Television

Multiple Topics

Daniel

So I just looked at some real old Historical Context entries that are sitting at the really old site. I can’t get over how … good … they are. They’re short and there are multiple entries per day. I talk about drinking coffee, waking up early, and studying for exams.

Nowadays my entries seem more like articles. Well, they are more like articles. I plan them at least a few minutes in advance, sometimes a few days in advance. They’re longer. They’re … less personal? Is that possible?

The Olympics are on. I’d say the best web site to read about the Olympics is NBC’s page. It’s so strange … the Internet allows us to take in information as it occurs; Yet I personally avoid pages like ESPN.com and CNN.com because I don’t want to read the results of Olympic events before I see them on TV. During the next Olympics or even the 2012 games, Americans may be allowed to view on-demand clips of event finals before they are shown on NBC. But when you’re at work, you might not want to spend two hours or even five minutes streaming that race to your computer.

This really brings up several interesting conflagrations: Sports as both news and entertainment, and the damned frustration that no matter where on earth the Olympics are held, the time of day is inconvenient for somebody.

First, sports. When it’s news, we want to find out about it immediately. Whether it’s a political election or a major event in a war or the latest on a hurricane, we don’t want to wait to see it on TV; we want the results right now, even if it means that we have to read them.

On the other hand, when it’s entertainment, we want to see it with our own eyes. If your friend tells you how The Village ends, you’ll poke their eyes out. You’ll record tonight’s episode of 24, but again, you don’t want to know the surprise ending in advance. The same applies to books, whatever.

And then you’ve got sports, which are mostly entertainment, but are covered more or less as news. Some people will record their alma mater’s bowl game and refuse to read or hear anything about it until they sit down and watch the tape themselves. But then some people will get on the Internet and watch the box score numbers update live. Here there is a distinction based on the importance of that day’s match. But I think a lot ties into personal preference. Personally, I would rather watch a gamecast of the numbers of the Yankees in the playoffs than record the game and watch it later.

The importance of the event relates directly to the Olympics. Also, the Olympics serve as the ultimate example of why you might want to watch an event later than read about it live. If it’s a baseball game, you might miss the broadcast of the game that is played while you’re at work, but hey — you can catch a game this weekend or next weekend or even Wednesday night. You might not see another World Series game until next year. Or another bowl game. And the Olympics … you won’t see them for another four years.

So Olympics seem to be more like entertainment than other sports, but in a kind of backwards way. Just like you wouldn’t want to read ahead of time that Rachel and Ross got back together, you might not want to read ahead that Paul Hamm won the individual all-around gymnastics gold medal. One is weekly fiction, the other is quadrennial nonfiction. Well, sports, anyway.

Oh … was I going to say something about how someone, somewhere is screwed because the Olympics are held just far enough away from their timezone? I don’t think any additional commentary is needed on that one.

Multiple Topics

The Latest

Daniel

I found the AC charger. Turns out I took a suitcase and a backpack to Buffalo. I put the charger in the backpack for the trip home, and never took it out. Dammit.

Spider-Man really just gets better and better every week. Even if MTV is only showing one new episode per week.

This game is good.

I downloaded and installed Mozilla. I’ve got 1.4 running, but I couldn’t get Firebird 0.6 to work on my system. It freezes on launch. Version 1.4? … It’s good, but all I hear is how quick it is … for me, IE is quicker. Hopefully when Firebird finally goes gold (probably as Mozilla 1.6) it will compete with IE’s speed on my machine.

The Latest

MTV Shows

Daniel

Let me hit upon MTV‘s Spider-Man cartoon one more time.

It seems to be getting better. I originally said that it was very good, but maybe not excellent. Now … I think I can say that it’s excellent. Today I caught last week’s episodes (I missed them because I was busy in B-lo) and tonight’s new episodes. It’s hot shizzle. They’re showing episodes out of order, and I sort of assumed that would happen from the start. I think the plan was to put out some on-par episodes while people adjusted to/got their socks blown off by the technology, and then to cue up the really impressive episodes. I liked the Lizard episode from last week, but I thought tonight’s stuff was top notch. Maybe it was just the whole MJ thing … I don’t know; everything is awesome. There’s so much more depth than you’d find on a Saturday morning cartoon. Again people are getting killed, there is actual relationship exploration, things aren’t always simple … when they put out a DVD, I’m gonna snap it up.

Short Take: Have I mentioned Doggy Fizzle Televizzle before? Some of the skits are a little weak (like the Braided Bunch), but most of them are well worth watching, so all in all I’ve enjoyed every episode I’ve seen. It’s on Sundays, right before Who’s Got Game … There’s a guy on this show whose nickname is White Chocolate (He’s a white guy) … Once he’s off the show, can we all (and by we all, I mean Western Civilization) just pretend that he never existed?

MTV Shows

Spider-Man Cartoon

Daniel

Spider-Man on MTV was very good. I’m not sure it was excellent, but it was very good.

The voice acting was nearly flawless. The only complaint I had about that was an instance or two of what seemed like choppy editing, and that isn’t really the actors’ fault. Neil Patrick Harris is Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Lisa Loeb is Mary Jane Watson, and Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills, 90210) is Harry Osbourne. The show also has some pretty solid reoccurring characters (who didn’t show up in the first two episodes) and some nice choices for guest characters.

The animation? It’s cel-shaded, which means that even though it’s done entirely in computer graphics, it’s done in a way so that it looks like traditional animation. This effect has been around in video games (Jet Set Radio Future, Sly Cooper, Auto Modelista) for several years, but I believe the new Spider-Man cartoon is the first televison show ever to use it, and I don’t think there have been any films done with the technique. What Spider-Man delivers might not be as good as Finding Nemo or any of Pixar’s latest, but I like it better than any traditional animation. And it’s the best cartoon television series I’ve ever seen. The team behind the visuals is Mainframe, the same house that produced the ReBoot Saturday morning fare that was on ABC(?) a few years back. I enjoyed ReBoot while it was on because it was entirely CG, and that was different back then.

Of course, I like to nitpick. When Spider-Man’s costume rips it’s pretty obvious that the animators put a patch that looks like skin on top of the costume. Everyone’s clothes seem to be a little too tight, particularly those on the male characters. Everyone’s waists seem to be a little too small in relation to their chests – especially on Peter. However, I’ve felt for a long time that one of the biggest quality tests on any animation is whether characters’ feet stick on the floor when they walk, or if they slide because of timing errors. As far as I could tell, when characters walk in this show it is absolutely convincing. Animators may have gotten this to look right beacause when Spider-Man crawls on walls not only does it look believable, it looks unlike anything I’ve ever seen. At first I thought it looked too much like they tried to make him look like a spider … but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it looked exactly like it should have.

The stories so far have been less than perfect, but still better than any cartoon series or any superhero television series up to this point. Villains kill helpless humans, villains kill other villains … it’s grittier than I expected, and I welcome that. The depictions of fatal wounds aren’t particularly graphic, but you can clearly tell when a person is killed. In a show like the Spider-Man cartoon that was on Fox Saturday mornings, I’m sure that no characters ever died or at least were ever shown being killed.

The dialogue is about 100 years ahead of any Saturday morning fare, but I think it could still use some slight updating. Ever hear a joke like, “Jaromir Jagr just called – he wants his hair back”? In one episode, Peter Parker uses a variation of that joke. It’s better than the pedestrian stuff you hear on Saturday mornings, but that joke is at least five years old.

I do have to give the show a lot of credit. The characters are in college. They drink coffee out of cups that look like they came from Starbucks. They go to parties. They drink alcohol. It’s a good time.

Short Take 1: So I have multiple email addresses. I have one for friends and family, one for job applications and resume sites, and my yet-to-be-deactivated RIT address. My personal address is on Yahoo! Mail, which I feel is the best free email service available. It’s so great, I wish I could use a second Yahoo! address for my resumes and applications. I would do this, but you can only be logged into Yahoo! with one username per computer at any given time. Why is that? If I were to download and install Netscape 7 or Mozilla or both, I could be logged into Yahoo! with two or even three usernames at once. So if I can accomplish it with a little bit of work, why not just let me accomplish it with one browser? Hear that, Microsoft? I mean, if I can open multiple browser windows, why can’t I check two different Yahoo! email addresses at the same time?

Short Take 2: On the latest episode of MTV’s The Real World: Paris I noticed that the desktop on the chateau PC had an image from Digital Blasphemy. It’s a 3D desktop site. For a while I used one. The images are very high quality. You have to pay to get access to all of them, but a lot of good ones are available for free.

Spider-Man Cartoon

Matrix Reloaded and TechTV

Daniel

Geek post today. I came across two short articles at Cnet News.com today.

The first article is about The Matrix Reloaded. In the film, Trinity hacks into a Unix machine with actual open source programs rather than with cheesy visual effects often used in film. The cool part is, the haXXor who wrote one of the programs didn’t know his work was going to be used until he saw the film in a theater. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you wrote a program and it showed up in a Matrix movie?

The next article was about TechTV. It says that the channel reaches 40 million homes, but only about 40,000 people watch it every day. Forty thousand? During my senior year of college I watched Call for Help almost every weekday. Morash would often watch it with me … I know Smiz likes it. So that’s three. There’s got to be about 1,000 people who go to RIT who watch it every day. At least. Then there’s the cast and crew … that’s gotta be another hundred. Then there’s all their parents. That’s like another 200. I’m already up to 1,300. How many people go to RPI? Ten thousand? Well there’s another 10,000. So that’s 11,300 people. And that’s only a couple people in New York and California. If I were to keep this up I’m sure I could get to a million daily viewers.

Matrix Reloaded and TechTV

Rome is Burning

Daniel

I keep meaning to address this in a post. Jim Rome is coming back to ESPN with Rome is Burning. I assume that The Final Word is no longer on Fox Sports Net. I always liked Romey’s radio show better than The Final Word. I wonder if Rome is Burning will be better, worse, or more of the same? It can’t be any worse than Mohr Sports. And at least ESPN decided not to bring back Beg, Borrow and Deal (which originally was called Beg, Borrow and BS).

I went to Rome’s web site a week or two ago because I wanted to listen to the radio show. You now have to pay to listen. What a bunch of crap! Here in A-Town, none of the (three) local stations carry The Jungle, and AM stations don’t carry all the way from Buffalo or Rochester. I’m pissed. But I am looking forward to watching Rome on ESPN. I wonder if Jim Everett will be Rome’s first guest.

One problem I have is that here in C-Monk, we don’t get cable TV because we live “on the other side of the Indian Reservation.” Until I was in 8th or 9th grade, we only got NBC and CBS. At that point we got Primestar. We didn’t get MTV until I was in 11th grade. A few years ago, DirecTV bought out Primestar, so now we have DirecTV. It’s a blessing, but if you want it in more than one room, you’ve got to pay additional charges each month. So, if we want to watch two programs that are on at the same time, that’s too damn bad. This is a problem because Rome’s new show is on ESPN at 7 PM, and my dad watches … Jeopardy … each night at 7 PM. Pardon the Interruption replays later each night on ESPN2, and I hope that Rome is Burning will also have a later encore. But as of two minutes ago, I couldn’t find a single mention of Jim Rome on ESPN.com. WTF? Anybody know if they’re going to replay it nightly?

Rome is Burning

Commercial … Games

Daniel

Been avoiding the page a little lately. I’ve been putting a lot of work into the redesign. I can’t get the colors quite right on my sister’s computer. This week I should be able to get my system going, and with PhotoShop I should be able to get the colors more like I want. After I get the colors right, do a background image, and create some corner rounders for the layout boxes, I should be able to go live with the new design.

However, I just filled out a survey for Sony’s PS2 site, and I typed this into a box that asked something like, “What do you think is important in videogames today?” So this is kind of a cheapo post, but it’s a post nonetheless.

The one facet of games today that I feel is suffering is polish. There are some games that miss deadlines, but for the most part it seems that developers try at all costs to deliver games before Christmas or before whatever their deadlines are. I feel that games are released that seem as though they are only 99% or even 95% finished. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City could have used a lot of polish, a lot of finishing touches. Taking damage when you run down stairs, streets popping in as you drive over them … even the clothing system that seemed worthless. But Vice City made it out before November. It could have used another month of development and still had a nice Christmas release. Maybe it should have had more than a single year of development. Of course, PC games can be updated with patches. It looks as though Xbox Live can deliver new levels and characters, and apparently Unreal Championship will release a patch over the Live service. Official magazine demo discs could also provide updates, as was the case with Dead or Alive 3. Unfortunately, a hard drive is a neccessity for complex patches. PS2 doesn’t have a hard drive (yet), but it would probably enable patches to be a viable option. Perhaps PS3 will come with a built-in hard drive. Of course, giving developers the option of releasing patches may make for even more hurried releases. And users without internet access or a broadband connection may be left in the dark even more than they are now in regard to the quality of game releases. This is an interesting problem. Perhaps consumers who purchase M rated games such as Vice City or Unreal Tournament/Championship would be more likely to have Internet/broadband than consumers who purchase E and T rated games. In my experience, M rated games tend to be more complex, and also appear to be most likely to be most in need of a patch. So perhaps patches for M rated games would not only be the most needed, but also the most widely downloaded.

One more thing: Brian Lewis keenly pointed out that the Jordan vs. Jordan commercial that I liked used complex computer special effects, which I derided and plan on deriding more in a future post. Lewis’s comments got me to thinking, and I’ve concluded that it’s not the use of the technology that bothers me, it’s the use of the technology for technology’s sake. Or using the technology just to prove that it can be used. The kid getting sucked into a Pepsi bottle? Kind of stupid, but it was a visual effect that wasn’t possible a couple years ago. The Jordan commercial? It was made so we could see Jordan playing basketball against a younger version of himself. Technology … for art’s sake? I guess that’s good enough for me.

Commercial … Games

Super Bowl Report Card

Daniel

Super Bowl Report Card.
For some categories I’m going to give a letter grade, for some categories I’m going to declare a winner, and … if there’s anything that doesn’t cover, I’ll explain when I get there.

First, the winning team – the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Although the defense let Oakland get close at the end, the Raiders were always several scores away. It never got close, and it was never really even exciting. Tampa Bay’s offense also delivered more than it promised. After Brad Johnson threw a pick on their first possession, he never panicked, and he never looked back.
Bucs’ grade: A

Next, the losing team – the Oakland Raiders. Two words: Five interceptions. In most football games, the team that wins the turnover battle wins the game. That trend continued in Super Bowl XXXVII. Oakland’s defense never impressed, and its NFL ranked #1 offense never generated anything until the game was out of reach. The Raiders scored 21 points, but their only real bright spot was the punt block and touchdown return.
Raiders’ grade: C

Now, Halftime entertainment. First, Shania Twain. From what I could tell, her songs were lip synched. She didn’t look like she was singing, and when her guitarists threw their guitars into the crowd — while the guitar music was still playing — that confirmed it. Also hurting Shania’s grade: She’s a native Canadian, and she moved to Europe.
Shania’s grade: D (Should have been an F, but she’s hot.)

No Doubt. I’ve never been a big No Doubt fan, but they played “Just a Girl,” which is … maybe their biggest song ever. (Brown could correct or confirm me on this.) Their recent music hasn’t been … as good. It hasn’t really been good at all. So what do they do at the Superbowl? They play their best song. Nice move. Gwen Stefani sounded very flat, and a little old, so that didn’t help. But, when I saw that Sting’s band was still No Doubt, I was impressed. When Gwen came out and sang with him, I was very impressed.
No Doubt’s grade: B-

Sting. I’m kind of a Sting fan, which is odd, because I only own one Sting album. Okay, two – but one is his best of album. I like the fact that he teamed up with No Doubt, and I like the fact that he sang “Message in a Bottle.” He’s had some relatively popular songs lately, but I’m not sure he ever had a hit quite as big as some The Police had. Finally, good song choice. He didn’t perform anything inappropriate for the Superbowl, and “Message in a Bottle” seems like it’s not too popluar, but popular enough to be recognized and enjoyed.
Sting’s grade: A

The Commercials. Apparently something like 40% of Superbowl viewers watch not for the game, but for the commercials. These people deserve to be hit over the head with a tack hammer. Anyway. I thought some of the commercials were good, but none were laugh-out-loud funny. I also thought that there were a lot of commercials with prime first half slots that had already aired in the past week or even earlier. One that comes to mind is the “Jordan vs. Jordan” Gatorade commercial. This is a recent trend, and it’s kind of disappointing. Still, I think I watch every year more and more for the game and less and less for the commercials. I’m just not sure I’m in the majority on that one. I also didn’t notice (or can’t remember) any commercials that used complex computer special effects. It’s a relief. Remember the Pepsi commercial from a few years back in which the kid at the beach sucks so hard on the straw in his Pepsi bottle that he sucks himself into the bottle? I thought it was a little much. (This leads me to another question — and possibly another post topic: Ten or twenty years from now, will we look back at film and television and commercials from the 1990s and 2000s and think that computer graphics were overdone?) I did like a few commercials, and I’ll get to them. Overall, I think they did not live up to the best commercial years, which may have coincided with the Bills Superbowls.
Commercials’ grade: C+

Special Award for Merit: Given to ABC Sports for replacing Eric Dickerson with Lynn Swann. Did they switch back to Lynn during this season of Monday Night Football without me noticing? Was Swann there this whole year? Either way, it was a mistake getting rid of Swanny and it was the right move bringing him back.

Best Commercial. This was tough for me. It boiled down to two spots that stood head and shoulders above the rest. My top two commercials were the Matrix Reloaded/Matrix Revolutions commercial (I still fully expect Matrix Revolutions to get pushed back to 2004 after Matrix Reloaded makes a ton of money) and the Reebok commercial featuring Terry Tate, the office worker who acts like a linebacker. It was tought. The Terry Tate ad was the only commercial that I noted based on its own merits. I paid attention to the Matrix commercial because it’s the Matrix and well, M47R1X R0XXORZ!!! The Reebok ad was funny; the Matrix ad was compelling. The Reebok ad was new; the Matrix ad spotlighted new chapters to an existing, but popular, story. So who gets the Iverson Bobblehead?
Best Commercial: Reebok, “Terry Tate”

Finally, I’ve got to rip on Bon Jovi. First, why the hell is there “postgame entertainment”? WTF? Just hand out the trophy, name the MVP, and let’s get to Jennifer Garner in skimpy lingerie! But no, we’ve got to listen to Jon Bon Jovi sing the same song he’s been singing since the Devils won the Stanley Cup almost three years ago. New Jersey sucks! Get over it.

Finally part II. Alias. Yeah, I watched. I wanted to see Jennifer Garner in skimpy outfits. It looks like next week she’s gonna be in a bikini. I’m only human.

PS – I didn’t talk about the music industry like I said I would. I think I’ll add a To Do list. If it’s no good, I’ll get rid of it.

PPS – The Don Cheadle “Playoffs” commercials suck. “They made Joe … Joe.” “They made roman numerals … Roman Numerals.” Don – you were good on Picket Fences, but … get off my TV screen.

Super Bowl Report Card