Sweet Catastrophe

Writer’s Strike Deadline is Midnight Tonight

I’ll only summarize to say that basically, Writer’s Guild of America is ready to go on strike. They want a bigger cut of DVD sales–I think that’s the basic gist of everything. Tonight is the deadline for an agreement to be made, or they’ll be on strike. This means shows like The Daily Show and Leno that air daily, will cease almost immediately. Prime time shows all have different amounts of shows already taped before they’ll cut to reruns, and eventually fall off and make way for more reality tv.

Honestly, I’m concerned. No, I don’t spend ridiculous amounts of time watching tv, but the few shows I do watch, I’m quite attached to.

Even if this all gets properly sorted out in time, there’s still an effect as a lot of shows have changed their course so that if they do get cut off where they are, they’ll be set with either a cliffhanger, a season finale-type episode, or something more resolved.

I’m really interested to see where it all goes. I just started watching Pushing Daisies! It just wouldn’t be fair to take it away from me just yet!

So NBC has done away with their YouTube channel to start their own site–hulu.com. You can read more about it on their blog. I’m all in favor of the concept of hulu. It looks as though there will be full episodes available, as well as talk of some full length films. My annoyance lies in their reasoning–their motivation.

You can read for yourself what NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker had to say about their past, now ended, partnership with iTunes, but I have a few things I’d like to call bullshit on.

“We know that Apple has destroyed the music business — in terms of pricing — and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side,”

Wait, you mean that whole thing where people are more likely to actually pay for their music since they can now pay for just that one song instead of having to buy a whole album? I’ve paid for SO much more music than I used to since iTunes came around. I didn’t even do this with Napster, but with iTunes, I’ve already got the software because I need it for my iPod, and oh look! There’s a handy little store where I can use PayPal to pay less than a dollar for a song! I can do that.

NBC originally claimed to be seeking more control over the pricing of songs and videos that it was selling on iTunes, in addition to better piracy controls and more flexibility to bundle video content in an effort to increase revenues.

For its part in the bitter feud, Apple responded by saying NBC was asking for a twofold increase in the wholesale price of its TV show content, which would have resulted in the retail price to iTunes customers increasing to $4.99 per episode from $1.99.

Answering questions at the breakfast Sunday, Zucker offered substantially more color on the iTunes matter, explaining that it was “a relatively easy decision” for NBC to walk away from the Apple download service because it had only earned about $15 million from the service last year in spite of accounting for about 40 per cent of the videos sold on the store.

He said NBC routinely propositioned Apple to breach its standard pricing model and experiment with higher pricing for one hit show such as “Heroes” by raising the price from the iTunes standard $1.99 to $2.99 on a trial basis.

Awl only $15 million? As opposed to nothing? That’s heartbreaking guys…really.

$2.99 or $4.99, either way, charging that much is ridiculous. That’s more than you’ll pay for a physical copy of the show. I understand you’re also paying for the convenience of having it right now, but even at $2.99, I’ll save my $70 to buy the dvds later–for now I’ll download the show and you’ll get nothing. At $1.99, you’re leaving the door open for people not to feel completely ridiculous if they download the show, and then later decide to buy the dvd.

“Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money,” he said. “They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.”

Wow, you’re giving yourself a whollle lotta credit there darlin. I own an iPod to listen to music. If I can watch episodes of my favorite shows between classes as well, then that’s just icing on the cake, but I don’t currently know anyone who bought an iPod specifically so they could watch tv on it. I’m sure those people are out there, but I feel certain they’re in the minority.

Get over yourselves NBC. You’re a great network, but it’s not up to you to decide it’s time to change the way we watch television online. Especially when you want to bring ridiculous ideas to the table.

Rowling announced it. I’ll leave it to you to read, but I particularly enjoyed her revealing that while reading the script for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince she crossed through a section of Dumbledore reminiscing about past loves and wrote, “Dumbledore is gay.”

There’s also another article with a bit about Dumbledore’s true past love–

Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was “terribly let down” and went on to destroy his rival.

That love, she said, was Dumbledore’s “great tragedy.”

“Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” she said.

I totally see it. I was already planning to re-read the books soon, so now I have something else to really consider while reading through for connections and things I missed the first time!

2nd Source

AVIGNON, France - A woman who planted a lipstick-laden kiss on an all-white painting by the American artist Cy Twombly went on trial Tuesday, telling the court she had committed an “act of love” — not a crime.Rindy Sam, a 30-year-old French artist, faced charges of “voluntarily damaging a work of art.” The painting is worth an estimated $2,830,000 and restorers have tried to remove the lipstick smudge from the bone-white canvas using nearly 30 products — to no avail.“I didn’t think. When I kissed it, I thought the artist would have understood,” Sam told the court in the southern French city of Avignon, describing it as “an act of love.”

Um…really? It’s solid white….and it’s worth $2,830,000? The painter was asking $2,878,000 in damages, which covered the value of the painting and restoration costs…which at this point they haven’t been able to remove the lipstick.

Maybe I’m missing something, but can’t he just *ahem* “paint” another white masterpiece? Have they stopped by Wal Mart for some makeup remover yet? That might do the trick!

Maybe! Britney Spears was charged today with misdimeanor accounts of hit and run and driving without a valid license after she smashed into a car in a parking lot back in August. If she’s convicted, she faces a possible six months jail time and $1000 fine for each count.

Not that I give a damn about Britney so much, but I’m curious to see what the outcome will be post-Paris jail time. I think it’d be pretty funny to see stars getting jail times–no matter how short, for their crimes from here on out. Of course I don’t expect everyone to get just what they deserve, but I expect a little more justice now that the door has been opened!

Get this; apparently the FBI came to Apt 3, with a search warrant looking for Andy.

The cable bill was in Andy’s name, and some child pornography had been downloaded, under an i.p. address assigned to them!

I haven’t really gotten any details, but I know they took both Josh and JR’s computers and a bunch of other media-related stuff like jump drives, even DVDs. JR’s computer is back; I don’t think Josh has his back yet though…

There’s no telling how that’ll all go. Being set up for wireless connections, it’s very possible for us to have some problems from all of this. Especially so close to the college; we’re all in proximity to have random people picking up our net on their laptops. I really hope we don’t end up getting our computers taken in. God knows I’ve got enough ’stolen’ content on this machine!

I’ll update when I’ve got a little more info about what all went down/what’s to come. At this point it all just sounds crazy to me!

Found here:

Wal-Mart sent a shock through the health-care industry when it began offering discount prescription drugs for as little as $4.

Publix is now going $4 better than that, by offering free antibiotics to anyone with a prescription.

Carter Leidy Jr. is 19-months-old — and like a lot of kids his age, at a time in his life when earaches and colds start to make an appearance.

“He goes to the doctor every once in a while, but he’s fairly healthy right now,” said Carter Leidy, young Carter’s dad. “So we’re fortunate about that.”

And they are also fortunate that if a trip to the Publix Pharmacy is ever needed, chances are, little Carter’s parents will be able to get his antibiotics for free — as in no charge.

“Sounds pretty good to me,” the senior Carter said. “So go ahead and sign me up.”

Publix began its new program on Monday, offering seven of the most common antibiotics being used in medicine — including amoxicillin, cephalexin, ciprofloxacin, penicillin, and erythromycin.

All 684 of the chain’s pharmacies are offering the free meds with unlimited refills, for just as long as the customer has a valid prescription, and regardless of insurance or medical plan.

“I think that it’s something that can be very positive, but again it depends on how it’s addressed by the pharmacist to make sure everything is the way it should be,” said Leidy.

Publix said the typical cost of the antibiotics is anywhere from $10-to-$60 per prescription. But the move has two benefits that outweigh the cost to the company: helping customers cut their medical bills, and building loyalty among its shoppers to keep them coming back.

“Especially this one, because it’s a smaller Publix, and they all know me and they all know my child,” Leidy said.

Between Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Publix, Americans may find themselves in the middle of a new kind of war on drugs — a price war.

As for Publix, the company said it simply refused to stand by and watch as some of its customers had to decide between buying their food or their medicine. It simply made the choice for them.

I couldn’t be more excited about this. For me, this doesn’t mean much at the moment, because the prescriptions being offered are usually pretty low dollar to begin with, but it’s such a huge step in the direction of making health care here in the States just a little more bearable. It’s absolutely ridiculous what it costs to be healthy these days, and I honestly can’t imagine being a mother and having to decide whether I was going to buy the medicine to help my child get well, or food to feed my family. Unfortunately, that’s what I comes to for some people. I know I’ve only ever glimpsed it, and currently, I know my contact lenses are no longer the correct prescription, but I just can’t afford to pay for an exam right now. Maybe one day that won’t be a problem. Maybe Publix has given us that hope.

“Head of a Man,” Van Gogh? For seventy years, the answer would be an undoubted yes, but today, art experts are saying it was more likely a painting by one of Van Gogh’s peers.

I’ve been looking at quite a few articles on the matter, and it seems that a lot of writers are taking the dramatic approach of calling it a forgery, but the experts feel it’s important to stress that there’s no reason to believe this to be a forgery (a work created with the intent of passing it off as a Van Gogh) but simply misattributed to Van Gogh.

As a Van Gogh work, the painting was valued at $21 million. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent answer on its value now.

As disappointing as it must be for the art world, I live for stuff like this! Over 70 years, the creator of this work has been unquestioned, and now, we find it’s been wrong all along.

The only two history based classes I’ve ever enjoyed in my entire academic career were taught by teachers who reveled in teaching us all the things we thought we knew, but had always been mislead on.

After tonight, I’m off work until next Tuesday. I think I’ll spend a good bit of time researching mis-truths. It’s been a while since I’ve done that.

Do any of you have any interesting tidbits of things the general public thinks they know, but really have no idea?

We’re definitely going to see Harry Potter this afternoon and basically…I’m excited. I’m really glad I’ve read all the books now. So far, the movie hasn’t gotten the best reviews, but the reviewers have all been quick to point out that it’s not really mean in a negative way, but this was the longest book and it sets up a lot of things that are coming so there’s a lot of character introduction and deeper explanation of things of things in general so there’s not so much action. So it’s not so much that they’re waving it off as a bad movie, but that they’re seeing it as being the least enticing of the series (including future movies). I understand that view, but for me, that’s really exciting. There really is a lot in this story and I’m really excited to see how much of it they’ll actually be bringing out. There are a lot of side stories that haven’t really been developed thus far in the movies, that, in my opinion, play a pretty big role in the coming stories, so I’m hoping a lot of that will be fleshed out.

In other wizarding news, it’s been confirmed that we’ll be getting a Harry Potter theme park!! “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” at Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida has been approved by J.K. Rowling. According to her, “The plans I’ve seen look incredibly exciting, and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed.”

There are some pretty up-to-date articles here.

I’m really excited about the park. I’m gonna be really impatient when it’s finally ready, but I hate going to places when they first open. It’s always so crowded and there are always little kinks to work out. I’d love for it to be like a Parkview trip with me, Ryan, Andrew and Andy being the key participants in the trip. I think it’d be so much fun and it’s definitely something I’d have more fun doing with a group of Potter fans.

Why does my head always itch right after I pain my nails?

Don Herbert, better known as Mr. Wizard lost his battle with cancer yesterday, just a month short of his 90th Birthday. His was always one of those shows that I didn’t love nor hate, it was just there. I have vivid memories of watching Mr. Wizard in the early hours, while it was still dark out–waiting on the bus. I was always annoyed when the bus would come because it never failed, I always missed the end.

The icons of my childhood are slowly fading. It’s hard to think that one day, people like The Wiggles will be ‘old’ childhood icons. Children today are seriously missing out on the good stuff.