Yo!
So... The Memorial Day weekend has come to a close, and tomorrow morning, we all go back to work, while right on the horizon ahead is the realization that SUMMER HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED! (*cue majestic trumpet fanfare) ......Now, then: Hands down, one of the biggest talked-about things on the web this past week was Taylor Hicks' victory in American Idol 5 last Wednesday night. I don't want to bore you by going into a tirade about how Hicks looks old enough to even be Simon Cowell's dad (seriously, dude. Three words: JUST-FOR-MEN), or the striking character similarities of the top 6 this year to the characters from "The Breakfast Club." David Spade did a good enough job of pointing that out on The Showbiz Show the other week.
Instead, I'm going to take the high road, and offer an honest congratulations to "Mr. Soul-Patrol", as well as point out something else interesting about Idol: Again, I'm not going to say predictable crap here, like how the only real controversy on Idol is in Paula Abdul's pants (just ask Corey Clark). I just want one simple question answered: What happened to the African-American winners? Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino; what happened to 'em?
Last year's winner, Carrie Underwood, still has stuff going on now, as anyone who saw this year's CMT awards can tell you (I was just flipping past it while channel-surfing that night, I swear. I can't stand country music), and Clarkson just came out with another album a couple months ago, but it seems like once the "velvet teddy-bear" and Fantasia won in 2003 and 2004, respectively, they had a lotta fame that summer, came out with their singles
and full albums later that year, and then when the next season started, you didn't see them any more, except for, of course, their pictures on the backdrop of the big wallpaper of the room the Idol auditions happen in, kinda like that wallpaper is the "Idol Hall-of-Fame", or something.
Wanna know what's even MORE hilarious? the other week, that Nickelodeon cartoon, "The Fairly OddParents" had a special episode directly parodying Idol, called (what else?) "Fairy Idol". I know, real original title. Anyway, near the end of that episode, the bad guy in that show, voiced by Norm MacDonald, of all people, did a duet song with the lip-synched voice (the voice was briefly dubbed into another show character) of... wait for it.... Fantasia's "Idol 3" finale rival, Diana DiGarmo. Even the runner-ups are keeping busy, but what about those two WINNERS?? Oh, Fox Network, you've got some esplainin' to do!!!!!! Bottom-line, if Idol 6 sees another Black winner next May, and that limelight happens to last shorter than Evan Marriott's celebrity status (he was "Joe Millionaire" #1, remember? Of course you don't), it's this teenager's opinion that it'll be time to start doing a letter-writing campaign for "Nightline" or "48 Hours" to do a news expose on something viewers under the age of 25 can care about wholeheartedly for more than 15 minutes. .........But that's just me. Later!
-D.
P.S. Oh, by the way, if you happen to be one of those cartoon viewers like me who would really hate it if Pokemon went permanently off the air, show your support for the franchise by watching the spin-off show, "Pokemon Chronicles" (yes, it's airing stateside now), which premieres by kicking off Toonami this Saturday, June 3 at 7pm on Cartoon Network (Great scheduling move, CN. "DuelMasters" WAS getting tiring). Maybe if Chronicles gets decent enough ratings here, it'll motivate CN to pick up season 9 of the original show in the fall, regardless of how out-of-place-sounding the new voices are. Maybe the WB--- oops, I mean, the CW's fall schedule loss can be CN's gain....... One can only hope.....
Monday, May 29, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Entry 10
Yo!
Well, I just have to announce formally that this is (hence the subject line) my tenth blog entry, a momentous occasion in itself, considering I was expecting to lose track of this thing completely by about entry six or so, but here's double-digits at last! That said, before I begin, I want to give out a special thank-you to all my readers who gave a crap enough to keep coming back for more bloggage, despite my constant tardiness and wacky, sometimes stupid subjects (remember the spreadable butter rant from a few weeks back?). So, thanks, MySpace Blog readers, for ten mildly interesting weeks of bloggage (excluding those 2 that I completely forgot to post on, of course).
Anyway, I have to say some words about the way television in general is today. More specifically, the widescreen "letterboxing" you see all the time these days. It's true, a lot of stuff in widescreen is designed with widescreen high-definition TVs in mind, but seriously. When music videos and commercials start going theatrical on the viewers, don't you think that's more unneccesary than "edgy"?
Actually, what really ticks me off is when music videos do what I call "video-sandwiching". You know what that is. The main video is in widescreen, but instead of the horizontal black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, you see another video completely, cut in half ("the bread"), with the top half on top and the lower half on the bottom, leaving the real video in question ("100-percent-all-beef patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions... ah, you know the rest) smack-dab in the middle.
For some reason, this video format I've always found to be kinda stupid, despite being really popular in hip-hop videos. Case in point: "Unpredictable" by Jamie Foxx, and "Lose Control" by LL Cool J and J.Lo. Go to Yahoo Launchcast, VH1.com VSpot, or wherever you watch music videos online, and tell me that's not somewhat stupid. My point is, I'm sure it was an interesting idea on paper when it was first thought up, but seriously. I forgot what was the first video to do it (my examples were the first times I saw it, but I bet BET had some other videos running that way earlier than December '05), but I think we could use a bit of leway on the widescreen assault, "H-wood".
At the very least, lay off on widescreening the commercials, and keep to the primetime TV, where it belongs. When the broadcast standard changes from American NTSC to full-on 480p (I think) HD in/around 2009, then feel free to wide it up for us. but until then, those of us who are still (for now) using $300 Wal-Mart TVs have, for the most part, kinda had enough. ....Well, at least that's just me, anyway. ---I mean, BUT that's just me. PHEW! almost messed up my signoff line there... Okay, later peeps!
-D.
Well, I just have to announce formally that this is (hence the subject line) my tenth blog entry, a momentous occasion in itself, considering I was expecting to lose track of this thing completely by about entry six or so, but here's double-digits at last! That said, before I begin, I want to give out a special thank-you to all my readers who gave a crap enough to keep coming back for more bloggage, despite my constant tardiness and wacky, sometimes stupid subjects (remember the spreadable butter rant from a few weeks back?). So, thanks, MySpace Blog readers, for ten mildly interesting weeks of bloggage (excluding those 2 that I completely forgot to post on, of course).
Anyway, I have to say some words about the way television in general is today. More specifically, the widescreen "letterboxing" you see all the time these days. It's true, a lot of stuff in widescreen is designed with widescreen high-definition TVs in mind, but seriously. When music videos and commercials start going theatrical on the viewers, don't you think that's more unneccesary than "edgy"?
Actually, what really ticks me off is when music videos do what I call "video-sandwiching". You know what that is. The main video is in widescreen, but instead of the horizontal black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, you see another video completely, cut in half ("the bread"), with the top half on top and the lower half on the bottom, leaving the real video in question ("100-percent-all-beef patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions... ah, you know the rest) smack-dab in the middle.
For some reason, this video format I've always found to be kinda stupid, despite being really popular in hip-hop videos. Case in point: "Unpredictable" by Jamie Foxx, and "Lose Control" by LL Cool J and J.Lo. Go to Yahoo Launchcast, VH1.com VSpot, or wherever you watch music videos online, and tell me that's not somewhat stupid. My point is, I'm sure it was an interesting idea on paper when it was first thought up, but seriously. I forgot what was the first video to do it (my examples were the first times I saw it, but I bet BET had some other videos running that way earlier than December '05), but I think we could use a bit of leway on the widescreen assault, "H-wood".
At the very least, lay off on widescreening the commercials, and keep to the primetime TV, where it belongs. When the broadcast standard changes from American NTSC to full-on 480p (I think) HD in/around 2009, then feel free to wide it up for us. but until then, those of us who are still (for now) using $300 Wal-Mart TVs have, for the most part, kinda had enough. ....Well, at least that's just me, anyway. ---I mean, BUT that's just me. PHEW! almost messed up my signoff line there... Okay, later peeps!
-D.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Entry 9
Yo!
(*pant, pant) Okay. Please don't be mad, world. I swear, I would've done the blog last week as scheduled, but last week was really hectic, and at the last second, my dog ate my blog post, and... Oh, who am I kidding. I don't even own a dog. But, my mother just got back into town from California that previous weekend, and since I haven't seen her since my 18th birthday back in October, we've been sorta catching up over the last week. Plus, remember in my first blog post, I hinted at a big, BIG media project coming up? Well, it's kicking up into high gear now, but unfortunately, it's STILL way too early to leak any details out just yet. Hang tight, people.
Now that I'm back in regular form here, I gotta talk about E3. For those of you who don't know, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition, is the #1 destination for industry insiders, journalists, and the select few members of the public who get in through "special connections" (lucky bastards), to see what's coming up in the world of video games. It's held during the second Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of May every year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, right next to the Staples Center in downtown L.A. This year was the 12th E3, and it was apparently all about two names: Nintendo and Microsoft.
Nintendo laid out their plans for GameCube's final hurrah of exclusivity before sharing retail shelves with the system formerly known as "Revolution", but as of a couple weeks ago, is now known as "Wii." Yes, that's not a typo. Microsoft decided to outline the rest of their year-one Xbox 360 slate and give out some previews of the 2007 lineup, and they capped off their big press conference last Thursday by dropping a 21st-century Hiroshima Bomb: They actually ADVOCATE buying a Wii over the PlayStation 3. If you want in on some E3 coverage yourself, IGN's coverage is pretty darn good, consistently at that. Click HERE to check out their E3 stuff.
Personally, I've never really cared much for the PlayStation brand as a whole, because to me, it's only good for three things: Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and Gran Turismo. Period.
I will say I do own a PSP, and until last week, I was planning to buy a PS3, until Sony shot themselves in the foot with a launch price tag that actually trumps X360: 500-600 bucks. $500 for a core system with a built-in 20GB hard drive, and a full car payment for the premium system, with a 60GB hard drive, and some other stuff I forgot about. Now, I understand that this is probably going to be the single cheapest way to get a Blu-Ray disc player this side of 2010, but nevertheless, if your pricing strategy, 1st year software release list, and glaring lack of quality third-party developer support (those darn development kits are probably a king's ransom! ...give or take a piece of royal jewelry. Or something) is so profoundly off that your closest competitors are practically ENDORSING each other, it might be time to rethink a few things, Sony.
......................But I'm still not selling my PSP. Beats the living crap out of that retarded DS handheld ANY DAY. That's right, Nintendo, I said it! PSP rules, DS drools! I've never used my PSP for homebrew, nor do I want to or need to. God, I can't wait for the 3.0 firmware upgrade!!!!!!!!! Come on, SCEA! Prove yourself useful beyond the overpriced, undersupported next-gen console effort and show your handheld market some love! And incidentally, it wouldn't kill you to loosen your increasingly difficult to crack hold on the homebrew community! Like I said, I don't use it, never really needed it, but it'd be nice to have and use. .........But that's just me.
Later!
-D.
P.S. What, am I talking in an empty room, here? it wouldn't kill some of you readers to let some of your comments on... well, me...land on this page at some point. Kudos, criticism, I don't care. Just something. All the other bloggers are getting 'em. That's all.
(*pant, pant) Okay. Please don't be mad, world. I swear, I would've done the blog last week as scheduled, but last week was really hectic, and at the last second, my dog ate my blog post, and... Oh, who am I kidding. I don't even own a dog. But, my mother just got back into town from California that previous weekend, and since I haven't seen her since my 18th birthday back in October, we've been sorta catching up over the last week. Plus, remember in my first blog post, I hinted at a big, BIG media project coming up? Well, it's kicking up into high gear now, but unfortunately, it's STILL way too early to leak any details out just yet. Hang tight, people.
Now that I'm back in regular form here, I gotta talk about E3. For those of you who don't know, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition, is the #1 destination for industry insiders, journalists, and the select few members of the public who get in through "special connections" (lucky bastards), to see what's coming up in the world of video games. It's held during the second Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of May every year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, right next to the Staples Center in downtown L.A. This year was the 12th E3, and it was apparently all about two names: Nintendo and Microsoft.
Nintendo laid out their plans for GameCube's final hurrah of exclusivity before sharing retail shelves with the system formerly known as "Revolution", but as of a couple weeks ago, is now known as "Wii." Yes, that's not a typo. Microsoft decided to outline the rest of their year-one Xbox 360 slate and give out some previews of the 2007 lineup, and they capped off their big press conference last Thursday by dropping a 21st-century Hiroshima Bomb: They actually ADVOCATE buying a Wii over the PlayStation 3. If you want in on some E3 coverage yourself, IGN's coverage is pretty darn good, consistently at that. Click HERE to check out their E3 stuff.
Personally, I've never really cared much for the PlayStation brand as a whole, because to me, it's only good for three things: Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and Gran Turismo. Period.
I will say I do own a PSP, and until last week, I was planning to buy a PS3, until Sony shot themselves in the foot with a launch price tag that actually trumps X360: 500-600 bucks. $500 for a core system with a built-in 20GB hard drive, and a full car payment for the premium system, with a 60GB hard drive, and some other stuff I forgot about. Now, I understand that this is probably going to be the single cheapest way to get a Blu-Ray disc player this side of 2010, but nevertheless, if your pricing strategy, 1st year software release list, and glaring lack of quality third-party developer support (those darn development kits are probably a king's ransom! ...give or take a piece of royal jewelry. Or something) is so profoundly off that your closest competitors are practically ENDORSING each other, it might be time to rethink a few things, Sony.
......................But I'm still not selling my PSP. Beats the living crap out of that retarded DS handheld ANY DAY. That's right, Nintendo, I said it! PSP rules, DS drools! I've never used my PSP for homebrew, nor do I want to or need to. God, I can't wait for the 3.0 firmware upgrade!!!!!!!!! Come on, SCEA! Prove yourself useful beyond the overpriced, undersupported next-gen console effort and show your handheld market some love! And incidentally, it wouldn't kill you to loosen your increasingly difficult to crack hold on the homebrew community! Like I said, I don't use it, never really needed it, but it'd be nice to have and use. .........But that's just me.
Later!
-D.
P.S. What, am I talking in an empty room, here? it wouldn't kill some of you readers to let some of your comments on... well, me...land on this page at some point. Kudos, criticism, I don't care. Just something. All the other bloggers are getting 'em. That's all.
Monday, May 1, 2006
Entry 8
Yo!
Welcome to May. April showers are finally over, making room for the flowers we in rain-ravaged eastern Virginia could really use, for a refreshing change of pace. It's about 6 weeks left until the kids get to start summer vacation, and 4 days left until Mission Impossible 3 is released! All that aside, I have yet another Pokemon announcement to make: I have seen the future. And I am freakin' terrified. This past Saturday, the WB finally aired the big 10th anniversary Pokemon special with the new, non-4Kids Entertainment voiceover cast that'll be on permanently in September. They reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally could've done better here. Half the voices make their characters sound way too old, the other half makes them sound like they're actually squeezing out hemmorhoids as they record the voices. Pretty much what I expected.
On top of that, last week, Kids WB revealed their Fall 2006 schedule--- with no, I repeat, NO POKEMON IN SIGHT! Don't believe me? ToonZone's got the whole story at http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=10281. Sorry, folks. My link-embedder's acting up this week. Anyway, supposedly, Kids' WB won't renew the show for their network in the fall without the original crew, so rather than accept the inevitable takeover, they're putting the whole show under the guillotine blade. Rumor has it, The Pokemon Company is in talks to continue the show with season 9 on Cartoon Network, but since those exact same plans never worked out (U.S.-wise) with Pokemon Chronicles (yes, there was a spinoff. Click HERE for more), it's safe to say this is the end of the road for one of the most enduring anime franchises in the history of time. Which leads me to have to sum things up with the following imaginary gravesite:
Veronica Taylor
Maddie Blaustien
Eric Stuart
Rachel Lillis
Ikue Otani
Adam Blaustein
Dan Green
Ted Lewis
Stan Hart
Megan Hollingshead
Amy Birnbaum
Lisa Ortiz
.....and the ENTIRE Pokemon voice cast and crew; basically the entire Pokemon show as we know it
-------1998-2006-------
Epitaph: "Thanks for 8 great years. You will be missed."
And now, a moment of silence, in honor of those little creatures that impacted the childhoods of so many, this generation.
..........................................Thank you. (*sniff...) I'm sorry, world. I'm just really choked up about this devastating loss. A lot more than an 18-year-old guy should be about a cartoon. But that's just m--- Oh crap, I still can't believe it's actually biting the dust!!! (*briefly sheds a few tears and struggles to hold back more) (*sniffs again) Forget it. I gotta go, world. See you next Monday, 7pm.
-D.
Welcome to May. April showers are finally over, making room for the flowers we in rain-ravaged eastern Virginia could really use, for a refreshing change of pace. It's about 6 weeks left until the kids get to start summer vacation, and 4 days left until Mission Impossible 3 is released! All that aside, I have yet another Pokemon announcement to make: I have seen the future. And I am freakin' terrified. This past Saturday, the WB finally aired the big 10th anniversary Pokemon special with the new, non-4Kids Entertainment voiceover cast that'll be on permanently in September. They reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally could've done better here. Half the voices make their characters sound way too old, the other half makes them sound like they're actually squeezing out hemmorhoids as they record the voices. Pretty much what I expected.
On top of that, last week, Kids WB revealed their Fall 2006 schedule--- with no, I repeat, NO POKEMON IN SIGHT! Don't believe me? ToonZone's got the whole story at http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=10281. Sorry, folks. My link-embedder's acting up this week. Anyway, supposedly, Kids' WB won't renew the show for their network in the fall without the original crew, so rather than accept the inevitable takeover, they're putting the whole show under the guillotine blade. Rumor has it, The Pokemon Company is in talks to continue the show with season 9 on Cartoon Network, but since those exact same plans never worked out (U.S.-wise) with Pokemon Chronicles (yes, there was a spinoff. Click HERE for more), it's safe to say this is the end of the road for one of the most enduring anime franchises in the history of time. Which leads me to have to sum things up with the following imaginary gravesite:
Veronica Taylor
Maddie Blaustien
Eric Stuart
Rachel Lillis
Ikue Otani
Adam Blaustein
Dan Green
Ted Lewis
Stan Hart
Megan Hollingshead
Amy Birnbaum
Lisa Ortiz
.....and the ENTIRE Pokemon voice cast and crew; basically the entire Pokemon show as we know it
-------1998-2006-------
Epitaph: "Thanks for 8 great years. You will be missed."
And now, a moment of silence, in honor of those little creatures that impacted the childhoods of so many, this generation.
..........................................Thank you. (*sniff...) I'm sorry, world. I'm just really choked up about this devastating loss. A lot more than an 18-year-old guy should be about a cartoon. But that's just m--- Oh crap, I still can't believe it's actually biting the dust!!! (*briefly sheds a few tears and struggles to hold back more) (*sniffs again) Forget it. I gotta go, world. See you next Monday, 7pm.
-D.
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