Drunk Monkeys

Alcoholic Vervet Monkeys

"Unlike us, monkeys that are heavy drinkers make better leaders respected by other monkeys."

Yet another commercial imitation

Op Zoek naar Maria

This time to promote a Belgian version of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" (a "Pop Idol" / "American Idol" type reality show that chooses an actress for the role of Maria in a "Sound of Music" revival).

Not to be confused with the T-Mobile Dance.

Or our own homegrown "It's Oh So Quiet" in Union Square (that preceded these later commercial efforts).

Speaking of 1...2...3:45 6/7/8 (the official name of last June's Union Square dance event), we're now approaching the one-year anniversary of the beginning of rehearsals for that event. So it's not unthinkable that something similar might be in the works.

Now might be a good time to remind everyone: If you want to know how to participate the next time this group does something like this, drop me a note. I'll pass you details if and when they become available.

Dance of the future

Futuredance

Via Boing Boing.

This is how one German choreographer in 1966 thought people of the future would dance. From a German science fiction television show, "Raumpatrouille Orion," that ran concurrently with "Star Trek."

"The IT Crowd" on IFC

Sorry to be late with this news.

IFC is showing the Channel 4 series, "The IT Crowd," on Tuesday nights. Tonight's episode was episode number 2, so they must have started last week.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Channel 4 is currently premiering Series 3 of "The IT Crowd."

For further entertainment and enlightenment, try reading "IT Crowd" and "Father Ted" creator Graham Linehan's blog, "Why, That's Delightful!"

PBS Documentary This Week

Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway is a new documentary about Little Edie, Big Edie, the famous documentary about them and the Broadway musical based on that documentary.

From the show's website:

"GREY GARDENS: From East Hampton to Broadway picks up the thread of this compelling mother-daughter story, weaving together clips from the Maysles brothers’ film with insightful interviews featuring Albert Maysles, societal and cultural commentators and the creators of the Broadway show. The documentary is a backstage pass into the creative process that brought one of America’s most haunted and haunting families from an original cult movie to the Great White Way."

The show is scheduled to air on KQED (Cable 9) and KQED HD (Cable 709) Tuesday, December 23, at 11:01 p.m. and again Wednesday, December 24, at 5:01 a.m. (yes, you read that right -- A.M.), and then on KQED Life (KQEDL - Cable 189) on Wednesday at 10:01 a.m. and on Thursday at 4:01 a.m.

Digital madness

A few months ago, a friend of mine who works for a public television station made mention of having to show the half-hour digital TV primer yet again. I responded that she could run it 24/7 until February, and she'd still be flooded with calls from people asking why their TV didn't work anymore.

According to a story in the New York Times, not everyone is clear on the concept of what the switch to digital TV actually means.

The Times says that a Consumers Union poll shows:

90% of the public are aware that something is going to change.

25% think that they will be required to subscribe to cable or satellite..

41% think that converter boxes are required for TVs that are connected to cable or satellite.

"'This transition is possibly one of the worst understood consumer education programs in modern times,' said Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group.... 'On Feb. 18, there will be a tremendous amount of finger-pointing'....

"Congress has allowed analog stations to stay on the air an additional 30 days to broadcast educational messages about the transition. And the cable TV industry has agreed not to switch some of its channels to a digital tier until March 1, to avoid further confusing consumers about the broadcast switch.

"To make matters worse, the transition date occurs when the weather in most of the country is at its coldest and iciest.

"'We’re asking the elderly to go out in the snow to buy a converter box?' Mr. Kelsey said. 'All we need on Feb. 18 is to have someone slip off their roof and get injured as they try to set up a new digital antenna.'"

Research Triangle Nostalgia

A double dose of Research Triangle nostalgia in one clip: Arrogance appearance on Barney's Army.

Also available from Barney's Army: guest appearances by Xteens and The Fabulous Knobs.

Life On Mars (ABC-US) Episode 1

In case you missed it, here's the entire first episode of the US version of "Life On Mars".

(Actually, I was at work last week when this aired, and, even though it's on my DVR, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, myself. That pesky "paying job" thing keeps interfering in all the important things I need to do...)

[UPDATE May 2009: Apparently ABC has changed the stream attached to this link. It no longer shows the entire first episode, but only the first eight minutes of the first episode. I personally changed nothing and have no control over the content, so any changes have been wrought on the other end. I guess if you want to see the whole thing, you'll just have to wait until the DVD comes out.]

"Life On Mars" review in SF Chronicle

Tim Goodman reviewed "Life On Mars" in today's Chronicle.

"ABC's remake of 'Life on Mars' is surprisingly great, its pilot living up to the lofty expectations of the original. Not many observers following the ill-fated path of this remake would have put odds on 'Life on Mars' being anything less than a full-fledged disaster....

"The American version is impressively loyal to the original as it switches out Manchester for New York City, but most important, it works on its own as an intriguing, exceptionally well-cast pilot....

"The British original was rife with delicious cultural references that went beyond the gold mine that is the '70s. For example, the series reflected on whether Sam was having an existential crisis, frequently referenced 'The Wizard of Oz' and made judicious jokes about technology. (Here's hoping the American version uses the same restraint - one or two per episode at maximum.) No doubt ABC believed that 'Life on Mars' was a perfect import because New York (and America) in 1973 held storytelling arcs that went above and beyond the premise.

"They certainly nail the pilot - O'Mara is wonderful, Keitel comes on like a lion and Imperioli, who was added late, could end up separating himself wonderfully from his 'Sopranos' legacy, which is no easy feat....

"And yet - you knew this was coming - there are certain worries. With only 16 episodes in England successfully wrapping up Sam's journey, will stretching it out for American television doom it? ABC will want the network standard of 22 episodes for five seasons, at minimum. That may be asking for too much delayed audience gratification, but the pilot does create a lot of room for optimism."

More "Life On Mars"

Two promo videos: a two-minute trailer, and a two-minute scene from the first episode.

Notable things:

(1) Some dialog and shots are recreated from the BBC series. So it sounds like (at least for the first episode) they're sticking relatively close to the source material without falling into the "Coupling" trap (i.e., re-shooting the British scripts without any adaptation). The sideways shots of Sam lying in the street appeared in the opening credits of every episode of the BBC series, so those shots are almost iconic, in a way, if you know the original.

(2) Is it possible that Glenn Fletcher has been inserted into the first episode? That would be good foreshadowing for a later episode. (In the BBC series, this character shows up in the second episode of Series 2 as someone Sam knows in the present day and also runs into in 1973). It sounds like he says, "Ready, Glenn?" just before they knock down the apartment door. (No, I don't remember all the characters' names, I went and looked up the Glenn Fletcher episode on the BBC site. Really, honestly, I'm not a total fanboy, I'm just an anal-retentive accountant with what I like to think of as "a reasonable memory for details.")

(3) I notice one "Wizard of Oz" reference in the trailer. The BBC series was full of such references (not the least of which was Gene Hunt repeatedly calling Sam, "Dorothy").

Through the magic of YouTube, for comparison, here's a clip from the BBC series containing the "Don't ever waltz into my kingdom acting King of the Jungle" scene, mirrored briefly in the trailer:




So here are my humble predictions and recommendations:

If the fine folks at ABC have done their jobs right, (i.e., if they've found the right mix of replication of and adaptation of the original series), then people who are not familiar with the BBC series will get hooked. People who have seen the original will almost certainly draw comparisons to the original (and, when the scripts are so similar, it's almost impossible not to do so). I kind of hope that Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel (and their interpretations of their characters) are different enough from John Simm and Philip Glenister that direct comparisons become difficult or meaningless.

I believe that the real point at which this series either fails miserably or succeeds wildly is the moment when they start to diverge from the BBC series. As long as they're adapting other people's writing, they're constricted and constrained, so the real test is when they have the opportunity to create new material that flows naturally from the same source.

But the series needs to last long enough to reach that point -- that is, if no one watches early on, then the show will be canceled after only a few episodes. So I will be watching Thursday night in hopes that the show gets the chance to prove itself on its own terms rather than as an adaptation or remake.

"This the city, darling. Anything goes"?

According to Gizmodo, Kim Cattrall (Samantha from "Sex And the City" will be one of the voices that can be downloaded to TomTom GPS devices.

According to the TomTom press release, "In global partnership with Navtones®, Kim Cattrall is the latest celebrity to join the growing line up of celebrity and character voices available for use on devices made by TomTom, the world's leading navigation solutions provider."

Gizmodo opines, "Not only will her voice remind you of that horrible show every time you need to make a turn, but it'll throw in annoying non sequiturs like 'This is the city, darling. Anything goes' or 'Don't touch my Manolos' at random times for added irritation. Why, oh god can anyone tell me why?"

The list of voice downloads for TomTom includes:
* John Cleese ("Product contains language that some people may find explicit or offensive.")
* Burt Reynolds ("Calm, cool, and irreverent, Burt's a veteran of the street scene.")
* Dennis Hopper ("No self-respecting rider/driver would mount up without him, the original king of the road.") and
* Mr. T ("Don't be a FOOL! Even if you're not, Mr. T disagrees, as only he could. Obey his directions, or else...")

A/V Geek TV Cover

Sadly, sold out.

Shameless on Sundance

The Sundance Channel is currently showing the third series of Shameless.

This proves the sheer inaccuracy of my prediction that they were showing it solely because of James McAvoy (I had previously predicted that the Sundance Channel would not show the third series because James McAvoy left the show during the second series).

Episode 2 airs tonight (Sunday, July 27). Full schedule here.

Most Popular... er... I mean "Best" media of the last 25 years

Entertainment Weekly has posted several lists of "New Classics." Notice that while they can come with 100 movies, 100 albums and 100 TV shows, they can only come up with 50 plays (which means both musicals and non-musical dramatic plays). What they do not say is how they arrived at these rankings or whose input was used:

100 New Classics: Movies (best films from 1983 to 2008)
Top five:
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)

100 New Classics: TV (best TV shows from 1983 to 2008)
Top five:
1. The Simpsons, Fox, 1989-present
2 The Sopranos, HBO (1999-2007)
3 Seinfeld, NBC (1989-98)
4 The X-Files, Fox (1993-2002)
5 Sex and the City, HBO (1998-2004)

100 New Classics: Music (best albums from 1983 to 2008)
Top five:
1. Purple Rain Prince and the Revolution (1984)
2. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Lauryn Hill (1998)
3. Achtung Baby U2 (1991)
4. The College Dropout Kanye West (2004)
5. Madonna Madonna (1983)
[Personal note: I own one of these, and I would dispute its inclusion in the top 100 albums of this time frame. Sorry, Lauryn, I love your voice, but I don't love that album. And while I think "Purple Rain" is a decent enough album, I can't imagine it being the best album of the last 25 years.]

100 New Classics: Books (best books from 1983 to 2008)
Top five:
1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
[Personal note: Why do they include only "Goblet of Fire" and not the full series (like they did with the "Lord of the Rings" movies)? I like "Beloved," but not that much. I tried reading "The Liars' Club," but it didn't hold my attention. I've never had a lot of patience with Philip Roth's writing. I've never read any Cormac McCarthy, so I can't comment there.]

50 New Classics: Style (Pop culture moments that "rocked the world)
Top five:
1. Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards (1984)
2. Sarah Jessica Parker in the opening credits of Sex and the City (1998)
3. Michael Jackson in the ''Thriller'' video (1983)
4. Sharon Stone at the Oscars (1996)
5. Kurt Cobain and grunge style (1991)
[No further comment needed.]

50 New Classics: Stage (Best plays and musicals from 1983 to 2008)
Top five:
1. Angels in America (1993-94)
2. Rent (1996)
3. August: Osage County (2007)
4. Doubt (2004)
5. Jersey Boys (2005)
[Personal note: I won't argue with three of these, but I think two of them are way too high on the list. I'm surprised that "Jersey Boys" even made it into the top 50. And "Caroline, or Change" did not make the top 50 list, which says something by itself.]

If you want to see their lists of the 25 most influential gadgets and innovations or the 50 best videogames or the 25 best movie posters or the 25 new classic death scenes, etc., you can go look those up yourself.

"Doomsday Machine"

Cinematic Titanic Episode 2, "Doomsday Machine," goes on sale tomorrow (June 19, 2008) at their website.

LGBT Programming on KQED

I just got back from KQED's LGBT Local Hero presentation (Dixieland Dykes closed the program).

As part of the program, they showed clips from several shows that they will be airing during June for Gay Pride. There were several I'd already heard of or already seen part or all of, but there were a few I'd not heard of that looked extremely interesting, even to a jaded old sod like myself.

Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life - Have I heard of this one before? Or was that another documentary about Billy Strayhorn?

Anyone and Everyone - Interviews with the a wide variety of families recalling when their son or daughter or sibling came out to them.

It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in Schools - Pretty self-explanatory title. Fascinating trailer intercutting footage of a Republican Congressman railing against even mentioning the word "homosexuality" to kids with footage of grade-school kids saying things like "What's the big whoop?"

The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD War

Like many, we got an HD-DVD player in December.

Here was the logic: "They keep predicting the end of this battle, but it keeps going on. Picking one or the other seems like a fool's game. But they make combo players that will play both, which seems like a fairly safe thing to have when the battle finally ends."

But then we went to the store. Combo player: $1,000. HD or Blu-ray individually: less than $400 each. It would have been cheaper to buy both players than to buy the combo player. So there goes that theory.

But even I think that bringing two DVD players into the house at once is excessive, so we figured we'd get one of them now and would probably eventually wind up with both at some future date. So we looked at what was available on both formats.

We found that Blu-Ray seemed to focus primarily on hot new releases, especially of the action and violence and gore variety. Lots of Die Hard, lots of Saw, lots of focus on what came out last week. HD-DVD, on the other hand, seemed to have a much broader range. More obvious catalog titles (Robin Hood, Casablanca, Clockwork Orange).

So we got a Toshiba HD player. It turned out to have an added advantage of intelligent upconversion. Unlike our other upconverting DVD player, this one didn't automatically stretch everything to a 16:9 aspect ratio. It recognized the difference between a 4:3 signal and a 16:9 signal, and it upconverted 4:3 pictures while maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio.

Two months later, Warner Bros. stopped releasing titles in HD-DVD format, and Toshiba announced that they were killing the format. After the biggest Christmas season ever, after having sold more HD-DVD players in December than they'd ever sold before, they yanked the carpet out from under their customers. And Best Buy "generously" offered a $50 gift card to anyone who bought an HD player from them in December.

A few weeks ago, we happened to be in Best Buy with that $50 gift card.

There was an "open box" LG combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player for $300. The one that had been selling for $1,000 at Christmas, the one on that very day available on the other side of the store for $600, selling over here for $300. The sticker on the outside of the box was marked with check boxes giving the store the opportunity to say whether the product was missing parts or damaged, but these boxes weren't checked. So we combined the $50 gift card with a couple other gift cards we had, and we took home the combo player for a cash outlay of about $100.

The only problem was that it turned out not to have a remote control. We called Best Buy to complain and talk about this. It turns out that they do not consider the remote control to be a "part" that can be "missing." If an open-box DVD player does not have its remote control, that doesn't constitute a "missing part" because they assume that whoever buys it will just come back to Best Buy and buy a universal remote from them. (Yes, that's they way they put it: "We just figured you'd buy a universal remote from us to replace it.")

I wrote to Best Buy online to complain that their doing this was, in fact, misleading us about the actual cost of the product. If we had known in advance that we'd be paying $350 or $400 instead of the $300 that the box showed, we might have felt differently about buying it in the first place. Their response (direct quote from e-mail): "Though I cannot verify what signs were on the boxes at the store that day, I would like to offer you a $30 gift card to assist you with the purchase of a universal remote."

Yes, in essence they might as well have said, "You are probably lying about the store failing to mark the box as having parts missing, but in my generosity, I'll graciously give you $30 toward a universal remote just to shut you up."

The good folks at Best Buy just don't know when to stop digging, do they?

So now we have a combo player that seems to work fine. We found a remote that will work with it. It doesn't upconvert as well as the Toshiba (it stretches all pictures to 16:9 when upconverting), but it plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. All in all, regardless of the rigmarole and corporate pig-headedness, it was a darn good deal.

But we're still less likely to spend a lot of time or money at Best Buy.

TV Time

Okay, the results are in, and I can't say that I'm terribly proud of them.

Here are the results:

Time spent watching CABLE: 7 hours and 45 minutes;
Time spent watching DVDs: 9 hours and 50 minutes;
Time spent playing video games: 6 hours and 40 minutes;

Total all time in front of the TV over seven days: 24 hours and 15 minutes.

Interesting (to me) subset of these numbers:

Total TV time Monday through Friday: 8 hours and 45 minutes.

Total TV time on the weekend: 15 hours and 30 minutes.

So here are my excuses and rationalizations for why I spent nearly twice as much time in front of the TV in two days as I did for the five preceding days:

(1) We got our first set of Blu-Ray DVDs from Netflix, so we felt obliged to watch all three of them. It was pretty much the christening of the new DVD player. Up until this weekend, we had only seen one Blu-Ray movie ("Juno," which we got with the player). I mean, we have several HD-DVDs, but these were the first new HiDef movies to come into the house in over a month. So Netflix effectively quadrupled the amount of time we normally spend watching DVDs in a week (we actually watched "The Golden Compass" and then listened to the full commentary immediately afterward);

(2) I finally got over my sinus infection, but there is still some lingering infection in my chest. I had a low-grade fever all weekend and felt mildly achy / dizzy / fluish, so I really didn't want to move far from the sofa most of the day on Saturday and Sunday.

So I'll have to do this again in a couple of weeks to see if this really is a good example of my weekend behavior or if it was just an aberration.

Television

I was listening to This American Life over the weekend, a show entitled, "What I Learned from Television". Early in the episode, Ira Glass mentioned that Americans spend an average of 29-1/2 hours watching television every week. I couldn't actually figure out where I fit in relation to that average.

So I thought I'd keep a log for a week and see how I rank. I'll post my results next week. I promise I'll try not to change my habits in any way (i.e., deliberately watch more or less TV than I usually would).

So far this week, starting on Monday, I've watched between forty-five minutes and an hour of television, and all of that was on Monday. It's about an hour if I include the five minutes that it took me to cycle once through all the channels to discover that nothing was on. And if I include the twenty minutes of a DVD that I watched while waiting for "The Daily Show" to come on.

Anti-Piracy Ad from The IT Crowd

This parody of the "downloading movies on the Internet is a crime" warnings comes from "The IT Crowd."

"The IT Crowd" is another British sitcom from Graham Linehan, the creator of "Father Ted."