As alluded to previously, my favorite filmmaker is Orson Welles. And even though he has been dead for 20 years, there is still plenty of NEW news about his work. Of primary interest is when The Other Side of the Wind will be released. When I say released, I mean released to theaters. Editing was never finished on the film after it was shot back in the early 70s due to ownership difficulties. Also, Chimes at Midnight is considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made, but it has yet to be released on DVD in this country. These are two of many issues that have cropped up on this great Orson Welles fansite.
I visit the AVS Forum daily. If you're an electronics geek, this is your site.
I get sick of all the recruiting talk, but the best place to read discussions about Illini basketball is here. It's a rather jubilant place after that dismantling of the Tigers tonight.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Links, Interrupted
One of the great things about the Internet is that most newpapers are just a couple clicks away. And most are free. My newspaper of choice is the Sun-Times. It employs some good writers, isn't too tabloid, and isn't owned by an evil corporation bent on destroying any chance the Cubs will ever have to get into the World Series. Of course, Roger Ebert writes for the Sun-Times, although Ebert now has a somewhat separate site for his writing, befitting his popularity and clout. Ebert's movie critic partner Richard Roeper also writes for the newspaper. Roeper is quite inciteful and intelligent as he dissects popular culture in a column that mentions movies a lot less than one might think. Although he does bring up the movies in his Sunday column. I think he's wrong in downplaying the box office slump, but only time will tell which one of us is right.
The best column focusing on movies is James Berardinelli's REELTHOUGHTS. Berardinelli is an interesting character. He began reviewing movies back in the early 1990s, when he would post his reviews to rec.arts.movies.reviews, which I can remember reading back when I was at UofI. He would later receive an endorsement from Ebert, which is no small feat. Eventually Berardinelli started his own site. The commercialization of the Internet arrived a few years ago, although you wouldn't know it from Berardinelli's site. Berardinelli has a job separate from the movies (I think he might have mentioned something about being an engineer), and that is where he derives most of his income. While he has released two books that are compilations of his writings, his website remains non-commercial. I cannot fathom why he wouldn't become a full-time movie reviewer/columnist for some newspaper or magazine. Writing is a lot of work, and surely books sales are not enough to properly compensate him for the effort. Maybe I'm overestimating the money that is available from newspapers and magazines.
The best column focusing on movies is James Berardinelli's REELTHOUGHTS. Berardinelli is an interesting character. He began reviewing movies back in the early 1990s, when he would post his reviews to rec.arts.movies.reviews, which I can remember reading back when I was at UofI. He would later receive an endorsement from Ebert, which is no small feat. Eventually Berardinelli started his own site. The commercialization of the Internet arrived a few years ago, although you wouldn't know it from Berardinelli's site. Berardinelli has a job separate from the movies (I think he might have mentioned something about being an engineer), and that is where he derives most of his income. While he has released two books that are compilations of his writings, his website remains non-commercial. I cannot fathom why he wouldn't become a full-time movie reviewer/columnist for some newspaper or magazine. Writing is a lot of work, and surely books sales are not enough to properly compensate him for the effort. Maybe I'm overestimating the money that is available from newspapers and magazines.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
King of the World
Anyone remember what happened with Titanic. Yeah, I know, it struck an iceberg and sank. I'm talking about the overblown movie. It was long, long, long, and at the time was the most expensive movie ever made. Its first weekend gross was $28 million, not to shabby back then for a movie that long, but not that remarkable.
King Kong is also very expensive, and very long. The first day gross was only $10 million. Not that good when compared to previous Wednesday openers. But bad weather, school, and a lack of urgent anticipation kept away a lot of people from opening day. Never underestimate word of mouth. It'll be very interesting to see what kind of business Kong does over the next ten days.
I believe that Hollywood is intently watching the audience reception to Kong. If Kong fails, look for a big push to be made by the studios for the closing of the window between the theatrical release and the DVD release. The head of Disney has already been arguing that the DVD should be released simultaneously with the theatrical release, or at least some experimentation should be done in that regard.
King Kong is so important because it has been such a disappointing year revenue-wise for the studios. You can spin it however you want, but box office receipts should NEVER go down in a year that features both a Star Wars and a Harry Potter film. The future looks bleak, with the Star Wars franchise done, and only two Tolkien books left to mine (and I doubt that even Jackson could come up with a feasible film version of The Silmarillion). There are few cash cows to fall back on, which is devastating to an industry that has become so reliant on sequels instead of creating anew.
So will the studios make a radical change in the distribution system? I really don't care. I have basically stopped going to the theater. It's not worth the hastle and expense. While I have some affinity for the film medium, that attachment only goes so far. Gimme the DVD now, instead of making me wait. I won't be going to the theater anyway, so why make me wait?
Actually I will probably make it out to see some award contenders. But my comfy home theater is all I need.
King Kong is also very expensive, and very long. The first day gross was only $10 million. Not that good when compared to previous Wednesday openers. But bad weather, school, and a lack of urgent anticipation kept away a lot of people from opening day. Never underestimate word of mouth. It'll be very interesting to see what kind of business Kong does over the next ten days.
I believe that Hollywood is intently watching the audience reception to Kong. If Kong fails, look for a big push to be made by the studios for the closing of the window between the theatrical release and the DVD release. The head of Disney has already been arguing that the DVD should be released simultaneously with the theatrical release, or at least some experimentation should be done in that regard.
King Kong is so important because it has been such a disappointing year revenue-wise for the studios. You can spin it however you want, but box office receipts should NEVER go down in a year that features both a Star Wars and a Harry Potter film. The future looks bleak, with the Star Wars franchise done, and only two Tolkien books left to mine (and I doubt that even Jackson could come up with a feasible film version of The Silmarillion). There are few cash cows to fall back on, which is devastating to an industry that has become so reliant on sequels instead of creating anew.
So will the studios make a radical change in the distribution system? I really don't care. I have basically stopped going to the theater. It's not worth the hastle and expense. While I have some affinity for the film medium, that attachment only goes so far. Gimme the DVD now, instead of making me wait. I won't be going to the theater anyway, so why make me wait?
Actually I will probably make it out to see some award contenders. But my comfy home theater is all I need.
Paint It Black
The thing I have yet to finish at the new house is my home theater. I say home theater, because my intent is that it be a home theater. One of my prerequisites for a new house was that it would contain a room suitable for such a purpose. "Suitable" means that it can be light controlled and is sufficiently large. The room is plenty big, and there is only one window which I can easily block off.
Thanks in large part to Christy's dad, my projector and screen are now hung. This leaves me with two chores: hanging curtains and painting. I still haven't figured out the logistics of the hanging curtains part, so finishing the painting is my next objective. While I plan to repaint the walls, until I know the color of my Berkline chairs (to be purchased in 3 months), that will have to wait. With the immediate workload conveniently narrowed down, that leaves me with painting the ceiling. My first question was "what dark color?" The color has to be dark, as you wouldn't believe how much a white ceiling reflects projector light. Dark gray or dark blue were possibilities, but in the end I chose the blackest black. Allegedly it will make the room seem larger, which would help since the drop ceiling in that room is a few inches shorter than the standard 8 feet (the other rooms in the basement have standard 8 foot drywall ceilings, so there is already an unavoidable contrast between rooms).
All in all, I've spent very little on the home theater. The most expensive part will be the Berkline chairs, which will cost more than my projector and screen combined. And that's at the cutrate prices I'm going to get by going to the quarterly outlet sale at the Berkline headquarters in Tennessee (a convenient trip since Christy goes to that same area two times a year to visit her granny). All of this stuff can be as expensive as you want it to be ($20,000 projector, $2,000 screen, $2,000 chair), but the cheap way out does not result in cheap looking product, or at least that is what I'm claiming.
Thanks in large part to Christy's dad, my projector and screen are now hung. This leaves me with two chores: hanging curtains and painting. I still haven't figured out the logistics of the hanging curtains part, so finishing the painting is my next objective. While I plan to repaint the walls, until I know the color of my Berkline chairs (to be purchased in 3 months), that will have to wait. With the immediate workload conveniently narrowed down, that leaves me with painting the ceiling. My first question was "what dark color?" The color has to be dark, as you wouldn't believe how much a white ceiling reflects projector light. Dark gray or dark blue were possibilities, but in the end I chose the blackest black. Allegedly it will make the room seem larger, which would help since the drop ceiling in that room is a few inches shorter than the standard 8 feet (the other rooms in the basement have standard 8 foot drywall ceilings, so there is already an unavoidable contrast between rooms).
All in all, I've spent very little on the home theater. The most expensive part will be the Berkline chairs, which will cost more than my projector and screen combined. And that's at the cutrate prices I'm going to get by going to the quarterly outlet sale at the Berkline headquarters in Tennessee (a convenient trip since Christy goes to that same area two times a year to visit her granny). All of this stuff can be as expensive as you want it to be ($20,000 projector, $2,000 screen, $2,000 chair), but the cheap way out does not result in cheap looking product, or at least that is what I'm claiming.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Falling Flat
College basketball, the only sport that matters anymore, is back. Unfortunately it is crippled after all the departures last offseason. I don't hear anyone talking about the weak state of college basketball, but that is probably because it is in most commentators' interest to hide the ugliness.
Take a look at the conferences. The SEC sucks, but that is nothing new. Of course, any year it is good is reason enough for the NCAA to open an investigation (Georgia is the most recent example). The Pac Ten becomes pathetic when Arizona has a down year, and a 2-3 start qualifies as a down year. One of those two wins hardly counts, as it was against Kansas in a game in which the victor shot 29 percent. 29 percent!!!
The ACC lost several players to the NBA, and I'm still scratching my head about Shelden Williams staying around at Duke another year. It's not like they'll get to the final four---their depth is highly suspect. They're the default number one right now, but look for them to be crushed by Texas this weekend.
Which brings me to the Big 12, which has two good teams in the aforementioned Texas and Oklahoma, but the rest of the teams would have trouble competing in the Missouri Valley. Oklahoma State just lost at home to Norwestern State! Then there is Kansas, which continues to attract high profile recruits, even though "Bucknell" Bill Self's coaching ability is very much in question. It reminds me of what happened a few years ago, when some high profile Illinois talent similarly spurned UofI for Depaul. We all know how that turned out.
The BIG East has a lot of teams. Hmmmm. This conference has a lot of teams. Villanova might be good.
The Big Ten is a mystery. Michigan State has looked terrible. What is the deal with their non-conference ineptitude? They beat Boston College tonight, otherwise it would really look bad for the Big Ten with Iowa just losing to Northern Iowa and Indiana losing to Indiana State. The Illini have been surprising. Most surprising is Dee Brown's pathetic shooting. If his shooting touch ever comes around, they might be a legitimate top ten team. And if Jamar Smith continues to light it up like he did last night, they might be a legitimate Final Four contender. I know it's too early to be this optimistic, but this is one of those teams that I expected to be much better in the second half of the season due to the player turnover. If that improvement happens, look out. Of course, all these rosy expectations are based on my belief that college basketball is lacking dominant teams this year. We shall see.
Take a look at the conferences. The SEC sucks, but that is nothing new. Of course, any year it is good is reason enough for the NCAA to open an investigation (Georgia is the most recent example). The Pac Ten becomes pathetic when Arizona has a down year, and a 2-3 start qualifies as a down year. One of those two wins hardly counts, as it was against Kansas in a game in which the victor shot 29 percent. 29 percent!!!
The ACC lost several players to the NBA, and I'm still scratching my head about Shelden Williams staying around at Duke another year. It's not like they'll get to the final four---their depth is highly suspect. They're the default number one right now, but look for them to be crushed by Texas this weekend.
Which brings me to the Big 12, which has two good teams in the aforementioned Texas and Oklahoma, but the rest of the teams would have trouble competing in the Missouri Valley. Oklahoma State just lost at home to Norwestern State! Then there is Kansas, which continues to attract high profile recruits, even though "Bucknell" Bill Self's coaching ability is very much in question. It reminds me of what happened a few years ago, when some high profile Illinois talent similarly spurned UofI for Depaul. We all know how that turned out.
The BIG East has a lot of teams. Hmmmm. This conference has a lot of teams. Villanova might be good.
The Big Ten is a mystery. Michigan State has looked terrible. What is the deal with their non-conference ineptitude? They beat Boston College tonight, otherwise it would really look bad for the Big Ten with Iowa just losing to Northern Iowa and Indiana losing to Indiana State. The Illini have been surprising. Most surprising is Dee Brown's pathetic shooting. If his shooting touch ever comes around, they might be a legitimate top ten team. And if Jamar Smith continues to light it up like he did last night, they might be a legitimate Final Four contender. I know it's too early to be this optimistic, but this is one of those teams that I expected to be much better in the second half of the season due to the player turnover. If that improvement happens, look out. Of course, all these rosy expectations are based on my belief that college basketball is lacking dominant teams this year. We shall see.