Paul Allen the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of Techtv is selling Techtv to Comcast the cablevision company. It is said that Comcast will merge the channel with their gamer channel called G4. I consider this move a loss to broadcasting. I believe in diversity of ownership of media outlets. Having too few individuals and corporations owning media outlets leads to an end of the diversity of perspectives, and programming. This is bad for consumers and bad for democracy. You can expect ...
Right now I'm listening to Rick James "You And I", one of his dance classics. I like this song and "Ebony Eyes" a slow love song he made. He is best known for his hit "Super Freak". I do not like that song that much. Well, here's to Rick James- "everybody dance on the funk". Goodbye James- Your music shall play on.
I really have nothing in particular to write about so I might as well comment on what I am doing now. I’m listening to mp3 and wma music files on my computer. I started with Sheena Easton singing For Your Eyes Only. I like this song. It was a theme song to a James Bond movie of the very same name. Besides the double entranda the song’s lyrics and musical arrangement is good also. I downloaded the lyrics to this song recently. It goes, “For your eyes only, can see me through the nigh...
‘The Village’ (2004) is the second film by M. Night Shymalan (I love saying that name) that severely disappoints. ‘ Signs’ (C- grade) a movie with two major themes that are never complete or satisfying and where the design of the alien was the main good thing about the film (which we didn’t see enough of) became a blockbuster despite its limitations. I don’t think the same fate awaits ‘The Village’ (or maybe it will. I just read it had a 50 mil opening weekend. I feel like a sucker. I'm I ca...
I, Robot: ‘I, Robot’ (2004) is not top of the line science fiction but it is watchable. The director tried to develop a complex story here but it never ever really gets ‘of the ground’. What we have here is a police officer who has developed a dislike for robots that are prevalent during the year 2035. These robots do all sorts of task for their human masters. The detective played by Will Smith is distrustful and resentful of these robots (the story eventually reveals part of the reason w...
One of the greatest actors in American cinema passed away today. Believe it or not I am not a fan of or haven’t seen many of the films that he starred in but yet I realize the great influence he has had on American acting and actors. I have watched a total of four films that he played in with two of them being The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. Although I do not give these movies A grades (judging art is highly subjective) I give Marlon Brandos performance in both movies A’s. Brando rea...
G4techtv channel sucks. Not only does the channel suck but the new website that combines the G4 channel and techtv content sucks. They should have kept the basic setup of techtv’s web pages. The new channel, which is ridiculously placed way up in the hundreds on the Comcast Cable system, is not worth going to. May I suggest the honchos at G4Techtv jettison all the programming that was on G4 and pick up all the programs from Techtv for your new enterprise. Comcast cable needs to move G4Tech...
A documentary won the Cannes film festival. This festival is one of the most prestigious in the world and is attended by international critics, actors and others in the entertainment industry. Fahrenheit 9/11 a Michael Moore film won the top prize at Cannes, which is the Golden Palm. I hear Fahrenheit 9/11 is very critical of the Bush administration. Looks like the worldwide entertainment industry has made their feelings known about the Bush administration. Since this film has won such ...
The pictures coming out of the Iraq prison torture case reminded me of a porn film that prominently featured Arab actors and a bazaar and bathhouse (Turkish). I have blogged about this film elsewhere in the past I think. It is called Sex Bazaar (Harem), which was made in 1984. I think the director (could be producer) is Jean-Daniel Cadinot. It is in French with no subtitles but as I think we all now know, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. I am not that knowledgeable of porn films bec...
I saw “Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith It is the episode that ties into the original “Star Wars” movie. The movie starts in the mist of battle in space above the capital planet (home to the multi world senate and Jedi temple) in which the Jedi knight master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his student Anakin Skywalker are attempting to rescue the leader of the Republic Palpatine who has been captured by the Separatist. After his rescue, Palpatine who is really a Sith known as Darth Sidiou...
I mentioned some old science fiction titles worth seeing on my last blog. Probably all of the titles can be downloaded for free if you use peer-to-peer software like Kazaa. However even the price of recently released movies on DVD are relatively cheap. You might be able to find some at the dollar store or at a drugstore for three or six dollars. The average price of recently released movies on DVD is about seven dollars and fifty cents. Recently released popular titles or critically ac...
It has been a long time since my last entry to this blog but there really have been a lot of demands on my time and when there weren’t demands on my time I didn’t feel like writing. A lot has happened since my last posting and some of these things I will eventually write about and post to this blog or another blog. That reminds me that I still may drop one of the sites I blog on. I presently post on two sites. I am thinking about only using one site. The topics that I feel are ‘heav...
The case I was trying to remember on my last blog entry in relation to the Michael Jackson trial presently going on in California was the McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial. This case is a prime example of a child molestation case running amuck (in California no less). A mother in Manhattan Beach, California accused a guy named Ray Buckey (son of the owner of the Pre School) of molesting her son. The police promptly got search warrants and searched Buckey’s house. He was soon arrested. The...
Another high profile trial is saturating the news coverage in the US. It seems that now in mainstream media sensational trials have come to dominate news coverage. They consume a very large amount of news time on all the 24-hour news stations, network news and local news shows. Usually these trials have celebrities or government officials involved but not always as the Peterson case showed. Serial killers and mass killers also earn a wealth of coverage like the recently arrested BTK killer...
I went to see “The Aviator” the other day. Overall the picture was okay but I left the theater feeling unsatisfied. I had the same feeling about the movie “Master And Commander-The Far Side Of The World (2003, C+ grade)”. “The Aviator” wasn’t too reserved as I accused “Master And Commander” of being yet something didn’t thoroughly gel in the film in my view. Scorsese the director of this flick hasn’t made to many films that are A grade in my opinion although no one can argue that he doe...