I had an awesome weekend!

I don’t mean to gloat, but I had a great weekend. First of all, it was a 3-day weekend, which makes it great no matter what, but this weekend was really enjoyable.
First, I got out of work Friday night in time for the wife and I to catch Cedarwell play a show at the Paradigm here in Sheboygan. I’ve never seen them before, but they put on one hell of a concert. I would definitely check those guys out again.
On Saturday, we all chilled out at home. Nothing too big, played some video games, ate some great food. Totally cool. On Sunday night, after a scrumptious dinner at my sister’s house, we went to the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee and saw Pan’s Labyrinth.
It was great to be back at the Oriental, one of the last great movie palaces in America, and the theater was packed. Good reason too, Pan’s Labyrinth is amazing.
We topped the weekend off at the Cheesecake Factory at Mayfair Mall, where I had a Kobe beef burger. I can’t really spell it, but you know the sound Homer Simpson makes when he thinks about food, that’s the sound I’m thinking about right now.
WOW! I can never eat another crappy burger again.

Nicole Kidman hurt in crash, caught on tape

Actress Nicole Kidman was hurt in a crash Wednesday on the set of her new movie, The Invasion. Kidman was in a car, rigged to a stunt vehicle and covered in zombies, she was not actually driving the vehicle. The crash was caught on tape. According to IMDb, Kidman was taken to the a hospital and release a short time later.
The accident was caught on tape and released on the Web through a number of venues including YouTube and TMZ.com.
The footage is not graphic and Kidman can be seen walking around after the crash.

Check it out below.

RIAA vs AllofMP3: Testing the limits of globalization

Two weeks ago, the Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit in a New York court against AllofMP3, a music download site that operates out of Russia, saying the Web site owes it $1.65 trillion as the result of 11 million downloads since Oct. 2006.
AllofMP3 has maintained, and still maintains, that it is a legal download site that operates under Russian law and pays royalties to Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, (and said record companies have refused all attempted payments from ROMS) and the prices on its site, low as 10-cents a download, reflect the actual cost of a CD in Russia.
What a clusterbuff.
This is one of those situations where no one is right and just about everyone is the bad guy. First, AllofMP3, while operating under Russian law, is not paying the musicians who spend their lives creating art as a career. An accurate system must be put in place to reward these artists for a job well done.
That said; If AllofMP3 is operating under Russian law, which it says it is, it’s the law that is not protecting the artists, not commerce.
Russia is not part of the World Trade Organization, and thus — technically, according to my understanding—does not have to comply with its rules and regulations.
Think of it as diplomatic copyright immunity.
This has to be worked out on the global playing field, not in a New York courtroom that may or may not have jurisdiction in Russia.
The RIAA is not the good guy in the scenario either.
And one could easily argue that the RIAA is a dinosaur that spends its time and money fighting to get theirs while disregarding the integrity and livelihood of the artists it was originally formed to protect.
Take for instance the RIAA’s math skills.
The RIAA apparently feels a single downloaded song has a price tag of $150,000. Wait, that can’t be right. $1.65 trillion divided by $11 million is $150,000. So, yeah, I guess that seems right. You pay a buck a track at iTunes, under Russian pricing it would be about $150,000 a song.
Wrong.
Realistically, it costs around $2-$3 for a legally purchased, physical CD in Russia, as opposed to $10-$20 in the U.S. So AllofMP3 is, like it has been argued before, selling downloads at comparable price points. The company also said it pays 15 percent of its sales to ROMS. So, based on more accurate math, AllofMP3 has socked away $165,000 since October, which would be a more accurate lawsuit total—not 10 million times that amount. In fact, the RIAA could probably just ask ROMS for that money and get it cash in hand—according to AllofMP3.
I have a feeling the RIAA is going to regret this lawsuit in the long run. Eventually, any US governmental organization that investigates this will as the question: Why does a download cost $0.99? They asked a similar question in the 1990s when the RIAA was sued for price fixing.
The cost of recording and distributing music has dropped significantly with the invention of the Internet. Recording studios have been reduced to computer programs like ProTools and distribution on the Net has grown exponentially.
In the next year or so, the physical CD will die (a bold prediction, but that’s where it’s going), and distributing music over the net, which costs virtually nothing, will be the way of the world.
At that time, the RIAA will have to justify why a physical CD (which needs to be pressed, printed, sealed, stored and shipped) has the same pricing structure as a downloaded CD (which is hosted on a server, eliminating all of the printing, shipping and storage costs).
It will be determined that the RIAA has fixed prices, again, and the cost of a download in the US will drop, probably to around $0.50.
The worst part is, during all of the struggles between the players in this fight for global commerce domination, the artists are the ones who will ultimately suffer—whether its at the hands of a faceless international corporation or under the thumb of a fossil bent on protecting itself not its clients.

For more, read HERE.

Photo courtesy of Digital Music Weblog.

American Idol's worst contestant?

Not worst, but worthy of being in the running.

Your next American Idol, Part 2

Couldn't find a picture, so the actual audition will have to do.

And your next American Idol is...

I know this is a pretty bold prediction so early in the game, but Jason “Sundance” Head is your next American Idol.
Why?
Well, as you could all see on last night’s auditions, the guy has got talent. But it doesn’t stop there.
His size is reminiscent of another idol winner, Ruben Studdard, and his voice was immediately compared to last year’s Idol, Taylor Hicks.
He also comes from a good music pedigree, with his father being Roy Head, the R&B styled singer from the 1960s.
If he can stand up to Hollywood Hell Week, I think he may have it locked (he’s at least the best out of the auditions Idol has aired).
And, if Idol was determined on facial hair, Head would have it in the bag. Did you see that goatee? It’s like he took Grizzly Adams’ beard and compressed it into 4 inches of facial space. That thing was thick!
Other than that, Idol was kind of a let down. The good auditions just aren’t great, and the bad auditions seem forced. And the comments from the judges aren’t as clever, they’re just mean.
Hopefully Idol will bring it big time for NYC tonight.

PS. There will be a picture later. I’m looking for a picture of Head to post.

Oscar noms announced

Oscar noms were announced Today.

In a surprize, Dreamgirls will not be competing for Best Picture. The nominees in that category are "Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," and "The Queen."

Best Actor nominees include: Leonardo DiCaprio for “Blood Diamond,” Ryan Gosling for "Half Nelson,” Peter O'Toole for“Venus,” Will Smith for “The Pursuit of Happyness,” and recent Golden Globe winner Forest Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland.”

Best Actress nominees include: Penelope Cruz for “Volver,” Judi Dench for “Notes on a Scandal,” Helen Mirren for “The Queen,” Meryl Streep for “The Devil Wears Prada,” and Kate Winslet for “Little Children.”

Best Director nominees include Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for “Babel,” Martin Scorsese for “The Departed,” Clint Eastwood for “Letters From Iwo Jima,” Stephen Frears for “The Queen,” and Paul Greengrass for “United 93.”

For more, read HERE.

The Razzies are here

The worst of the worst of 2006 is about to be decided.
Nominees for the 27th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards were announced Monday, with Basic Instinct 2, Bloodrayne, Lady in the Water, Little Man and Wicker Man vying for worst film dishonors.
For 27 years, Razzies have been awarded to the worst films, including such memorable classics as Leonard: Part 6, Howard the Duck, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Cocktail, Wild Wild West, Showgirls, Battlefield Earth and Gigli.
This year the funniest nomination has to be in the “Worst Screen Couple” category, with “Sharon Stone’s Lop-Sided Breasts” grabbing a nom for Basic Instinct 2.
BURN!
Stone’s competition is Tim Allen & Martin Short in Santa Clause 3, Nicolas Cage & His Bear Suit in Wicker Man, Hilary & Haylie Duff in Material Girls and Shawn Wayans & EITHER Kerry Washington OR Marlon Wayans in Little Man. It should be a tough race!
The Razzie award ceremonies will be held at 7:30 p.m./PST on Oscar eve, Saturday, Feb, 24 at Hollywood’s Ivar Theatre.

For more on the nominations click HERE.

If you would like to become a voting RAZZIE member, click HERE.

You're fired...oh, you quit, my bad.

So, here’s the deal. Let’s say you’ve made it through a rigorous hiring process for a high-profile job interview program. The stakes are high; you could walk away with a six-figure position in a massive real estate company. All you have to do is give it 100 percent, and keep going until the boss says stop.
Now, here’s the question. Do you quit because you are slightly uncomfortable?
That’s what Michelle, a Los Angeles real estate mogul, did last night. She quit The Apprentice.
Trump was mad, and rightly so.
Michelle was about to be fired...really, her team messed up big time, but before he could call them back to the boardroom she turned in her resignation.
What?
You don’t quit on the Trump, he fires you! Can you imagine him after she walked out of the room?
He was probably all like “What was that. I had the firing cobra hand all ready to go, and then Bam. She quits. Who am I going to fire now? The cobra needs to fire someone? Who am I going to give the cobra to now?”
Michelle, you messed up. You quit to save yourself from being fired. That’s not winning, that’s losing double time. You looked like a quitter and you don’t have a job.

No cab ride for you!

For more on The Apprentice 6-Los Angeles, and to see a rerun of Sunday night's show, click HERE.

The F in FOX

According to the IMDb, FOX has apologized for showing a woman wearing a “F*** da Eagles” shirt during Saturday’s NFL playoff game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints.
After receiving complaints from every ticked off activist group that looks for this kind of thing, a spokesman for the network said the airing was “unintentional, inadvertent, and we apologize.”
After watching the footage, it is kind of hard to see how the cameraman could have in advertently shot the woman, in focus, perfectly centered and lit, without noticing the message in bright yellow letters on her black T-shirt, but I guess it could happen.
The fact that FOX has routinely taken drastic measures to push the decency envelope probably has nothing to do with this.
One could argue that it technically isn’t FOX’s fault. Anyone who has gone anywhere from Miller Park in Milwaukee to Great America in Gurnee, Ill., knows that you may not be let in if your outfit is deemed offensive by the teenage security guard tearing your ticket.
I’m sure the stadium where this game was played has a policy like that—an un-enforced policy, but a policy nonetheless.
And, as you can see if you click HERE, it goes by pretty quick.
I for one don’t care, again, because most of the slip-ups on television involving swearing are during sporting events where tempers flare and fans and players are focused on the task at hand, not if they’re on television—and everyone watching at home should just know by now that an s-word or an f-bomb come sailing into their home. Hence the magic of live television.
But I’m sure this will screw my television viewing somehow!
Thank you decency police for making this world a better place for children, and a sanitized wreck of blah for every adult.

American Idol Seattle ... painful

So Seattle, you beaming with pride from last night’s portrayal on American Idol of your fine city? No? And for good reason.
Holy crap! Seattle, you got smacked by AI. That was freaking painful! Seriously.
In other cities, when you’re watching the “bad” highlights, it’s funny because the contestants are so delusional.

But last night’s tryouts that went horribly wrong were impossible to watch.

You actually felt bad for Simon, Paula and Randy (and the girl in the corner with the clipboard) that they had to sit there.
It hurt. It physically hurt to watch it.
The good news is when someone performed well—it seemed amazing. The brother and sister were great, the giraffe woman (I didn’t bother to remember any names) was entertaining, the soulful Portland singer who had tried out twice before was impressive, so, Seattle, there is some good that came out of last night’s show.

But baby I hear the blues a calling, tossed salad and scrambled eggs. Oh my!

PHOTO: One of the better performers from Wednesday's show, courtesy of American Idol.

Life behind American Idol

What's it like at the auditions for American Idol? Check out this video posted on YouTube in November by someone waiting in the wings. Not as exciting as it's portrayed on TV.




Here's another one from the New York auditions.

American Idol...The freaks have arrived

Ah, the untalented! It sure is grand when they willingly show up on TV, sing their hearts out, fail in front of a room of three judges and sign a release form to make their failure public.
American Idol, welcome back!
While I enjoy that a Madison girl made it through to Hollywood, I really enjoyed the evening’s failures even more.
Apollo Creed singing opera? Classic. The juggler with an attitude? Priceless. The girl who sang like the Cowardly Lion? A clip worth of airing over, and over, and over!
But possibly the best moment of the show, was the last, when the American Idol superfan, and a graduate of a college level voice program, who was dressed like a worn out Cure fan, flopped and had the lapse in judgement to ask Simon what she could do to improve.
His advice: “Leave.”

Nice. Idol returns tonight with more, I’ll be watching, will you?

Paula Abdul interview

Wow! That's all I can say...Wow!



And then, there's more

Lazer Cats 2, this time it's personal

American Idol: Back for the Attack!

Na na, na na, na na, na na, berrruuum.
It’s back! The sixth season of American Idol returns tonight on Fox, and once again it will kick off with the best, and worst, of the auditions for the show from all over the country.
I for one can’t understand why after five seasons of ripping the untalented to shreds, why anyone who can’t sing would even bother to audition. But the absolutely clueless are the sole reason why the first AI shows are jaw-droppingly entertaining.
Plus you get to take a look at all of the diamonds in the rough that may or may not make it to the top 24.
And who can forget Simon with his nasty English wit, Randy with his dog-house antics, and Paula ... I don’t know what to say about her, except that I’ve missed them all so much. It’s going to be a hot one tonight!Speaking of Idol, the debut CD from last year’s runner up, Katherine McPhee’s, drops on Tuesday, Jan. 30, so I’m guessing she’ll be making an appearance on the show very soon.

For more on American Idol, click HERE.

Feeling fine, online. 10 years and counting

It was almost 10 years ago to the day that I was introduced to the Internet. I was just starting college, as a non-traditional student, and one of my classes required I have an e-mail address.
“E-mail?” I remember thinking. “I’m in class every day. What does e-mail have to do with this class?”
I argued, but I didn’t want to fail so I signed up.
My first couple weeks on the Internet were pretty blah. I would go to the computer lab, type up my homework, e-mail it and go home. Then, and thank goodness for weather, it was raining and cold one day, and I didn’t feel like waiting for the bus. So I started surfing.
Now, 10 years ago the Internet wasn’t any great thing. In fact, one of the first places I surfed to was the Heaven’s Gate cult Web site that was all over the news at the time (in case you don’t remember, Heaven’s Gate was a cult of computer geeks who committed suicide in 1997—many members were wearing identical outfits and black Nikes).
But then I really started looking around. I found Web sites that were posting movie reviews (illegally) from major newspapers, I found the movie company (Troma) that made one of my favorite cult movies (Toxic Avenger), I found a list of every chalkboard gag ever written on The Simpsons... the list goes on and on.
I was instantly addicted.
Every day, after finishing my homework, I would search some more. It was fascinating the amount of information that was on the net.
In late 1998, I had my first article posted on the Web—a movie review for the UWM Post. A few months later, an article I wrote was picked up by an online news service. In early 1999, I did my first shopping on the net (eBay). The same year, I discovered online music, online video services, online movie chat rooms, and so on.
For me, it’s neat to think back to my pre-Internet days. It feels like I was in a cloud, so uninformed, so unaffected by the world around me. Of course, my ADD wasn’t as bad as it is now (what was I talking about), but that aside the Internet has been very good to me.
And while some have gone on and on about how their industry (banking, insurance, retail) has been changed by the World Wide Web, nowhere has it been changed more than inside the newsroom at a newspaper.
Newspapers have been around for hundreds of years, and for most of that time, they didn’t change. Sure, with the advent of wire services content changed slightly, then there was color...but for the most part, papers were unaffected by time.
In the last 10 years, papers have been completely retooled. Newspapers have moved onto the Web. They’ve added podcasts, streaming video, blogs, pop-up and online classified ads, up-to-the-minute news updates, content links and so on.
I can’t tell you how many times in the last month of doing video people have shot me confused looks when I tell them I’m putting together a video for The Sheboygan Press Web site.
“But the Press is a newspaper,” most say in paraphrase. “What does that have to do with a newspaper?”
Ten years ago ... nothing. Today, it has everything to do with a newspaper. Tomorrow? That’s a mystery. I’m pretty sure physical newspapers aren’t going anywhere, but you never know what tomorrow holds.So here’s to 10 more good years of the Internet. It will be interesting to see where this thing goes.

Photo of Yahoo! browser, circa 1997, courtesy of Tranquil Eye.

iPhone home

Holy Crap! Have you seen the new iPhone from Apple? It is so freaking cool I can't stand it!
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled it yesterday at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, and geeks instantly started drooling.
Why?
Not only is it a phone, it plays music and videos, surfs the net, can be used for voice mail and e-mail, gets you a cup of ocoffee whenever you need it...ok, that last one isn't true, but you can use Google maps to find a coffee shop where ever you are. It also has a camera, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS.
Makes that Zune look like a hunk of crap.
When it hits stores in June, it will cost around $500. That's a lot for a phone, but look at what you get. It's a computer in your pocket.
So if you see a skinny computer geek sticking up a convenience store in May, you know why.
The iPhone is coming, and it's gonna rock!

Scooby-Doo creator dies

The animation world was dealt another blow this week when Iwao Takamoto, the cartoonist who created Scooby-Doo, died Monday in California at the age of 81, AP reported.
Takamoto got his start at Disney studios and was part of the mass exodus that created the famed Hanna Barbara studios.
At HB, he was credited with work on “The Jetsons,” “The Flintstones,” “Josie and the Pussy Cats,” and “The Secret Squirrel Show,” and he also directed the full-length feature “Charlotte’s Web.”
But his most famous creation was the lovable, but cowardly dog, Scooby-Doo.
Takamoto said he created Scooby-Doo after talking with a Great Dane breeder, and named him after Frank Sinatra’s final phrase in “Strangers in the Night,” the AP article stated.
Takamoto’s death follows closely to the death of Joe Barbara, part of the Hanna Barbara team that employed Takamoto. Barbara died in mid December.

To find out more, click HERE.

Living With ED, not good

OK, I’ll admit it. After a long day of shopping, I was looking for anything to watch on TV when I ran across Living With Ed on HGTV.
The reality show centers on life at the ultra energy-efficient home of actor and conservation activist Ed Begley Jr. Let me tell you, this one is a noodle scratcher.
Begley is a nut when it comes to equaling out the balance between man and Mother Earth. He rides an exercise bike to generate electricity to make toast, he has solar panels on every roof of his home, he has two solar-powered ovens, he drives an electric car ... you get the picture.
His wife, actress Rachelle Carson, can’t stand it (bringing about the necessary drama needed for a reality show to work). In last night’s episode, Begley buys a big, orange plastic barrel to collect rainwater in to irrigate their Studio City yard.
He tells his wife he has to do it because she takes long showers (it actually showed him outside of the washroom timing her taking a shower). She couldn’t stand them, because they were ugly and didn’t match their white house.
Now a normal person would have just gotten some spray primer and paint for plastic and painted it white, but not Ed Begley. He kept putting it back out there when Rachelle wasn’t looking. Wacky, wacky I tells ya!
This went on for some time, I had to get something to eat, and the show ended with little resolution.
Is this what counts today as reality drama? A bucket? At least Omorosa (of Apprentice fame) lied on camera, costing her boss the game in the final round. That’s drama - this is a bucket! A BUCKET!

2007 will be the year reality TV dies, especially if this is the best it can do.

While HGTV has been behind a lot of winners (I Want That, House Hunters, Divine Design), Living With Ed is a big loser.

Photo courtesy of HGTV.

If you are interested, you can find out more about Living With Ed by clicking HERE.

The OC is DOA

Fox announced yesterday that it would bring its once popular teen drama, The OC, to an end.
Not many people are shocked by the decision since the show plummeted in the ratings this year following the highly publicized OC death of Marissa (Mischa Barton). Don’t worry though, I’m sure someone out there will create another show featuring pretty people with self-created problems to fill the void left by Ryan, Seth and Summer leaving the airwaves.
Also, Megan Mullally’s talk show was given the boot. Karen Walker had her own TV show? What a great idea for a spin-off. Oh, the actress who played Karen Walker? That makes about as much sense as giving Ozzy Osborne’s wife her own talk show; or his son becoming a cop for that matter!
And, Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz may be splitsville. I always wondered what happened to that Cameron Diaz. It seemed like she was everywhere and then poof! You know what would be great? Charlie’s Angels 3-Angels Away. That would bring her back, and liven her spirits while JT enjoys the thrills of bringing sexy back.
Also, this just in, Lindsay Lohan was hospitalized with appendicitis. This really isn’t news, but it is the first time in a long while I’ve seen Lohan in the news for something other than a car crash or drinking herself silly. Good for you!

The video link

After some severe technical difficulties, The Polar Bear video is up and running fine. Here's the link to it. (HERE) Check it out!

I am half polar bear!

Today, I covered the annual polar bear plunge here in Sheboygan. 491 people dove into the cold waters of Lake Michigan. And while I can't say I was one of them, I can say I was pretty darn close.
I was going to shoot video of the event by standing in the water. Sam loaned me his waders and I had every intention of wearing them. But after interviewing polar bears for my article, I was running behind.
I had a choice, take five or 10 minutes to put the waders on or grab the camera and try to not get wet.
Choice B seemed right.
So I got infront of the mob, and I stood on the shore. I couldn’t get the shot I wanted, so I moved back a little bit. Then a little more. Then my feet were wet.
At that point, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to stay dry so I went in further.
The polar bears ran toward me, splashing me with water. The waves hit me a couple of times. Soon I was soaked up to almost my waist.
I was in the water for a good 20 minutes. It was pretty cool. The video will be on The Sheboygan Press’ website tomorrow. I’ll post a link in the afternoon. For now, I’m happy I’m half a polar bear. A guy in a polar bear outfit said my trek counted, but I’m only going to take half credit.