival." It's turns out the key word in that description was tableaux and that means very little motion. It was only a little over an hour and it felt like forever. Rather than a story it was more like 9 dioramas with four foot tall puppets controlled by people on stilts. The set was kinda interesting, but that's all that was.
I went to Phoenix to visit some friends and we spent one day in Sedona. It was my first time and yes the rocks are very red. It also happened to be during the Sedona International Film Festival so we saw three films: The Big Fix, Cracks, and The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch. The first was an effective documentary on corruption by BP and Washington in the gulf oil spill cleanup. The Q&A was helpful as they presented some of the later information in a more balanced way that I wish had made it into the film. Cracks was girls school story that lost its way and was a little week. Largo Winch is based on a comic series I hadn't heard of and is Bond-like adventure story but the espionage is corporate rather than governmental.
Most recently I saw Stephen Tobolowsky tell stories for the third time. This was a fund raising event for IFFBoston held at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. He's really an amazing storyteller, both engaging and insightful. His stories are true and they happened to him and he's led a surprisingly eventful life. I've been listening to the podcast, The Tobolowsky Files on long drives and I highly recommend it (not for kids). I get it via iTunes.
Friday, March 02, 2012
Same Sex, Opposite Impact
Salon writes Same sex, opposite impact. "Marriage equality always seemed a losing issue for the left. That's all changed. Just ask Ken Mehlman"
"‘At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort,’ he says. ‘As I’ve been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I’ve learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I’ll do my part to be helpful.’"
It's amazing to me that someone couldn't see this fact from the beginning.
And again, no relation.
"‘At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort,’ he says. ‘As I’ve been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I’ve learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I’ll do my part to be helpful.’"
It's amazing to me that someone couldn't see this fact from the beginning.
And again, no relation.
La Jetee on TCM
You may want to set your DVRs to record La Jetee on TCM Monday morning at 4am. This is a half-hour short film that inspired Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkey's.
"Using only still photographs, voiceover narration, sound effects and music, it tells the story of a World War III survivor whose vivid memories make him the subject of time travel experiments. In only one shot of the film--that of "the Woman" opening her eyes in the morning--does the image move. Through such deceptively simple means Chris Marker explores the paradoxes of time travel and, on a deeper philosophical level, the relationships between image and memory, and word and image."
I watched it on YouTube a few years ago, and can't say I liked it, but I look forward to giving it another shot on a bigger screen sitting on a couch.
"Using only still photographs, voiceover narration, sound effects and music, it tells the story of a World War III survivor whose vivid memories make him the subject of time travel experiments. In only one shot of the film--that of "the Woman" opening her eyes in the morning--does the image move. Through such deceptively simple means Chris Marker explores the paradoxes of time travel and, on a deeper philosophical level, the relationships between image and memory, and word and image."
I watched it on YouTube a few years ago, and can't say I liked it, but I look forward to giving it another shot on a bigger screen sitting on a couch.
Making the United States More Like Greece
Simon Johnson has a good post, Making the United States More Like Greece. Apparently the Republicans so believe their mantra that cutting taxes raises revenue, they want to change the way the CBO scores budget proposals. This is known as "dynamic scoring". The problem is, it's wrong.
"In the modern United States, cutting taxes leads to lower revenue and larger budget deficits. There are no two ways about this – as Ronald Reagan discovered in the early 1980s. (In our new book, White House Burning, we go through the evidence on this point in detail, including important work by Greg Mankiw, former top economic adviser to George W. Bush and now working with Mitt Romney, which confirms that cutting taxes in the U.S. will lower revenue.)"
"Alan Greenspan – a leading Republican in his day – got this right in congressional testimony back in 1995 (quoted by Mr. Buckley), 'Should financial markets lose confidence in the integrity of our budget scoring procedures, the rise in inflation premiums and interest rates could more than offset any statistical difference between so-called static and more dynamic scoring.'"
"In the modern United States, cutting taxes leads to lower revenue and larger budget deficits. There are no two ways about this – as Ronald Reagan discovered in the early 1980s. (In our new book, White House Burning, we go through the evidence on this point in detail, including important work by Greg Mankiw, former top economic adviser to George W. Bush and now working with Mitt Romney, which confirms that cutting taxes in the U.S. will lower revenue.)"
"Alan Greenspan – a leading Republican in his day – got this right in congressional testimony back in 1995 (quoted by Mr. Buckley), 'Should financial markets lose confidence in the integrity of our budget scoring procedures, the rise in inflation premiums and interest rates could more than offset any statistical difference between so-called static and more dynamic scoring.'"
Thursday, March 01, 2012
John Carter of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs is most know for creating Tarzan but he wrote a lot of other series and his second most famous creation was John Carter of Mars as found in the Barsoom series. I've never read any of them but they look interesting.
Well Disney is making a movie version. I've heard horrible things about it, everyone expects it to fail. That's disappointing. Taylor Kitsch stars and I liked him in the TV series Friday Night Lights. He can certainly act. Moreso it's written and directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton, best known for writing and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E. There's little reason for these people to make a crappy film.
But that's what people are expecting. A week ago The Daily Beast wrote a detailed article, ‘John Carter’: Disney’s Quarter-Billion-Dollar Movie Fiasco. "Around Hollywood, Disney’s quarter-billion-dollar 3-D epic John Carter holds a dubious renown: it’s the film with Avatar-size ambitions that’s being greeted sight unseen as the next Ishtar." It blames a few Disney executives who have come and gone and a bad marketing campaign (there aren't even toys ready). In fact the official trailers have been awful. It's just a bunch of creatures fighting in an arena, you have no idea what's going on.
A few days later The Hollywood Reporter wrote Low interest and bad buzz prompt a last-ditch marketing effort for the big budget attempt at launching a new franchise. "High-profile TV spots during the Super Bowl and the Grammys prompted online derision rather than excitement, drawing comparisons (not in a good way) to Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, while an indistinct billboard campaign has left some unclear that the film is an Avatar-like 3D epic."
"Observers also have taken aim at the studio's decision to drop "of Mars" from the title, arguing that the property loses definition and scope without it. Insiders say the title change was hotly debated a year ago when the word "Mars" was verboten in the wake of Disney's March 2011 bomb Mars Needs Moms. According to several sources, the studio conducted a study of how the word would play with potential audiences. The results were pointed enough -- Disney's 2000 sci-fi film Mission to Mars and Warner Bros.' 1996 sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! weren't hits, either -- that the studio stripped out mention of the red planet. ("It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," says one person who was privy to the research. "You lose any kind of scope the movie has," says another insider of the generic title. "John Carter of Mars gave the movie context."
At the same time, the trailer campaign has showcased the film's Mars setting rather than risk turning people off with shots of star Taylor Kitsch in Civil War-era garb (he's a soldier transported to a battle on Mars). Critics say the fear of Carter being labeled a period film also has muddied the property's core identity and sacrificed an opportunity to explain its narrative arc that could have hooked fans."
As every reality show judging like Top Chef or Project Runway has ever said, you have to defend your work and be confident in it. That focus group spoof during the Oscars made the same point. I just don't understand the concept of "we'll drop Mars from the title to not scare women away". As if they'll go anyway (ignoring the reviews that are out opening day) and then not feel tricked once they see the film and then hate it even more. As the American Experience Clinton biography I just watched pointed out yet again, it's not the sin it's the cover-up. Hollywood, stop trying to trick your customers.
And then comes this:
"From http://thejohncarterfiles.com This John Carter Fan Trailer is offered in the spirit of "we want to help". It's made from elements available online as of Feb 5, 2012. We're doing our best to help this film along. Longtime fans of the books."
That actually looks interesting. Was that so hard?
There was a screening a few days ago. One of my favorite comic authors, Ed Brubaker has been tweeting about how great the film is. Ain't It Cool News called it "amazing". And even The Guardian loved it. I'm looking forward to it.
Well Disney is making a movie version. I've heard horrible things about it, everyone expects it to fail. That's disappointing. Taylor Kitsch stars and I liked him in the TV series Friday Night Lights. He can certainly act. Moreso it's written and directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton, best known for writing and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E. There's little reason for these people to make a crappy film.
But that's what people are expecting. A week ago The Daily Beast wrote a detailed article, ‘John Carter’: Disney’s Quarter-Billion-Dollar Movie Fiasco. "Around Hollywood, Disney’s quarter-billion-dollar 3-D epic John Carter holds a dubious renown: it’s the film with Avatar-size ambitions that’s being greeted sight unseen as the next Ishtar." It blames a few Disney executives who have come and gone and a bad marketing campaign (there aren't even toys ready). In fact the official trailers have been awful. It's just a bunch of creatures fighting in an arena, you have no idea what's going on.
A few days later The Hollywood Reporter wrote Low interest and bad buzz prompt a last-ditch marketing effort for the big budget attempt at launching a new franchise. "High-profile TV spots during the Super Bowl and the Grammys prompted online derision rather than excitement, drawing comparisons (not in a good way) to Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, while an indistinct billboard campaign has left some unclear that the film is an Avatar-like 3D epic."
"Observers also have taken aim at the studio's decision to drop "of Mars" from the title, arguing that the property loses definition and scope without it. Insiders say the title change was hotly debated a year ago when the word "Mars" was verboten in the wake of Disney's March 2011 bomb Mars Needs Moms. According to several sources, the studio conducted a study of how the word would play with potential audiences. The results were pointed enough -- Disney's 2000 sci-fi film Mission to Mars and Warner Bros.' 1996 sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! weren't hits, either -- that the studio stripped out mention of the red planet. ("It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," says one person who was privy to the research. "You lose any kind of scope the movie has," says another insider of the generic title. "John Carter of Mars gave the movie context."
At the same time, the trailer campaign has showcased the film's Mars setting rather than risk turning people off with shots of star Taylor Kitsch in Civil War-era garb (he's a soldier transported to a battle on Mars). Critics say the fear of Carter being labeled a period film also has muddied the property's core identity and sacrificed an opportunity to explain its narrative arc that could have hooked fans."
As every reality show judging like Top Chef or Project Runway has ever said, you have to defend your work and be confident in it. That focus group spoof during the Oscars made the same point. I just don't understand the concept of "we'll drop Mars from the title to not scare women away". As if they'll go anyway (ignoring the reviews that are out opening day) and then not feel tricked once they see the film and then hate it even more. As the American Experience Clinton biography I just watched pointed out yet again, it's not the sin it's the cover-up. Hollywood, stop trying to trick your customers.
And then comes this:
"From http://thejohncarterfiles.com This John Carter Fan Trailer is offered in the spirit of "we want to help". It's made from elements available online as of Feb 5, 2012. We're doing our best to help this film along. Longtime fans of the books."
That actually looks interesting. Was that so hard?
There was a screening a few days ago. One of my favorite comic authors, Ed Brubaker has been tweeting about how great the film is. Ain't It Cool News called it "amazing". And even The Guardian loved it. I'm looking forward to it.
Oceans Acidifying Faster Than They Have in Past 300 Million Years
I don't know much about the study but OnEarth Magazine reports on an article in Science, Oceans Acidifying Faster Than They Have in Past 300 Million Years.
"Fifty-six million years ago, a surge of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere raised the acidity of the world's oceans substantially. Many single-celled organisms, and most likely larger creatures farther up the food chain, went extinct.
The carbon dioxide that humans are pumping into the atmosphere now is causing a similar acidification effect -- only 10 times faster.
In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers compared the current rates of ocean change to other major acidification events going back 300 million years, and what they found is shocking: never in that long period did the ocean pH fall as rapidly as it is falling right now (lower pH means higher acidity)."
"Fifty-six million years ago, a surge of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere raised the acidity of the world's oceans substantially. Many single-celled organisms, and most likely larger creatures farther up the food chain, went extinct.
The carbon dioxide that humans are pumping into the atmosphere now is causing a similar acidification effect -- only 10 times faster.
In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers compared the current rates of ocean change to other major acidification events going back 300 million years, and what they found is shocking: never in that long period did the ocean pH fall as rapidly as it is falling right now (lower pH means higher acidity)."
Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43
Andrew Breitbart passed away, apparently of natural causes at 43. He of Anthony Weiner, Shirley Sherrod and ACORN scandals. I'm seeing lots of Republicans say how much of a loss this is. This is what Breitbart tweeted when Ted Kennedy died.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Grand Ayatollah or Grand Old Party?
Reza Aslan posted the following quick, Grand Ayatollah or Grand Old Party? "Who said it: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or U.S. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum?"
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
New TiVo Tip
After 12 years I'm still learning things about TiVo? According to Tips and tricks, down under "De-dupe Your Now Playing List" you can create a keyword Wishlist and pushing one of the Thumbs buttons lets you mark the keyword as required, optional or excluded. As that's tip explains this can be quite useful:
"If you like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you know what happens when the show takes a week or two hiatus: Your DVR records lots of repeats because they stop listing the guests for each night. Why? When the networks don't provide unique guide data, TiVo can't determine if the show is new or a repeat, so it records them all to play it safe. Waste space and/or manual recordings no more! Martin T., from the Web's most beloved TiVo community forum, exercised the new-and-improved TiVo WishList® feature to to get us our daily Jon Stewart, without the three extra servings. "
"By default the keyword is required in your search. Press either Thumbs button once to exclude the keyword (adds a minus sign), again to make it optional (adds parentheses), and third time to make it required (removes symbols)."
You can use this thumbs tip with only one keyword assigned too. It's probably better to make this wishlist with "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" as a title keyword instead of just a keyword. Also, when making such a wishlist it's really nice to have a keyboard to enter information rather than using the remote and the letter grid. I used the TiVo iPad app for it.
"If you like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you know what happens when the show takes a week or two hiatus: Your DVR records lots of repeats because they stop listing the guests for each night. Why? When the networks don't provide unique guide data, TiVo can't determine if the show is new or a repeat, so it records them all to play it safe. Waste space and/or manual recordings no more! Martin T., from the Web's most beloved TiVo community forum, exercised the new-and-improved TiVo WishList® feature to to get us our daily Jon Stewart, without the three extra servings. "
"By default the keyword is required in your search. Press either Thumbs button once to exclude the keyword (adds a minus sign), again to make it optional (adds parentheses), and third time to make it required (removes symbols)."
You can use this thumbs tip with only one keyword assigned too. It's probably better to make this wishlist with "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" as a title keyword instead of just a keyword. Also, when making such a wishlist it's really nice to have a keyboard to enter information rather than using the remote and the letter grid. I used the TiVo iPad app for it.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Oscar Recap
I watched the Oscars at a friend's house with a bunch of people. Everyone found it a bit more boring than I did and there was some snarky fun had. It's wasn't a great show but of course TiVo makes TV better.
Billy Crystal wasn't great. He did his standard opening with inserting himself into films, a monologue and then a song medley about the best pictures. It was ok and given that there are nine best picture nominees, reasonably short at about 12 minutes. Actually maybe unreasonably short. His monologue was one minute and only had one good joke, "Nothing can take the sting out of economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with golden statues." But throughout the evening too many of his jokes were about how old something was; whether a clip from When Harry Met Sally, his relatives or Christopher Plummer. It was kind of sad.
Tom Hanks had an odd bit backstage just before the show and then during he came out and talked about a seat warmer who's been doing that for 59 years before presenting an award. Crystal also spent a fair amount of time announcing who deserves credit for something we just saw, making the audience applaud everything a second time. This is what introductions and closing credits are for.
So that was about 15 minutes then in the next 15 we got four minor awards and a montage of movie clips and one of three montages of actors talking about the profession. The awards were fine, not particularly memorable but that's how cinematography, art direction, makeup and costume goes. So the first half hour wasn't great but was at least brisk.
But then it turns out, the next hour was really great. Sandra Bullock presented the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for A Separation. Asghar Farhadi's speech was the most political of the night and was a model of how to mention politics at the Oscars. "At this time many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or a filmmaker, but because at the time in talk of war, intimidation, and aggressions exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here, through her glorious culture. A rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country. A people who respect all cultures and civilization and despise hostility and resentment. Thank you so much."
Next Christian Bale presented the first big award of the night, Best Supporting Actress. Ocatvia Spencer thanked a few people and then was overcome with emotion. It was genuine and heartfelt and made everyone smile.
Then Crystal introduced a bit about focus groups which sounded stupid but turned out to be very funny. In supposed lost footage Bob Balaban was questioning a group having just watched the Wizard of Oz. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard were a riot deadpanning really stupid opinions (cut the rainbow song, flip the color, more monkies).
Then there were awards for Film Editing and then Sound Effects Editing. Usually boring, but Philip Stockton who won for Sound Effects Editing for Hugo said: "I just want to thank everybody who is here tonight and everybody who isn't and everybody who's ever been born or may be born or be born again or reborn. If I've forgotten anybody then you probably know who you are." That's kinda fun.
Now at the one hour mark Kermit and Miss Piggy introduced Cirque du Soleil. I feared Debbie Allen like interpretive dance number, but they had a ton of acrobats doing astounding things for five minutes. It turns out they regularly do a show in that theater so the rigging was all there. They should have saved it until later as it was the perfect way to wake everyone up. And then Billy Crystal said "Wow. I pulled a hamstring just watching that".
Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow faked some kind of documentary thing. It might have been a dig on James Franco tweeting while hosting last year. Downey was playing a Tony Stark-like annoying character and Paltrow was doing her Pepper Potts thing. It wasn't very good but their innate chemistry made it passible. Then Undefeated won for Best Documentary. The only doc nominee I didn't see because it doesn't come out for another few weeks. I don't get it. But P. Diddy was an executive producer so he now has an Oscar.
Then Chris Rock presented Best Animated Feature. He was the best presenter of the night and should be a model for everyone else. I wish his hosting had been this good. Here's his speech:
"I love animation because in the world of animation, you can be anything you wanna be. If you’re a fat woman, you can play a skinny princess. If you’re a short, wimpy guy, you can play a tall gladiator. If you’re a white man, you can play an Arabian prince. And if you’re a black man, you can play a donkey or a zebra. You can't play white, my God!
Now I hate when people go on TV and tell you how hard it is to do animations. 'Oh, Jay, it's such hard work. It's so hard doing animation getting into character.' No no no, UPS is hard work okay. Stripping wood is hard work. I've done some animation and here's how easy it is. It's the easiest job in the world. I go in a booth and I go 'What's the line' and the guy goes 'It's time to go to the store' and then I go 'It's time to go to the store'. 'You like that? Oh we can move on, okay'. And then I go 'What's the next line?' 'It's getting dark outside' 'It's getting dark outside' And then they give me a million dollars!"
Ben Stiller and Emma Stone presented Best Visual Effects. They did some extended banter that worked because he was unusually subdued and she was charming as always.
And then Melissa Leo presented Best Supporting Actor. Christopher Plummer gave the best speech of the night. This is how you do it. "[Looking at Oscar] You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life? I have a confession to make. When I first emerged from my mother's womb, I was already rehearsing my Academy thank-you speech. But it was so long ago, mercifully for you I've forgotten it. But I haven't forgotten who to thank. The Academy, of course, for this extraordinary honor, and my fellow nominees: Kenneth, Nick, Jonah, dear Max. I'm so proud to be in your company. Of course, I wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for Michael Mills and his enchanting film Beginners. And my screen partner of course, Ewan McGregor, that superb artist who I would happily share this award with if I had any decency, but I don't. All the producers at Olympus films, especially Leslie Urdang and Miranda de Pencier, and all the people at Focus for their tremendous generosity and support. And not to mention my little band of agents provocateurs: Lou Pitt and his wife Berta, Carter Cohen, Pippa Markham and Perry Zimel, who've tried so hard to keep me out of jail. My daughter Amanda, who always makes me proud. And, lastly, my long-suffering wife Elaine, who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life. Thank you so much."
So now we're at the hour and half mark and the last hour has been how to do an awards show. Great presenting, great speeches, two big awards and a good number of minor ones that were still entertaining and two very fun performances. Now the next hour forgot how to do all that.
Crystal does some bad bit with reading minds of celebs in the audience. The only saving grace was he just grunted for Nick Nolte. Then the president of the academy came out and spoke. It was dignified but boring and all of one minute long. Crystal then said "Thank you Tom and thank you whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Mr. Excitement." Funny but it pointed out the boredom. It was made worse by him introducing are large music stand set piece rising from the stage. It took a while and seemed like something went wrong, particularly because Crystal said "This is why there's a buffet."
Penelope Cruz and Owen Wilson quickly introduced Best Score and then Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis did a pretty good extended cymbal bit to introduce Best Song. There were oddly only two nominees this year and I was happy with the decision to not sing them. As expected "Man or Muppet" won and now Bret McKenzie, half of Flight of the Conchords, has an Oscar. Crystal then blows introducing Angelina Jolie and does an old Robin Williams rewind to get it right. Jolie presents adapted screenplay and The Descendants won. Then I learned that the dean from Community is named Jim Rash and was one of the co-writers and now he has an Oscar. He also mocked Jolie's stance of having one leg prominently displayed through a thigh-high slit. Co-writer and director Alexander Payne dedicated the award to his mother who was in the audience. "After watching the show a few years ago she made me promise that if I ever won another Oscar I had to dedicate it to her just like Javier Bardem did with his mother."
Jolie then presented for original screenplay and Woody Allen won and since he never goes to the Oscars we got to skip a speech and go into another montage of actors talking about the movies. Milla Jovovich then introduced a minute clip about the technical awards given another night.
Then the cast of Bridesmaids came out to present the awards for shorts. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph decided to emphasize the word short and do dick jokes to present Live Action Short. Really. Then Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy presented Doc Shorts. They had someone in the audience yell "Scorsese" (as if it wasn't said enough times in the night) and pulled minute vodka bottles out of their dresses and did a shot. Juvenile but kinda worked for me. It was annoying because they presented the award to Saving Face, and amazing doc about victims of acid attacks in Pakistan which actually has a reasonably happy ending and everyone should see. Instead of telling anyone about this or any of the other short films we get dick jokes and drinking games. Then Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper said something about animated short nominees having to live up to John Lassiter founding Pixar. They then gave the award to two film makers who worked at Pixar and struck out on their own.
Michael Douglas presented Best Director by telling a joke that I think was originally about producers. Meryl Streep then introduced a two minute clip about the Governors awards. These are big deal lifetime achievement awards that are never presented in an interesting way, so I guess it's fine that they've moved them to another ceremony. Then they the In Memoriam segment. Mostly black and white still images of people who died this year while someone sang "What a Wonderful World". it was pretty, but since most of the people were crew and not performers we had no idea what they worked on. And they left out Harry Morgan, Charles Napier, Jeff Conaway, Michael Gough and others.
So that got us to the 2:45 mark and now there are just three big awards. I like the new trend of having an actor say something about each of the nominees performance in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories. They've streamlined it by having one person do it all and it worked well. As expect Jean Dujardin won and gave a fine speech. Meryl Streep was kind of a surprise win over Viola Davis but was well deserving and gave a great speech. And Tom Cruise presented best Best Picture to The Artist. Those three awards took 25 minutes and it was time well spent.
So the opening half hour was weak. Then they had a really strong hour followed by a weak 75 minutes and a strong finish. The host and most of the writing wasn't great and they had technical issues. There was feedback much of the night with the microphones. Really there's no excuse for that. Also when cutting to commercials they often spent a little too long showing a band in the balcony or oddly showing women handing out popcorn to the audience. That's easily time recovered. Then there was everyone watching a music stand rise. And if you're going to outsource the lifetime achievement awards, skip the president of the academy not whipping everyone into a frenzy. Three times they had montages of actors talking about the first movie they saw, how hard it is to make a film, etc. Not a bad idea but it didn't really work for me. It was like a collection of weak tweets. It would have been better to have one persons tell one good longer story.
Here's an idea. Have the studios create new and really good commercials for the nominated films and show them during the broadcast. Half the films are still in theaters (and some have barely come out) and the others should be on DVD or rentable (and if they aren't, for shame). Make them more like tributes than commercials and make them more interesting than the clips shown in the Oscar broadcast, that shouldn't be difficult. Otherwise let Chris Rock host and tell him to write like he spoke this year instead of when he hosted. Or get Neil Patrick Harris to do it.
Billy Crystal wasn't great. He did his standard opening with inserting himself into films, a monologue and then a song medley about the best pictures. It was ok and given that there are nine best picture nominees, reasonably short at about 12 minutes. Actually maybe unreasonably short. His monologue was one minute and only had one good joke, "Nothing can take the sting out of economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with golden statues." But throughout the evening too many of his jokes were about how old something was; whether a clip from When Harry Met Sally, his relatives or Christopher Plummer. It was kind of sad.
Tom Hanks had an odd bit backstage just before the show and then during he came out and talked about a seat warmer who's been doing that for 59 years before presenting an award. Crystal also spent a fair amount of time announcing who deserves credit for something we just saw, making the audience applaud everything a second time. This is what introductions and closing credits are for.
So that was about 15 minutes then in the next 15 we got four minor awards and a montage of movie clips and one of three montages of actors talking about the profession. The awards were fine, not particularly memorable but that's how cinematography, art direction, makeup and costume goes. So the first half hour wasn't great but was at least brisk.
But then it turns out, the next hour was really great. Sandra Bullock presented the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for A Separation. Asghar Farhadi's speech was the most political of the night and was a model of how to mention politics at the Oscars. "At this time many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or a filmmaker, but because at the time in talk of war, intimidation, and aggressions exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here, through her glorious culture. A rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country. A people who respect all cultures and civilization and despise hostility and resentment. Thank you so much."
Next Christian Bale presented the first big award of the night, Best Supporting Actress. Ocatvia Spencer thanked a few people and then was overcome with emotion. It was genuine and heartfelt and made everyone smile.
Then Crystal introduced a bit about focus groups which sounded stupid but turned out to be very funny. In supposed lost footage Bob Balaban was questioning a group having just watched the Wizard of Oz. Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard were a riot deadpanning really stupid opinions (cut the rainbow song, flip the color, more monkies).
Then there were awards for Film Editing and then Sound Effects Editing. Usually boring, but Philip Stockton who won for Sound Effects Editing for Hugo said: "I just want to thank everybody who is here tonight and everybody who isn't and everybody who's ever been born or may be born or be born again or reborn. If I've forgotten anybody then you probably know who you are." That's kinda fun.
Now at the one hour mark Kermit and Miss Piggy introduced Cirque du Soleil. I feared Debbie Allen like interpretive dance number, but they had a ton of acrobats doing astounding things for five minutes. It turns out they regularly do a show in that theater so the rigging was all there. They should have saved it until later as it was the perfect way to wake everyone up. And then Billy Crystal said "Wow. I pulled a hamstring just watching that".
Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow faked some kind of documentary thing. It might have been a dig on James Franco tweeting while hosting last year. Downey was playing a Tony Stark-like annoying character and Paltrow was doing her Pepper Potts thing. It wasn't very good but their innate chemistry made it passible. Then Undefeated won for Best Documentary. The only doc nominee I didn't see because it doesn't come out for another few weeks. I don't get it. But P. Diddy was an executive producer so he now has an Oscar.
Then Chris Rock presented Best Animated Feature. He was the best presenter of the night and should be a model for everyone else. I wish his hosting had been this good. Here's his speech:
"I love animation because in the world of animation, you can be anything you wanna be. If you’re a fat woman, you can play a skinny princess. If you’re a short, wimpy guy, you can play a tall gladiator. If you’re a white man, you can play an Arabian prince. And if you’re a black man, you can play a donkey or a zebra. You can't play white, my God!
Now I hate when people go on TV and tell you how hard it is to do animations. 'Oh, Jay, it's such hard work. It's so hard doing animation getting into character.' No no no, UPS is hard work okay. Stripping wood is hard work. I've done some animation and here's how easy it is. It's the easiest job in the world. I go in a booth and I go 'What's the line' and the guy goes 'It's time to go to the store' and then I go 'It's time to go to the store'. 'You like that? Oh we can move on, okay'. And then I go 'What's the next line?' 'It's getting dark outside' 'It's getting dark outside' And then they give me a million dollars!"
Ben Stiller and Emma Stone presented Best Visual Effects. They did some extended banter that worked because he was unusually subdued and she was charming as always.
And then Melissa Leo presented Best Supporting Actor. Christopher Plummer gave the best speech of the night. This is how you do it. "[Looking at Oscar] You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life? I have a confession to make. When I first emerged from my mother's womb, I was already rehearsing my Academy thank-you speech. But it was so long ago, mercifully for you I've forgotten it. But I haven't forgotten who to thank. The Academy, of course, for this extraordinary honor, and my fellow nominees: Kenneth, Nick, Jonah, dear Max. I'm so proud to be in your company. Of course, I wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for Michael Mills and his enchanting film Beginners. And my screen partner of course, Ewan McGregor, that superb artist who I would happily share this award with if I had any decency, but I don't. All the producers at Olympus films, especially Leslie Urdang and Miranda de Pencier, and all the people at Focus for their tremendous generosity and support. And not to mention my little band of agents provocateurs: Lou Pitt and his wife Berta, Carter Cohen, Pippa Markham and Perry Zimel, who've tried so hard to keep me out of jail. My daughter Amanda, who always makes me proud. And, lastly, my long-suffering wife Elaine, who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life. Thank you so much."
So now we're at the hour and half mark and the last hour has been how to do an awards show. Great presenting, great speeches, two big awards and a good number of minor ones that were still entertaining and two very fun performances. Now the next hour forgot how to do all that.
Crystal does some bad bit with reading minds of celebs in the audience. The only saving grace was he just grunted for Nick Nolte. Then the president of the academy came out and spoke. It was dignified but boring and all of one minute long. Crystal then said "Thank you Tom and thank you whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Mr. Excitement." Funny but it pointed out the boredom. It was made worse by him introducing are large music stand set piece rising from the stage. It took a while and seemed like something went wrong, particularly because Crystal said "This is why there's a buffet."
Penelope Cruz and Owen Wilson quickly introduced Best Score and then Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis did a pretty good extended cymbal bit to introduce Best Song. There were oddly only two nominees this year and I was happy with the decision to not sing them. As expected "Man or Muppet" won and now Bret McKenzie, half of Flight of the Conchords, has an Oscar. Crystal then blows introducing Angelina Jolie and does an old Robin Williams rewind to get it right. Jolie presents adapted screenplay and The Descendants won. Then I learned that the dean from Community is named Jim Rash and was one of the co-writers and now he has an Oscar. He also mocked Jolie's stance of having one leg prominently displayed through a thigh-high slit. Co-writer and director Alexander Payne dedicated the award to his mother who was in the audience. "After watching the show a few years ago she made me promise that if I ever won another Oscar I had to dedicate it to her just like Javier Bardem did with his mother."
Jolie then presented for original screenplay and Woody Allen won and since he never goes to the Oscars we got to skip a speech and go into another montage of actors talking about the movies. Milla Jovovich then introduced a minute clip about the technical awards given another night.
Then the cast of Bridesmaids came out to present the awards for shorts. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph decided to emphasize the word short and do dick jokes to present Live Action Short. Really. Then Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy presented Doc Shorts. They had someone in the audience yell "Scorsese" (as if it wasn't said enough times in the night) and pulled minute vodka bottles out of their dresses and did a shot. Juvenile but kinda worked for me. It was annoying because they presented the award to Saving Face, and amazing doc about victims of acid attacks in Pakistan which actually has a reasonably happy ending and everyone should see. Instead of telling anyone about this or any of the other short films we get dick jokes and drinking games. Then Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper said something about animated short nominees having to live up to John Lassiter founding Pixar. They then gave the award to two film makers who worked at Pixar and struck out on their own.
Michael Douglas presented Best Director by telling a joke that I think was originally about producers. Meryl Streep then introduced a two minute clip about the Governors awards. These are big deal lifetime achievement awards that are never presented in an interesting way, so I guess it's fine that they've moved them to another ceremony. Then they the In Memoriam segment. Mostly black and white still images of people who died this year while someone sang "What a Wonderful World". it was pretty, but since most of the people were crew and not performers we had no idea what they worked on. And they left out Harry Morgan, Charles Napier, Jeff Conaway, Michael Gough and others.
So that got us to the 2:45 mark and now there are just three big awards. I like the new trend of having an actor say something about each of the nominees performance in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories. They've streamlined it by having one person do it all and it worked well. As expect Jean Dujardin won and gave a fine speech. Meryl Streep was kind of a surprise win over Viola Davis but was well deserving and gave a great speech. And Tom Cruise presented best Best Picture to The Artist. Those three awards took 25 minutes and it was time well spent.
So the opening half hour was weak. Then they had a really strong hour followed by a weak 75 minutes and a strong finish. The host and most of the writing wasn't great and they had technical issues. There was feedback much of the night with the microphones. Really there's no excuse for that. Also when cutting to commercials they often spent a little too long showing a band in the balcony or oddly showing women handing out popcorn to the audience. That's easily time recovered. Then there was everyone watching a music stand rise. And if you're going to outsource the lifetime achievement awards, skip the president of the academy not whipping everyone into a frenzy. Three times they had montages of actors talking about the first movie they saw, how hard it is to make a film, etc. Not a bad idea but it didn't really work for me. It was like a collection of weak tweets. It would have been better to have one persons tell one good longer story.
Here's an idea. Have the studios create new and really good commercials for the nominated films and show them during the broadcast. Half the films are still in theaters (and some have barely come out) and the others should be on DVD or rentable (and if they aren't, for shame). Make them more like tributes than commercials and make them more interesting than the clips shown in the Oscar broadcast, that shouldn't be difficult. Otherwise let Chris Rock host and tell him to write like he spoke this year instead of when he hosted. Or get Neil Patrick Harris to do it.
How to Fix Executive Compensation
Alex Edmans wrote in the WSJ, How to Fix Executive Compensation. "There are creative ways—yet simple and easy to implement—to tie executives' fortunes to the long-term health of their companies. Tying bosses' pay to the levels of debt at the business, for instance, will dissuade them from taking risks that might alienate creditors. Preventing executives from selling company stock until several years after it's granted will give them a powerful incentive to think long term. And updating the compensation package to reflect changing conditions in the market and the company will ensure that managers' interests are always aligned with those of the company and its shareholders."
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Presidential Purses
Time has an interesting graphicPresidential Purses showing wealth of all presidents in 2010 dollars. Though it's not necessarily during their time in office (notice Clinton). Also I wouldn't have guessed that JFK was so much wealthier than any other president (though it seems obvious when I think about it).
Teller Reveals His Secrets
Smithsonian Magazine lets Teller Reveals His Secrets:
The smaller, quieter half of the magician duo Penn & Teller writes about how magicians manipulate the human mind
(Via Pinboard (grahams))
Planes in Google Maps
Max and Leo's is a good new pizza place in Newton. Currently if you look them up in Google Maps and look at the satellite view, you see this:
At first I thought they had a balloon above their building, but no it's probably really a plane that was flying overhead when the satellite took the photo. What Airplanes Look Like to Google Map Satellite Cameras.
At first I thought they had a balloon above their building, but no it's probably really a plane that was flying overhead when the satellite took the photo. What Airplanes Look Like to Google Map Satellite Cameras.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)