The G1:
First off, this is like a pre-review. The launch for the T-Mobile G1 phone is set for Wednesday, Oct 22nd. I started using mine on Monday, Oct 20th because Google wanted to allow me to post a review in my blog for the launch date for promotion. Or maybe mine just arrived a little early. I prefer to believe the former.
But what I'm saying is - this isn't the G1 at launch - when there may be many more apps available (I got it Monday morning and the amount of apps available almost tripled in the fist 24 hours I had the phone).
Also - Apps are the meat and potatoes of this phone so that's a big deal. Example: My phone currently has no video player at all - but there will be an App for it at launch. Which also invites you to remember - any problem (whatsoever) may be fixed with with an app. Example: If I'm a douchebag who wants to edit this tiny, meaningless thing in the phone, and the phone won't let me - chances are an app will come out to right any wrongs and allow in options to exist.
Also, because they are user-generated and not regulated by the company - ANY app can come out and fix things. Meaning - if you have a video player on your G1 that doesn't play a specific filetype, a developer can just produce one that does, and bam - you're set. You really have to think of in terms of a computer, rather than an electronic device regulated by a company (like an iPhone or an Xbox 360). Anything someone wants will get made.
So here we go!
- General: Okay, this is just like a computer. Set your background wallpaper (in-phone editor, letting you crop any picture to perfection for it), and set your shortcuts on the desktop. This means I can put a shortcut to any program on the phone, a link to a specific webpage, specific Gmail mail lists(like all conversations between me and Lou), a link to a specific contact (ie: to have a place to click to directly call Tom Wells), or a folder (which cant contain more links/contacts/whatever) wherever I want on the desktop (Those aren't all the options of what you can add, just the ones I've come across). I specifically have a weblink shortcut to my online DVD collection, so when I find a sweet movie deal at Newbury Comics, I can check my collection and make sure I don't already have it!
Also - at the time I started writing this review (20 minutes ago) I couldn't set it to directly call someone with a one-touch shortcut - but by this time a new App has been released that allows you to do that and anything else whatsoever on the phone.
You can scroll through all this stuff (you have three seperate homescreens) with your finger, or with the trackball. You have a little tab at the bottom of the screen to pull up a list of every program on your phone as well (think of "Start>Programs" in Windows) so everything is always easy to get to.
- Ringtones: Upon seeing this, I was so super sold on this device (as I should be, since I pre-ordered it a month before it came out). You can put any Mp3 onto the phone (just plug into the computer and drag-and-drop) and use it as a ringtone. For free. No more buying ringtones. Ever.
Eeeeeeever. This is a short sentence blurb but that is a big deal. Read it again.
- Phone/Contacts List: The contact list is exactly like any phones (I think that technology has pretty much got that part figured out) except it links all contacts to ALL their info - my "Tom Wells" contact has his phone number for texts/calling, his email adress, his AIM name, his physical adress, spots for any amount (and I do mean any amount) of other numbers (work, home, truckstop bathroom), facts about him, or anything to reach him by. ("Facts about him" may be used for one of the many many people in bands I meet and forget about).
*SUPER FEATURE* - It also gives you the option to make it so that when a specific contact calls you, it sends them right to voicemail - this for annoying dicks you want to avoid (did someone just say the name "Brad Rorher"?) but don't want to hurt their feelings. This is awesome.
One thing (that is typical of T-Mobile) that stinks is that you can't assign a ringtone to a Group. Meaning if I put Arcello and Ben Chauvin into my "Idiots" group, it will show them together when I display the group, but if I want to assign them both a specific ringtone to indicate Idiots are calling, I have to assign them individually.
Small inconvenience, but I want this review to be unbiased. I don't want anyone to think I'm just against iPhone-Bin-Laden and Apple-Quaida (pronounced app - al - kie - dah).
- Communications (GMail, Email, IMs, Myspace, etc): The Gmail app is perfect. That's all. If you have GMail on your computer, think of a mobile version of that, with all the options. Email is good (used for a secondary or non-Gmail email adress) too. I use it for my job, and it's simple and works well. Instant Messenger is okay. I don't like the fact that it forces your Categories in Buddy Lists to be in alphabetical order. I have my AIM set up with my girlfriend at the top, then the VBW, then Girls I know, and then Guys I know (with different, and politically incorrect group names). This changes it to display them in alphabetical order. Another small inconvenience.
Myspace application is great - I'm waiting for a Facebook one.
*SUPER FEATURE* - All communications applications send alerts right to the homescreen of your phone on the top left side, so you never have to open the programs just to check if you have anything new. You can also slide the "Alerts Bar" down and see all the previous alerts you've gotten - like if you were sleeping - and clear them as you see fit - meaning if you want to remember to respond to an email or a text, you can just keep that alert there until you don't need it.
- Connectivity - The G1 works on the Edge network (normal mobile phone internet), as well as the 3G network (the new, much higher-speed mobile internet), and wi-fi. The 3G coverage isn't great yet (or so I've heard - I have it here in Warren, RI with no problem for some reason), but T-Mobile is supposed to have it nationwide by the end of November. The wi-fi is also great. It finds a network and asks if you want to connect, and you can set it to automatically connect.
Download speeds are great, even with no wi-fi. I think I've waited for about 15 seconds at the most to download any of the Apps so far, and email, calender, etc updates have been absolutely instantaneous with my computer.
Also, the internet, Google search (direct app), WikiMobile (direct app) and Youtube mobile (direct app) have also been unbelievably fast, on the 3G network.
- GPS - Google Maps is built in, and I've downloaded "Locale" and "Locations". These three features make up the GPS usage. You see your own location, as well as set it as a location in your phone - like "Home", "Recording Studio", "Truckstop Bathroom", etc. You can set the phone to change settings when you get to that location - like when you get to the movies, your phone automatically goes on silent. Or if you're dating four girls at once, you can set it so the background on your phone is a picture of them whenever you get close to where they live.
You can also set it so that when you're home, it forwards all your incoming cell phone calls to your home phone (or any number). This is great if you have a home phone and you don't want to use your minutes.
You can (obviously) find directions from location to location. You can look at it all with satellite view (what the earth really looks like), map view (the way your location looks on a map) or streetview (which is a view from the street around a location - which is also retardedly cool - go look up Google Streetview to see it). Streetview is in limited areas, but is all over Providence.
GPS also lets you look up what business are close to you, and gives you all their info (name, address, phone number, website), making 411 pretty unneccessary.
- Multimedia - The phone has Amazon Mp3 (a DRM-free downloading service - the Senior Discount CD is on there for $8.99) which downloads directly to phone, over wi-fi or 3G, as well as an Mp3 player. Pretty sweet, especially compared to the iPhone's iTunes B.S. smothered-in-DRM-downloads that can only be accessed over wi-fi. The phone does not come with a video player, but an app has already been released to play videos (it will be available on the launch date). It also has a 3 Megapixel camera and a picture viewer. No video camera capabilities yet, but I'm sure it will be coming - my Sidekick LX was also launched without that ability, but soon got an update that allowed it.
Battery Life - First off, the battery is replaceable - meaning that if your battery shits out, you get to keep your phone (and all your specific settings) and just get the battery replaced (as opposed to the iPhone, which has a built-in battery - if it goes, you have to replace the whole phone).
As for the life - the battery is supposed to be great on this phone. I have not had that experience yet. I haven't had it die on me, but I charged it when I got it yesterday for about four hours, then used it for about 6 and it was almost dying. I will admit, I read afterwards that you're supposed to charge it to 100% and I certainly didn't, and I also have kept 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, and everything else on 100% of the time, as well as set up the entire phone (all contacts, all ringtones, backgrounds, apps, updates, downloads) during that point in time, so I was really giving it a harsh run the entire time it was on. So I'm going to have to keep experiencing it to see when it dies. I gave it a full charge last night and we'll see how it holds up.
*UPDATE* Okay, so, like I said, I charged it all last night, woke up at 9:30 AM and unplugged it for a battery test today. I kept the 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, updater, and everything else on the entire time, and for the beginning of the day (while writing this blog) I was playing with the phone alot. Starting around noon I started using it more normally (not on it constantly, but doing texts, calls, and emails on and off all through the day). So it lasted under all those conditions from 9:30 AM - 12:30 AM. 15 hours, and at that point is when the phone was at 15% battery, which told me to plug it in (meaning I don't know how much longer it will last after that - the Zune has QUITE a battery life after it gets to the "critical" point) - so this device has a very nice battery life on it (even with EVERYTHING on).
At this point I must point out - the G1 is a multitasking phone, and there is no way to turn off an app. The previous six programs you used on it are continually open all the time.
- Normal features - the phone has everything I can think of from a normal phone - Alarm Clocks, Calculator, Voice Dialing, Call Forwarding, Bluetooth, etc.
- Miscellaneous (Google Calendar, Apps) - Calendar is awesome, works perfectly. I'm waiting on other Google Apps (like Google Docs and others) to get released. They sync and are displayed so well. Other Apps I've downloaded so far are ShopSavy/Compare Anywhere. These are two barcode scanning apps that give you the best prices on any product AND how close you can buy them. They sound pretty cool, but the things I usually shop for are DVD's/books/video games, which I always buy from Half.com, Ebay or used from Amazon, FYE, and Gamestop (in conjunction with their specific sales). It would be impossible to really hunt for a good deal like that unless you're a person so it just gives retailer prices (Best Buy, etc) which aren't any help to me specifically.
But, if you are looking for something specific that's not media (like a specific mouse you use, or DVD-R's, a PC, a flatscreen monitor, etc) than this could be a big help. It also lets you store a product, enter in a price you're willing to buy it at, and it will alert you if any retailer sells it for that price.
Not too many Apps have been released yet (around 30) and I'm sure it will jump at launch, and then jump again after the public has had it long enough to figure it out and make their own apps.
Pricing (Thanks Brad for suggesting this) - If you're comparing it to the iPhone, the iPhone is more expensive (in every way - and I'll explain that).
Here's the iPhone's pricing - the phone is $200 (8 GB) with a two year service plan. The plan itself is $95 a month (700 minutes, unlimited texts, internet, etc). That's basically the "unlimited" plan. Music downloads are $1, and it's ANOTHER $1 if you want to use them as ringtones. Or you can just buy ringtones from AT&T (iPhone's carrier). AT&T also has wi-fi hotspots but you have to pay to use those too.
With the G1, the phone is $179.99 (expandable memory - has an SD card reader inside) with a two year service plan, and you have two (or so) options when it comes to plans. One (mine) is $40 (high-end voiceplan) + $35 (unlimited text, internet, etc, and 600 minutes per month for the G1), so that's $75 for the comparable plan (both are represented here without taxes). And you don't have to pay for ringtones, and T-Mobile also has wi-fi hotspots, but unlike the iPhone's, they are free.
You can change your normal T-Mobile plan to a basic voiceplan to $30 a month (300 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends), and your G1 plan t0 $25 a month (400 texts, unsure on internet usage) so that's $55 a month total.
On my sidekick I also had insurance on it, which was another $5.99 a month. I find T-Mobile to have the best pricing for smartphones, as I've been a sidekick user for some time - by the way, the Sidekicks do not compare at ALL to the G1.
Overall, I give the phone 4.75 stars out of 5. It's just great - best phone I've ever dealt with by far, and completely kills the competitor. I can't see one advantage the competitor has and things can only get better with the new apps. I've also only had it for a little less than 24 hours, so I will possibly add some updates to this blog as I figure out more stuff - I really am trying to display the flaws as well as the great things about it, and they will perhaps rear their ugly heads as I use it more.
- chuckstaton
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Seven (Fuck the damn Spanish!)
Okay! It's been a little time since I last posted. I feel like a dick! I'll try not to let it happen again. What has happenned since then? I've watch a bunch of movies, played a bunch of video games, listened to a bunch of music, and made fun of a bunch of Teej's (actually just one, but I made fun of him ALOT).
I've been working on more S*D stuff as well. So let's get started.
First off - there's a deal right now on SecondSpin.com - 25% off everything. It's really good - www.secondspin.com - the coupon code is 25OCT16 - apply it at checkout (deal ends TODAY, October 16th) - I got the Chris Rock Show: Seasons 1 & 2 for $9, and 12 other DVD's. Total shipping was $9 for 13 DVDs (and 3 of them were seasons). Secondspin has the cheapest DVD's for the most part, and very cheap shipping. So 25% can really help - they have CDs and blu-rays as well.
In "VBW Attack", during the credits, it says "First and foremost, I'd like to thank the VBW" then it goes onto list all my friends, and the last one says "and Tom Wells (Hey man, I had sex with your sister. I'm really sorry. I thought this was the most appropriate place to tell you.)"
Now, before the Family Guy movie begins they have a little extra part on the red carpet, and the Griffins go into the theatre, show some parody previews, and then finally, on the movies creen they're watching it all on, it (basically) says "And now, our Feature Presentation. Hey Ken, listen, I slept with Darlene. I'm sorry. I thought this was the most appropriate place to tell you. I'll see you at karaoke."
Shitty. It came out before "VBW Attack" did but it doesn't really matter who came up with it first, because they were seperate ideas.
By the way - this is not the first time we have done the exact same joke as Family Guy (and most of the time we do them first - specifically a joke we did with me playing with a flashlight on the wall to get Christian to chase it like a cat - Family Guy did a few years later when they brought on the character of Brian's girlfriend).
I have to say I think it's pretty odd how often South Park and Family Guy (and to a lesser extent, the Simpsons) come out with DVDs - check this out.
South Park has released 11 of their 13 season on DVD. Minimal extras (4 minute commentary on each episode, and maybe 1 or documentaries over the course of all 11 seasons). But they also release like, special DVD's. They released one called "South Park: The Greatest Hits" and it's another two-disc set, with episodes that have all been released on DVD - the only new thing is a 5 minute cartoon! Who buys these things?! I think South Park has about 4 of these (one came out this week).
Family Guy, I think, is worse about it. First off, they release HALF seasons. They release Family Guy Volume 3 - which is Family Guy Season 4, Part 1. It's 13 episodes long. Then they release Family Guy Volume 4 - Family Guy Season 4, Part 2. They both cost between $30 and $40.
Now, what's worse, is that last year they released a "Series" set. Meaning they released ALL the seasons together in a collectible package, that costs around $150. They did this last year in October, releasing seasons 1 - 5 (technically, the first half of season 5). Now they're doing it AGAIN this year, with DIFFERENT collectible packaging, and all they're adding is the SECOND HALF OF SEASON 5! Again, costing $150.
I actually did some research and that will make the FIFTH "Complete Collection" Family Guy has released (And I'm not counting the first one they released - Seasons 1 through 3 - it doesn't really count, as Family Guy was cancelled and actually believed that the release was the complete collection).
Now, worst of all, this season, Family Guy is releasing a DVD that is one Christmas episode of Family Guy, that aired in 2002, and has been available on DVD for the past five years, in a DVD set. It also contains a "Bonus" episode of American Dad and THAT'S ALL. This "new" DVD costs $12 ($10 on sale right now).
Like I said, Simpsons does it once in a while (they actually have about 5 out, including two Christmas DVDs with four episodes on each, a Valentine's day one, a Halloween one, and something else). Simpsons and Family Guy are way better about releasing good DVD Extras than South Park is. But I'm a huge nerd so I'm the only person who notices that.
The new South Park was GREAT this week. I loved it. I thought last season was kind of lackluster so I was superhappy with this first new episode.
I also checked out the Sarah Silverman show's first episode this season. I like her alot. Or "liked" her alot. I think she's really funny sometimes, and when her show came out I was all excited, but I really thought the first season was "meh". Brian Posehn and Steve Agee are great on it, but are side characters. So I watched the first episode of the second season, and I have to say, it was a step-up. Not "Amazing!" but defintiely funnier, and a big step-up directorially.
I bought a few seasons of television from Amazon.com. I checked on there and told myself I'd buy any season I wanted that were $4 or less. Lo and behold, there were about 15 (including Simpsons Season 2, South Park season 3, and Chappelle's Show Season 1, 2 and the Lost Episodes). I only bought about six or seven, as the shipping raises the price.
A new show I've been watching is MTV's "Sex With Mom and Dad". It's about slutty teenagers wanting to talk to their parents about sex, or their parents wanting to talk to them about sex. Dr. Drew (Loveline, Celebrity Rehab) is their therapist. It's a pretty entertaining show, as a gay 18 year old guy had to discuss with his mom what kind of dicks she prefers. It's really funny, and sometimes the slutty 16 year old girls are really hot.
2. Technology (Apple, Google, Media Man)
My pants are still tight for the G1 phone I'm getting. That's all I have to say. I'm still waiting on it and becoming more and more antsy. I have been looking into Google more now that I've been reading so much about the G1 (it's a Google-based operating system on the phone).
Google is a lot cooler than I thought. My friends Lou and Arcello have been longtime Google supporters like me, so I gave them the first word about this stuff but I found some cool stuff on it this week.
I was reading how it will sync automatically with all your Google apps (obviously the GoogleMaps, Youtube and Gmail stuff) and so I started looking into other stuff run by Google. First is Google Calendar. It's really awesome. It's ridiculously simple and awesomely customizeable (alerts can come through text or email, and you can make your calendar public or private).
You can even make more than one Calendar. I have a Senior Discount one and a Chuck Staton one (the link I just gave was both combined).
Also, iGoogle - http://www.google.com/ig - it has your email and tons of other things you might want in a home page (I put the S*D myspace, my Facebook, my Google Calendar, and a local movietimes search in it - check out this image of my iGoogle)
Another great thing is GoogleReader (which is your personal collection of unlimited RSS feeds). Also, GoogleDocs (Document saver - HTML and all Word Docs), Photos (basically the same as Photobucket), and other stuff on Google.
They also have Google alerts, which is really crazy. It will continually search the Web for specific topics and email you when it gets something new. Ridiculous! There's also 1-800-Goog-411 which is a free 411 service (for any phone) where you not only can get 411, but you can just search by typing in your zip code (or saying the city and state) and saying what type of business you're looking for (Pizza Delivery, Mall, etc).
I was recently realizing that Google and Apple (because I was comparing the G1 and iPhone) are sort of similar companies. But, while I do find Google and Ipod to be have similar approaches (and innovations) when it comes to technology - there's a lot of obvious different attitudes towards it as well.
All of Google's online applications are pretty much free. They're open-source, they even have Google Labs, which is a "technology playground" and an open-source code search engine. They obviously have one of the best mapping systems (and with GoogleStreetview, one of the the sickest). They're doing this new G1 phone with allowing third party applications to be made with no restrictions.
On the opposite side, Apple makes products that are top-notch, yet extremely limiting, with the idea that there is one way to do everything. Their Macs and laptops run well, but are also ridiculously restrictive on programs that are produced for them, and extremely expensive. The iPod is the exact same thing. You can link your iPod to ONE library.
Meaning if my friend Bradley wants to come over and drag a Senior Discount song from my library onto his iPod - he has to erase his iPod to do it, or not do it. Everything about them is money-hungry and restrictive. You can download a song from iTunes, but you can only burn it to a disc three times EVER. You can download a song from your iTunes and make it your ringtone on your iPhone, but you have to pay a dollar to make it work as a ringtone on top of the first dollar you spent on buying the goddamn song.
Also - I want to introduce everyone to Media Man. I catalog my DVDs (as you may have guessed, since I have thousands of them, and obsessive compulsive disorder). I used to just keep a text file of them, so I could look up what I have, but Media Man is this great program that catalogs whatever you want - this is what the Media Man screen looks like (you can do DVDs, Blu Rays, Music, Video Games, Books - anything you want, since you create the categories - you can even make any image/file link to any file on your hard drive and open with the appropriate program), and it has a built-in Amazon search engine to find your products (or you can enter all details - including images - manually.
You can view that way that I just showed you, or you can tag stuff in different groups. Like some of my DVDs are seperated into categories (Blu rays, Seasons, Movies, unreleased Documentaries) but they are all tagged "DVD" so I have the option to view them all together. Check out this image of all my video games together under the tag "Video Games".
And finally, you can output your list (by any categories or views - meaning collection or tags) to any format - I prefer this: all-text HTML. Click on that, and that's my entire movie collection. You can click on each individual title and it will give you the cover, and all the info from the DVD. I only started buying DVD's about a month ago, and these are the ones I've garnished in the past four weeks or so.
I can change the view of the main page of that list too (sorting it by whatever categories I want - there's like 200 categories to use to sort).
So yeah, it's awesome. You can get it by Googling "Media Man". Organization gets me off big time, brothers.
3. Movies (Superbad, The Happenning, Choke, Blindness, Iron Man, 11:14, laws concering DVD copying)
So first off - if you have the Superbad two-disc edition (which you should, because it was one of the most original comedies to come out in the past couple years), go to the special features and watch "Jonah and the animals" (or something similar to that). It's Jonah after getting his wisdom teeth out, and Judd Apatow goes to his house and brings these animal experts who bring cockroaches, snakes and awful animals and he flips out. Sooooo funny and good.
I really really enjoy Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Judd Apatow (most of time ... some of the time). Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are such great new talents.
Check out this if you enjoy them:
So this weekend and last weekend I saw "Choke" and "Blindness".
First off, "Choke" was an adaptation of one of my favorite novels. It's by Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote "Fight Club", which was a ridiculously awesome movie.
So, everyone who was a true "Fight Club" fan, has been waiting for another Palahniuk movie since then. When the trailers for "Choke" came out, I was preeeeeetty weary. It looked pretty low-budget (I do not discriminate against low-budget films, but Fight Club needed to be relatively big-budget to work) and I was wondering how much time/pre-production went into it in the first place.
But then I saw all this promo, all these myspace ads, a re-release of the book Choke, etc. and I was like "Alright, maybe this will be good." I thought the lead seemed like a smart choice as well. So I went to see it.
How dissappointed I was.
It wasn't horrible, but it was pretty bad. And taking a story from "AWESOME AND RIDICULOUSLY ORIGINAL" to "pretty bad" is quite a leap. One of the big things is that Chuck Palahniuk writes these very layered, very metaphor-ridden stories. They have all these smaller things going on, and it's just crazy to even believe that you can squeeze into a two or two-and-a-half hour movie.
Choke was only 84 minutes.
Everything felt so rushed, important plotpoints were just completely run past - it just made the entire thing pretty uneffective. I don't know how anyone who didn't read the book would really be into the movie during it. Also, the love interest was a total robot. One expression, one way to deliver.
I was very dissappointed. Truthfully, it's a HUGE thing to adapt a novel that long and deep, so I get that it's hard. But "Fight Club" was masterfully done (so much so that I consider the movie and book to be companion pieces) - but that proves it CAN BE done. So that is that.
I saw "Blindness" as well. My friend B Lau is someone who I see almost all movies with. I consider him a well-versed scholar of film like myself. He is very frightened of scary movies. I am as well, but he is as well, so much that he doesn't enjoy seeing them. I try to get him to watch them with me, and occasionally succeed.
So B Lau and I, along with Sousa, Queso (Sousa's cheese-loving girlfriend), Alyssa (my cheese-loving girlfriend), Tom, and maybe some others went to see "The Happenning". I thought it was horrible. I like M Night Shabam-Shabam. I understand that The Village and some of his other stuff is really good for the first viewing, when the end surprises you. I think Unbreakable was great, I like the Sixth Sense.
So we all went to see the "The Happenning", which was billed as M Night's first "R-Rated Movie!" and had a couple violent teaser moments in the trailer.
The movie sucked ass. The whole thing is ridiculous. Mark Wahlberg totally overacts the whole time (seemingly on purpose, as he's usually great), and all the exciting moments are in the trailer.
The movie (and the characters) just wander(s) the entire time. People just stop in their tracks and kill themselves (that's the story). You find in 45 minutes that it's...plants. Plants are making them do it. I don't care if that spoiled the movie for you. That's how bad I thought it sucked. B Lau and Sousa thought it was pretty good. I don't want to overstate that. They didn't love it, but they both definitely found it "passable", and, in conjunction with that, I now find them "commitable".
I bring this up because "Blindness" seemed a little similar (trailer-wise) to "The Happenning". It's people going blind for no reason.
So the trailer looked good (to me). So the same group (minus Queso and Sousa, which is basically how the group is now) went to go see Blindness. B Lau actually went because I entered a contest under Tom's name. Tom won two free tickets and I gave mine to B Lau, to get him to come with us.
Blindness was about this douchebag who loses his sight suddenly, and so do others. When the government in Australia decides to quarantine all the "blindies", the douchebag's wife lies and goes with him to the quarantine.
So in the quarantine, more and more people come, the government doesn't want to get blind, so they never give medical supplies or adequate food to the quarantined. So the wife is the only person with sight (she lied to go with her husband, remember?) and basically it turns into Lord Of The Flies, with alot more (sort of willing) women getting raped. The whole movie is boring and shitty and is the CLOSEST I've ever been to walking out of a movie.
I'm really bummed, as the last few movie outings I've had (Blindness, Choke, Righteous Kill, Eagle Eye, My Best Friend's Girl, Burn After Reading, Hamlet 2) have been bad - exceptions: Eagle Eye had okay action sequences but very forgettable, and My Best Friend's Girl was better than I thought it'd be, but still not too good.
I have not seen a GOOD movie in the theatre since Tropic Thunder (which I thought was pretty good, like a B-). Very dissappointing.
Watched the Iron Man DVD (blu-ray, actually!) and the extras confirmed my belief -
Jon Favreau (director) was kind of looking at Spiderman and bringing his own commentary/opposite viewpoint of superhero movies when doing Iron Man. That made me happy.
Me, Alyssa, and B Lau watched "11:14" this week as well. It's an independant that I really like (and actually stars the director of Choke, as well as Colin Hanks, superhot Rachel Leigh Cooke, and Hilary Swank). I really find it to be an interesting idea and well-executed. B Lau found it to be okay I think. I don't think he was too into it but respected the originality of the idea.
I also got the Reservoir Dogs 15th Anniversary blu-ray this week, and the the Clockwork Orange blu-ray. I'm not going to become a blu-ray slut, but I have a select list of blu-rays that I do want to get, because I feel they are visually stimulating, as opposed to something like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was great, but you don't need to see it on blu-ray.
I haven't watch them yet but I'm interested in doing so soon.
So - my plan for owning DVD's is that I want to legitimately own all the DVD's I can (truthfully - there are some television specials and documentaries and such that have never been released to buy and I will continue to own "illegitimate" copies of them, as there are no "legitimate" copies).
But I also, I think, intelligently, want to own a copy of each legitimate DVD I own. I want to go out, purchase the "Fight Club" special edition DVD, come home, burn a copy of it, and keep a copy of it in the case with the original DVD. This way, I can play the copy so the original doesn't get scratched (or lost). Also, when we go on tour/play shows far away, and we want to bring DVD's to watch in our tourvan, I can take a box of the copies I have, with these really thin DVD cases, so we can fit many in a small box. And if they get scratched or lost, I have the original at home still.
So my friend B Lau and I were talking about the legality of this. I knew of the "Fair Use" law and assured him it had to be legal to have a copy of something you own, but he was skeptical.
And rightly so.
Upon looking up the legality, Fair Use Law says that you can make a back-up copy of any digital media you own (VHS tape, cassette, CD, DVD). BUT later on, a law came out, that prevents any consumer from "tampering with" any anti-piracy techniques, which are on EVERY DVD..
So, under the "Fair Use" law, it's legal to copy DVD's, and under the second law, it's simply illegal to do so, even if you own it.
No one has been brought to court for making one copy of a DVD they own to have a back-up, and (hopefully) no one probably ever will be. But I just thought this technicality was ridiculous.
George Bush signed a new "controversial" law recently as well. It seems like it's more about counterfeit products than copied DVDs to me, though. Judge for yourself.
4. Music (Lights, Fallout Boy, Green Day, iLike, iTunes Killed The Album, Ben Folds - sort of)
Okay, Ben Folds is going to release accapella (spelled wrong) versions of his songs. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Here's to poor artists not being able to do what they want, and then seemingly copying others if they ever get to!
Green Day is finally doing another album. I have no idea how they would follow American Idiot but I'm sure they can.
Fallout Boy have announced a slew of guest stars for their next album. I'm not really into Fallout Boy. I like some singles, dislike some singles, and haven't given them a listen beyond that, because Pete Wentz is as self-infatuated as I am, and also superfamous. That combination is shitty. When I get there, I will be twice as shitty.
But check out the guests on their album: Pharell, Blondie, Lil Wayne, and Elvis Costello. I'm interested. Not because I think it will be good, but because it's weird.
So, Lights. This is a girl from Canada. She has one song that I absolutely love called "The Last Thing On Your Mind". Go to her myspace and listen to it.
I'm not sure her set-up (whether she plays live with a band) and I haven't seen anything of her live. I do highly suspect that alot of her popularity is sex appeal (note her sweet nips). I think she was/is on tour with our friends in Boys Like Girls.
So iLike is a sick thing you can add to your iGoogle homepage, that gives you all concert listings in your area. I say add it to your iGoogle (and if you don't have iGoogle, suck an ass).
So there's this article that came out last week that I read about iTunes killing the album, and how a lot of bands feel that they don't want to sell their CD's track-by-track. Until I read this article, I was unaware (or perhaps didn't give the concept any thought) of the fact that you can't choose how iTunes, one of the biggest and most popular music distribution sites there is, distributes your music. I mean, we're on iTunes, as well as Rhapsody, mp3.com, CDBaby, Snocap, Bitmunk, Amazon.com (digital download), Payplay.fm, Musicishere.com, Interpunk, and countless other Mp3 service sites, (Isn't that weird?) and I think our first (and so far, only) album is suitable to be sold track-by-track. In fact, I think we're probably always going to feature our music like that and feel that it's an appropriate way to do it.
But I feel that OF COURSE the artist should be able to dictate how they want to sell/release their music. I think there are definitely albums out there that should be sold as one (Green Day's Insomniac, Lawrence Arms' The Greatest Story Ever Told, some live albums) and I think it's ridiculous that Apple is producing another way to limit their consumers to what they believe they should be exposed to, and to only present art the way they think it should be presented.
I also think that this does hurt the album. Even if Blink 182 specifically released "Feeling This", "Down", "Always", and "I Miss You" as singles from their final album, it was definitely meant to push the album as a whole, not to just release single catchy songs. You're supposed to get a taste of what the band might offer from the single, so you can make a decision whether or not to check them out, as opposed to simply downloading "The Black Parade" from My Chemical Romance without giving the rest of their album a chance. I do feel like there is an unspoken understanding that the single is a sampling. If a band releases a single CD with one song on it - then that's different. But when a band releases a single that's only available on the CD, they want you to make a decision whether or not to check out the CD from that.
By the way - when we release our free EP (coming soon) we want to released it everywhere we can. I don't think iTunes features free releases, but if anyone knows any places that do promote and feature free releases, let us know so we can get our stuff there.
(BTW - iTunes DOES have some free releases, but I don't know how to get the tracks to them. This is a job for....!!!! ... Tom.)
5. Video Games (Saints Row 2, Stranglehold, Fracture, Silent Hill Homecoming)
Okay. I've been playing Stranglehold (360) again and it is awesome. I had to stop though, as I got an early copy of SAINTS ROW 2 (360). It came out yesterday or the day before, and I've had it for about three weeks.
The original Saints Row is like, one of my top games ever. Ever since the last game ended (when I played it like two years ago) I have been waiting for the new game. It is awesome. I loved GTA IV (it's direct competition) and they are both amazing games. I have been playing it way too much in the past week. I can't plug it enough. Get it.
I also got Fracture (360) and Silent Hill: Homecoming (360). I didn't get into either, but I'll admit I didn't play Fracture very much at all, and Silent Hill was too goddamn frightening for me.
6. Interviews (Bam Margera, Johnny Knoxville)
I just read a book called "Skinema" about a guy who loves the fact that he's a big dickhead. It was pretty good. He worked on Big Brother magazine and wrote for a bunch of other magazines. He was around when Jackass started and did an episode too. He recently interviewed Bam Margera. It's pretty good, they talk about Don Vito's arrest and stuff coming up.
Bam's doing a new weird movie coming out in December that seems like another CKY movie (which hasn't been done since like 2002) and an episode of Viva La Bam (which to me, was very different than CKY). Check out the trailer here.
My buddy Arcello also sent me this television pilot, and in it, this guy interviewed Johnny Knoxville. I love Knoxville, he's good people.
7. Senior Discount updates
We are going in the studio TODAY to mix the new track. I've been demoing That Bitch Not So Bad, Caley's Song, Ataxia (bluegrass), Explode RI and I'm Crazy for the free EP and I'm excited. We want to put our new song "...And That's Goodbye" on the free EP too but we have to talk to White Noise about that. I really think it could only help push the compilation it's going to be on so let's really hope for that.
We're playing a show this Friday at Shaker's in Fall River, MA this Friday. If you're around, come out and hang. I miss people. I've been inside working on the songs and website so much that I'm going a little stir-crazy.
We also got word of some shows coming up. Two are secrets for now but they will be in the future.
We also started using Google Calendar for our S*D plans. This is for band members but it's public so check it out whenever you want to see what we're up to (it's the same as the Chuck Staton calendar I posted above, but with only S*D stuff, and not my personal shits!)
8. Chuck Staton updates
Diet is going pretty well. I lost between 12 and 14 lb.s so far. That's fun. Went to the Melting Pot, this fondue restaurant that just opened in Providence. It's hella expensive. The cheese fondue was awesome and the chocolate fondue was awesome, and their salad was awesome. Not so sure about the main meats. It takes too long!
My (lack of) wisdom teeth have been acting up. I guess sometimes this happens about a month after surgery. There's a big hole in your jawbone, so it takes a while to heal. B Lau had an awful experience, and Michael Cera did as well (that resulted in him not being ever able to open his mouth all the way again).
I went to my doctor today (awesome guy) and he gave me some antibiotics that he hoped didn't give me any "gnarly" side effects. I can chew fine, but I'm all swollen on one side and I can't touch the cheek near it. And I also can't open my mouth that big. I still have my Vicodin from when I first got the surgery so I'm taking that. I hope it's all done soon. The doc said he might have to "go back in".
I did not ask exactly what he meant, possibly because I didn't want to know.
So - in the biggest news. I have finally goddamn graduated college, officially. I took a CLEP test the other day that gave me the final 3 elective credits I need to graduate, and they've gone through.
I'm done. Here's my transcript to prove it. I graduated with a 2.1 GPA.
I just looked it at and noticed that, with the exception of one semester, I didn't take more than TWO classes at a time from Spring 2004 to Spring 2007, and then never did again after that!
My project is complete and was a success.
You CAN get a college degree with general knowledge.
...if you're as clever and witty and brilliant as me, of course.
- chuckstaton
I've been working on more S*D stuff as well. So let's get started.
First off - there's a deal right now on SecondSpin.com - 25% off everything. It's really good - www.secondspin.com - the coupon code is 25OCT16 - apply it at checkout (deal ends TODAY, October 16th) - I got the Chris Rock Show: Seasons 1 & 2 for $9, and 12 other DVD's. Total shipping was $9 for 13 DVDs (and 3 of them were seasons). Secondspin has the cheapest DVD's for the most part, and very cheap shipping. So 25% can really help - they have CDs and blu-rays as well.
1. Television(Family Guy, South Park, Sex With Mom and Dad
I watched the Family Guy movie (the one that came out after they got cancelled, and then came back - it's called "Stewie Griffin The Untold Story") yesterday when I got the DVD. I haven't watched it in years, and I believe I judged it a little too harshly when I first watched it. It had such a big build-up though. So I watched it again - not bad. I think alot of other episodes are better. Although I did get REALLY super bummed out - there was a joke in a DVD-only part of the episode (I had previously seen it on television) and it was an exact joke I did in our movie. I'm talking virtually word-for-word here.In "VBW Attack", during the credits, it says "First and foremost, I'd like to thank the VBW" then it goes onto list all my friends, and the last one says "and Tom Wells (Hey man, I had sex with your sister. I'm really sorry. I thought this was the most appropriate place to tell you.)"
Now, before the Family Guy movie begins they have a little extra part on the red carpet, and the Griffins go into the theatre, show some parody previews, and then finally, on the movies creen they're watching it all on, it (basically) says "And now, our Feature Presentation. Hey Ken, listen, I slept with Darlene. I'm sorry. I thought this was the most appropriate place to tell you. I'll see you at karaoke."
Shitty. It came out before "VBW Attack" did but it doesn't really matter who came up with it first, because they were seperate ideas.
By the way - this is not the first time we have done the exact same joke as Family Guy (and most of the time we do them first - specifically a joke we did with me playing with a flashlight on the wall to get Christian to chase it like a cat - Family Guy did a few years later when they brought on the character of Brian's girlfriend).
I have to say I think it's pretty odd how often South Park and Family Guy (and to a lesser extent, the Simpsons) come out with DVDs - check this out.
South Park has released 11 of their 13 season on DVD. Minimal extras (4 minute commentary on each episode, and maybe 1 or documentaries over the course of all 11 seasons). But they also release like, special DVD's. They released one called "South Park: The Greatest Hits" and it's another two-disc set, with episodes that have all been released on DVD - the only new thing is a 5 minute cartoon! Who buys these things?! I think South Park has about 4 of these (one came out this week).
Family Guy, I think, is worse about it. First off, they release HALF seasons. They release Family Guy Volume 3 - which is Family Guy Season 4, Part 1. It's 13 episodes long. Then they release Family Guy Volume 4 - Family Guy Season 4, Part 2. They both cost between $30 and $40.
Now, what's worse, is that last year they released a "Series" set. Meaning they released ALL the seasons together in a collectible package, that costs around $150. They did this last year in October, releasing seasons 1 - 5 (technically, the first half of season 5). Now they're doing it AGAIN this year, with DIFFERENT collectible packaging, and all they're adding is the SECOND HALF OF SEASON 5! Again, costing $150.
I actually did some research and that will make the FIFTH "Complete Collection" Family Guy has released (And I'm not counting the first one they released - Seasons 1 through 3 - it doesn't really count, as Family Guy was cancelled and actually believed that the release was the complete collection).
Now, worst of all, this season, Family Guy is releasing a DVD that is one Christmas episode of Family Guy, that aired in 2002, and has been available on DVD for the past five years, in a DVD set. It also contains a "Bonus" episode of American Dad and THAT'S ALL. This "new" DVD costs $12 ($10 on sale right now).
Like I said, Simpsons does it once in a while (they actually have about 5 out, including two Christmas DVDs with four episodes on each, a Valentine's day one, a Halloween one, and something else). Simpsons and Family Guy are way better about releasing good DVD Extras than South Park is. But I'm a huge nerd so I'm the only person who notices that.
The new South Park was GREAT this week. I loved it. I thought last season was kind of lackluster so I was superhappy with this first new episode.
I also checked out the Sarah Silverman show's first episode this season. I like her alot. Or "liked" her alot. I think she's really funny sometimes, and when her show came out I was all excited, but I really thought the first season was "meh". Brian Posehn and Steve Agee are great on it, but are side characters. So I watched the first episode of the second season, and I have to say, it was a step-up. Not "Amazing!" but defintiely funnier, and a big step-up directorially.
I bought a few seasons of television from Amazon.com. I checked on there and told myself I'd buy any season I wanted that were $4 or less. Lo and behold, there were about 15 (including Simpsons Season 2, South Park season 3, and Chappelle's Show Season 1, 2 and the Lost Episodes). I only bought about six or seven, as the shipping raises the price.
A new show I've been watching is MTV's "Sex With Mom and Dad". It's about slutty teenagers wanting to talk to their parents about sex, or their parents wanting to talk to them about sex. Dr. Drew (Loveline, Celebrity Rehab) is their therapist. It's a pretty entertaining show, as a gay 18 year old guy had to discuss with his mom what kind of dicks she prefers. It's really funny, and sometimes the slutty 16 year old girls are really hot.
2. Technology (Apple, Google, Media Man)
My pants are still tight for the G1 phone I'm getting. That's all I have to say. I'm still waiting on it and becoming more and more antsy. I have been looking into Google more now that I've been reading so much about the G1 (it's a Google-based operating system on the phone).
Google is a lot cooler than I thought. My friends Lou and Arcello have been longtime Google supporters like me, so I gave them the first word about this stuff but I found some cool stuff on it this week.
I was reading how it will sync automatically with all your Google apps (obviously the GoogleMaps, Youtube and Gmail stuff) and so I started looking into other stuff run by Google. First is Google Calendar. It's really awesome. It's ridiculously simple and awesomely customizeable (alerts can come through text or email, and you can make your calendar public or private).
You can even make more than one Calendar. I have a Senior Discount one and a Chuck Staton one (the link I just gave was both combined).
Also, iGoogle - http://www.google.com/ig - it has your email and tons of other things you might want in a home page (I put the S*D myspace, my Facebook, my Google Calendar, and a local movietimes search in it - check out this image of my iGoogle)
Another great thing is GoogleReader (which is your personal collection of unlimited RSS feeds). Also, GoogleDocs (Document saver - HTML and all Word Docs), Photos (basically the same as Photobucket), and other stuff on Google.
They also have Google alerts, which is really crazy. It will continually search the Web for specific topics and email you when it gets something new. Ridiculous! There's also 1-800-Goog-411 which is a free 411 service (for any phone) where you not only can get 411, but you can just search by typing in your zip code (or saying the city and state) and saying what type of business you're looking for (Pizza Delivery, Mall, etc).
I was recently realizing that Google and Apple (because I was comparing the G1 and iPhone) are sort of similar companies. But, while I do find Google and Ipod to be have similar approaches (and innovations) when it comes to technology - there's a lot of obvious different attitudes towards it as well.
All of Google's online applications are pretty much free. They're open-source, they even have Google Labs, which is a "technology playground" and an open-source code search engine. They obviously have one of the best mapping systems (and with GoogleStreetview, one of the the sickest). They're doing this new G1 phone with allowing third party applications to be made with no restrictions.
On the opposite side, Apple makes products that are top-notch, yet extremely limiting, with the idea that there is one way to do everything. Their Macs and laptops run well, but are also ridiculously restrictive on programs that are produced for them, and extremely expensive. The iPod is the exact same thing. You can link your iPod to ONE library.
Meaning if my friend Bradley wants to come over and drag a Senior Discount song from my library onto his iPod - he has to erase his iPod to do it, or not do it. Everything about them is money-hungry and restrictive. You can download a song from iTunes, but you can only burn it to a disc three times EVER. You can download a song from your iTunes and make it your ringtone on your iPhone, but you have to pay a dollar to make it work as a ringtone on top of the first dollar you spent on buying the goddamn song.
Also - I want to introduce everyone to Media Man. I catalog my DVDs (as you may have guessed, since I have thousands of them, and obsessive compulsive disorder). I used to just keep a text file of them, so I could look up what I have, but Media Man is this great program that catalogs whatever you want - this is what the Media Man screen looks like (you can do DVDs, Blu Rays, Music, Video Games, Books - anything you want, since you create the categories - you can even make any image/file link to any file on your hard drive and open with the appropriate program), and it has a built-in Amazon search engine to find your products (or you can enter all details - including images - manually.
You can view that way that I just showed you, or you can tag stuff in different groups. Like some of my DVDs are seperated into categories (Blu rays, Seasons, Movies, unreleased Documentaries) but they are all tagged "DVD" so I have the option to view them all together. Check out this image of all my video games together under the tag "Video Games".
And finally, you can output your list (by any categories or views - meaning collection or tags) to any format - I prefer this: all-text HTML. Click on that, and that's my entire movie collection. You can click on each individual title and it will give you the cover, and all the info from the DVD. I only started buying DVD's about a month ago, and these are the ones I've garnished in the past four weeks or so.
I can change the view of the main page of that list too (sorting it by whatever categories I want - there's like 200 categories to use to sort).
So yeah, it's awesome. You can get it by Googling "Media Man". Organization gets me off big time, brothers.
3. Movies (Superbad, The Happenning, Choke, Blindness, Iron Man, 11:14, laws concering DVD copying)
So first off - if you have the Superbad two-disc edition (which you should, because it was one of the most original comedies to come out in the past couple years), go to the special features and watch "Jonah and the animals" (or something similar to that). It's Jonah after getting his wisdom teeth out, and Judd Apatow goes to his house and brings these animal experts who bring cockroaches, snakes and awful animals and he flips out. Sooooo funny and good.
I really really enjoy Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Judd Apatow (most of time ... some of the time). Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are such great new talents.
Check out this if you enjoy them:
So this weekend and last weekend I saw "Choke" and "Blindness".
First off, "Choke" was an adaptation of one of my favorite novels. It's by Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote "Fight Club", which was a ridiculously awesome movie.
So, everyone who was a true "Fight Club" fan, has been waiting for another Palahniuk movie since then. When the trailers for "Choke" came out, I was preeeeeetty weary. It looked pretty low-budget (I do not discriminate against low-budget films, but Fight Club needed to be relatively big-budget to work) and I was wondering how much time/pre-production went into it in the first place.
But then I saw all this promo, all these myspace ads, a re-release of the book Choke, etc. and I was like "Alright, maybe this will be good." I thought the lead seemed like a smart choice as well. So I went to see it.
How dissappointed I was.
It wasn't horrible, but it was pretty bad. And taking a story from "AWESOME AND RIDICULOUSLY ORIGINAL" to "pretty bad" is quite a leap. One of the big things is that Chuck Palahniuk writes these very layered, very metaphor-ridden stories. They have all these smaller things going on, and it's just crazy to even believe that you can squeeze into a two or two-and-a-half hour movie.
Choke was only 84 minutes.
Everything felt so rushed, important plotpoints were just completely run past - it just made the entire thing pretty uneffective. I don't know how anyone who didn't read the book would really be into the movie during it. Also, the love interest was a total robot. One expression, one way to deliver.
I was very dissappointed. Truthfully, it's a HUGE thing to adapt a novel that long and deep, so I get that it's hard. But "Fight Club" was masterfully done (so much so that I consider the movie and book to be companion pieces) - but that proves it CAN BE done. So that is that.
I saw "Blindness" as well. My friend B Lau is someone who I see almost all movies with. I consider him a well-versed scholar of film like myself. He is very frightened of scary movies. I am as well, but he is as well, so much that he doesn't enjoy seeing them. I try to get him to watch them with me, and occasionally succeed.
So B Lau and I, along with Sousa, Queso (Sousa's cheese-loving girlfriend), Alyssa (my cheese-loving girlfriend), Tom, and maybe some others went to see "The Happenning". I thought it was horrible. I like M Night Shabam-Shabam. I understand that The Village and some of his other stuff is really good for the first viewing, when the end surprises you. I think Unbreakable was great, I like the Sixth Sense.
So we all went to see the "The Happenning", which was billed as M Night's first "R-Rated Movie!" and had a couple violent teaser moments in the trailer.
The movie sucked ass. The whole thing is ridiculous. Mark Wahlberg totally overacts the whole time (seemingly on purpose, as he's usually great), and all the exciting moments are in the trailer.
The movie (and the characters) just wander(s) the entire time. People just stop in their tracks and kill themselves (that's the story). You find in 45 minutes that it's...plants. Plants are making them do it. I don't care if that spoiled the movie for you. That's how bad I thought it sucked. B Lau and Sousa thought it was pretty good. I don't want to overstate that. They didn't love it, but they both definitely found it "passable", and, in conjunction with that, I now find them "commitable".
I bring this up because "Blindness" seemed a little similar (trailer-wise) to "The Happenning". It's people going blind for no reason.
So the trailer looked good (to me). So the same group (minus Queso and Sousa, which is basically how the group is now) went to go see Blindness. B Lau actually went because I entered a contest under Tom's name. Tom won two free tickets and I gave mine to B Lau, to get him to come with us.
Blindness was about this douchebag who loses his sight suddenly, and so do others. When the government in Australia decides to quarantine all the "blindies", the douchebag's wife lies and goes with him to the quarantine.
So in the quarantine, more and more people come, the government doesn't want to get blind, so they never give medical supplies or adequate food to the quarantined. So the wife is the only person with sight (she lied to go with her husband, remember?) and basically it turns into Lord Of The Flies, with alot more (sort of willing) women getting raped. The whole movie is boring and shitty and is the CLOSEST I've ever been to walking out of a movie.
I'm really bummed, as the last few movie outings I've had (Blindness, Choke, Righteous Kill, Eagle Eye, My Best Friend's Girl, Burn After Reading, Hamlet 2) have been bad - exceptions: Eagle Eye had okay action sequences but very forgettable, and My Best Friend's Girl was better than I thought it'd be, but still not too good.
I have not seen a GOOD movie in the theatre since Tropic Thunder (which I thought was pretty good, like a B-). Very dissappointing.
Watched the Iron Man DVD (blu-ray, actually!) and the extras confirmed my belief -
Jon Favreau (director) was kind of looking at Spiderman and bringing his own commentary/opposite viewpoint of superhero movies when doing Iron Man. That made me happy.
Me, Alyssa, and B Lau watched "11:14" this week as well. It's an independant that I really like (and actually stars the director of Choke, as well as Colin Hanks, superhot Rachel Leigh Cooke, and Hilary Swank). I really find it to be an interesting idea and well-executed. B Lau found it to be okay I think. I don't think he was too into it but respected the originality of the idea.
I also got the Reservoir Dogs 15th Anniversary blu-ray this week, and the the Clockwork Orange blu-ray. I'm not going to become a blu-ray slut, but I have a select list of blu-rays that I do want to get, because I feel they are visually stimulating, as opposed to something like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was great, but you don't need to see it on blu-ray.
I haven't watch them yet but I'm interested in doing so soon.
So - my plan for owning DVD's is that I want to legitimately own all the DVD's I can (truthfully - there are some television specials and documentaries and such that have never been released to buy and I will continue to own "illegitimate" copies of them, as there are no "legitimate" copies).
But I also, I think, intelligently, want to own a copy of each legitimate DVD I own. I want to go out, purchase the "Fight Club" special edition DVD, come home, burn a copy of it, and keep a copy of it in the case with the original DVD. This way, I can play the copy so the original doesn't get scratched (or lost). Also, when we go on tour/play shows far away, and we want to bring DVD's to watch in our tourvan, I can take a box of the copies I have, with these really thin DVD cases, so we can fit many in a small box. And if they get scratched or lost, I have the original at home still.
So my friend B Lau and I were talking about the legality of this. I knew of the "Fair Use" law and assured him it had to be legal to have a copy of something you own, but he was skeptical.
And rightly so.
Upon looking up the legality, Fair Use Law says that you can make a back-up copy of any digital media you own (VHS tape, cassette, CD, DVD). BUT later on, a law came out, that prevents any consumer from "tampering with" any anti-piracy techniques, which are on EVERY DVD..
So, under the "Fair Use" law, it's legal to copy DVD's, and under the second law, it's simply illegal to do so, even if you own it.
No one has been brought to court for making one copy of a DVD they own to have a back-up, and (hopefully) no one probably ever will be. But I just thought this technicality was ridiculous.
George Bush signed a new "controversial" law recently as well. It seems like it's more about counterfeit products than copied DVDs to me, though. Judge for yourself.
4. Music (Lights, Fallout Boy, Green Day, iLike, iTunes Killed The Album, Ben Folds - sort of)
Okay, Ben Folds is going to release accapella (spelled wrong) versions of his songs. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Here's to poor artists not being able to do what they want, and then seemingly copying others if they ever get to!
Green Day is finally doing another album. I have no idea how they would follow American Idiot but I'm sure they can.
Fallout Boy have announced a slew of guest stars for their next album. I'm not really into Fallout Boy. I like some singles, dislike some singles, and haven't given them a listen beyond that, because Pete Wentz is as self-infatuated as I am, and also superfamous. That combination is shitty. When I get there, I will be twice as shitty.
But check out the guests on their album: Pharell, Blondie, Lil Wayne, and Elvis Costello. I'm interested. Not because I think it will be good, but because it's weird.
So, Lights. This is a girl from Canada. She has one song that I absolutely love called "The Last Thing On Your Mind". Go to her myspace and listen to it.
I'm not sure her set-up (whether she plays live with a band) and I haven't seen anything of her live. I do highly suspect that alot of her popularity is sex appeal (note her sweet nips). I think she was/is on tour with our friends in Boys Like Girls.
So iLike is a sick thing you can add to your iGoogle homepage, that gives you all concert listings in your area. I say add it to your iGoogle (and if you don't have iGoogle, suck an ass).
So there's this article that came out last week that I read about iTunes killing the album, and how a lot of bands feel that they don't want to sell their CD's track-by-track. Until I read this article, I was unaware (or perhaps didn't give the concept any thought) of the fact that you can't choose how iTunes, one of the biggest and most popular music distribution sites there is, distributes your music. I mean, we're on iTunes, as well as Rhapsody, mp3.com, CDBaby, Snocap, Bitmunk, Amazon.com (digital download), Payplay.fm, Musicishere.com, Interpunk, and countless other Mp3 service sites, (Isn't that weird?) and I think our first (and so far, only) album is suitable to be sold track-by-track. In fact, I think we're probably always going to feature our music like that and feel that it's an appropriate way to do it.
But I feel that OF COURSE the artist should be able to dictate how they want to sell/release their music. I think there are definitely albums out there that should be sold as one (Green Day's Insomniac, Lawrence Arms' The Greatest Story Ever Told, some live albums) and I think it's ridiculous that Apple is producing another way to limit their consumers to what they believe they should be exposed to, and to only present art the way they think it should be presented.
I also think that this does hurt the album. Even if Blink 182 specifically released "Feeling This", "Down", "Always", and "I Miss You" as singles from their final album, it was definitely meant to push the album as a whole, not to just release single catchy songs. You're supposed to get a taste of what the band might offer from the single, so you can make a decision whether or not to check them out, as opposed to simply downloading "The Black Parade" from My Chemical Romance without giving the rest of their album a chance. I do feel like there is an unspoken understanding that the single is a sampling. If a band releases a single CD with one song on it - then that's different. But when a band releases a single that's only available on the CD, they want you to make a decision whether or not to check out the CD from that.
By the way - when we release our free EP (coming soon) we want to released it everywhere we can. I don't think iTunes features free releases, but if anyone knows any places that do promote and feature free releases, let us know so we can get our stuff there.
(BTW - iTunes DOES have some free releases, but I don't know how to get the tracks to them. This is a job for....!!!! ... Tom.)
5. Video Games (Saints Row 2, Stranglehold, Fracture, Silent Hill Homecoming)
Okay. I've been playing Stranglehold (360) again and it is awesome. I had to stop though, as I got an early copy of SAINTS ROW 2 (360). It came out yesterday or the day before, and I've had it for about three weeks.
The original Saints Row is like, one of my top games ever. Ever since the last game ended (when I played it like two years ago) I have been waiting for the new game. It is awesome. I loved GTA IV (it's direct competition) and they are both amazing games. I have been playing it way too much in the past week. I can't plug it enough. Get it.
I also got Fracture (360) and Silent Hill: Homecoming (360). I didn't get into either, but I'll admit I didn't play Fracture very much at all, and Silent Hill was too goddamn frightening for me.
6. Interviews (Bam Margera, Johnny Knoxville)
I just read a book called "Skinema" about a guy who loves the fact that he's a big dickhead. It was pretty good. He worked on Big Brother magazine and wrote for a bunch of other magazines. He was around when Jackass started and did an episode too. He recently interviewed Bam Margera. It's pretty good, they talk about Don Vito's arrest and stuff coming up.
Bam's doing a new weird movie coming out in December that seems like another CKY movie (which hasn't been done since like 2002) and an episode of Viva La Bam (which to me, was very different than CKY). Check out the trailer here.
My buddy Arcello also sent me this television pilot, and in it, this guy interviewed Johnny Knoxville. I love Knoxville, he's good people.
7. Senior Discount updates
We are going in the studio TODAY to mix the new track. I've been demoing That Bitch Not So Bad, Caley's Song, Ataxia (bluegrass), Explode RI and I'm Crazy for the free EP and I'm excited. We want to put our new song "...And That's Goodbye" on the free EP too but we have to talk to White Noise about that. I really think it could only help push the compilation it's going to be on so let's really hope for that.
We're playing a show this Friday at Shaker's in Fall River, MA this Friday. If you're around, come out and hang. I miss people. I've been inside working on the songs and website so much that I'm going a little stir-crazy.
We also got word of some shows coming up. Two are secrets for now but they will be in the future.
We also started using Google Calendar for our S*D plans. This is for band members but it's public so check it out whenever you want to see what we're up to (it's the same as the Chuck Staton calendar I posted above, but with only S*D stuff, and not my personal shits!)
8. Chuck Staton updates
Diet is going pretty well. I lost between 12 and 14 lb.s so far. That's fun. Went to the Melting Pot, this fondue restaurant that just opened in Providence. It's hella expensive. The cheese fondue was awesome and the chocolate fondue was awesome, and their salad was awesome. Not so sure about the main meats. It takes too long!
My (lack of) wisdom teeth have been acting up. I guess sometimes this happens about a month after surgery. There's a big hole in your jawbone, so it takes a while to heal. B Lau had an awful experience, and Michael Cera did as well (that resulted in him not being ever able to open his mouth all the way again).
I went to my doctor today (awesome guy) and he gave me some antibiotics that he hoped didn't give me any "gnarly" side effects. I can chew fine, but I'm all swollen on one side and I can't touch the cheek near it. And I also can't open my mouth that big. I still have my Vicodin from when I first got the surgery so I'm taking that. I hope it's all done soon. The doc said he might have to "go back in".
I did not ask exactly what he meant, possibly because I didn't want to know.
So - in the biggest news. I have finally goddamn graduated college, officially. I took a CLEP test the other day that gave me the final 3 elective credits I need to graduate, and they've gone through.
I'm done. Here's my transcript to prove it. I graduated with a 2.1 GPA.
I just looked it at and noticed that, with the exception of one semester, I didn't take more than TWO classes at a time from Spring 2004 to Spring 2007, and then never did again after that!
My project is complete and was a success.
You CAN get a college degree with general knowledge.
...if you're as clever and witty and brilliant as me, of course.
- chuckstaton
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