Recently in Entertainment & Media Category

You might have to be a little bit of a videogame industry wonk to find this amusing, but the creative team that developed Battlefield: Bad Company came out with post-launch video clips poking fun at the sometimes overly intense Rainbow Six, Metal Gear and Gears of War franchises. I'm surprised they haven't posted one for Call of Duty yet - it seems ripe for the picking.

Alone in Tokyo HD from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

There's something really remarkable going on right now around the ability of consumers to create truly remarkable HD content and distribute it via the Internet. We've reach a moment where the production gear costs have dropped low enough, a fairly "average" computer like a MacBook Pro can edit in HD, and there are ready channels to distribute to the world, both in terms of technology (sites like Vimeo,  which hosts the above video) and the bandwidth and capabilities of end users.

HD video is leaps and bounds ahead of standard video in terms of how "film like" it can get, and the tools are now arriving that let individuals record very high quality HD video for as less than $2000 - cameras run $600-800, and a $1000 adapter called the Letus Mini lets you connect SLR lenses for "film like" depth of field and fous effects, and a $2000 laptop with iMovieHD (free with new Macs) is all you need to edit, output and upload.

Right now this is leading to a lot of playing around on sites like Vimeo's HD Channel, but it won't be long before folks are producing their own documentaries, etc. using this. It's going to lead to an explosion of niche HD content, plus I'm sure a lot of more widespread hits as well. And it's going to have a real impact on traditional broadcast media - when a home user can produce niche content with quality twice that of a DVD, you're going to see a lot of competition for all those low-budget cable shows trying to survive out there right now.

It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to see how it plays out over the next year or two. One thing I know for sure - this means I'd rather have a full on computer, like a Mac Mini, attached to my HDTV rather than something like the AppleTV where I'm locked into only a few distribution channels.

The recent Gatorade "Big Head" commercial has to be one of my favorite television ads in a long time. It's a great little set piece (I suspect it's a one timer and not a long-term campaign), with a lighter attitude than their previous efforts. A nice little reminder for all the adults about everyone started out playing the game.

(A detail I didn't notice on the first viewing was fastpitch softballer Jennie Finch's remark -- "why don't you throw it underhand?" Nice.)

All day, baby, all day.

I picked up Rockstar Games Table Tennis for the Xbox 360 over the weekend... $40 is the price because it's a more limited game than their normal releases. Still, it's amazing... great single player play vs. computer and online over Xbox live (I don't think it plays two player at the same screen.) Definitely worth checking out for a change of pace.

A gutsy design decision by Rockstar if you ask me -- going very much in the opposite direction of expansive, kitchen-sink, big-license EA sports games, this is a finely tuned little gem that's a joy to play. I've had more fun playing this for an evening than any recent game in memory.

(Correction: It does support 2 players on one TV locally -- just turn on the second controller and see the option. It also supports up to 8 players in Live via a tourney mode.)

Glenn McDonald on why even a loyal music customer started downloading. A great piece showing why the persistence of music piracy online has its roots in a deeper dissatisfaction among music consumers beyond the simple issue of cost, and showing why the industry needs to start thinking about how to evolve its model rather than maintain status quo.

The world is all connected now, we are not beholden to you for information. An import copy of this record would cost me $26. The domestic copy will cost me $13 at most, probably less. I refuse to pay you to play these pointless games with arbitrary dates and obsolete borders. I can outlast you. I refuse to pay you twice for withholding music when it's supposed to be your job to bring it to me.

This weekend's series has been a test of endurance not just for the players, but for the fans as well. Last night's game went to 1:30 AM, and waking up at 6:30 am, my dream was of standing in line to buy coffee. (Note to self: Decaf.) Then tonight, they go another 6 grueling hours -- by the end we were ordering Cokes instead of beers.

On a secondary note, after watching 20-odd hours of playoff baseball in the last 5 days, I've seen more beer and pickup truck ads than in the last year. Tonight, I figured out the beer ads are far less annoying after you've had at least 3-4 "sales units" of their product. There's a connection to the pickup truck ads too, but I'm not going to get into that here.

Here are my Oscar picks: favorite and least favorite... they're based on the votes of 40-odd friends compiled by Lee Clontz's web site.

Newsforge reports that Reuters last week violated the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) by publishing an article on how to disable Sony's music CD copyprotection using a magic marker. The story was widely republished in mainstream forums including CNN.

Given that hacking site 2600 has been taken to court simply for linking to information about DeCSS (a scheme used by Linux users primarily for watching legally purchased DVDs) under the DMCA, the Reuters article, which actually contained instructions for disabling Sony's copy protection, may be an interesting test of the DMCA vs. first-amendment rights. According to the DMCA, not only is illegal to violate copyright protection, but it is verboten to explain to others how to disable or compromise copy-protection, or even to let them know where that information resides.

That may seem minor, but it's striking when you realize that simply by linking to the Reuters story on Yahoo! I'm also therefore violating the DMCA and opening myself to potential litigation from Sony. So much for the right to report on current events.

If you could have the actor of your choice say one line in a movie, what would it be?

e.g.:

"I'm gonna beat you 'till the candy comes out... M--- F----" -- Samuel Jackson, Star Wars Episode III

"We're in Korea? Oh, damn..." -- Scooby Doo

I died laughing last night when I saw a cheap late-night local television ad starring M.C. Hammer. Oh have the mighty have fallen. Looks like his official web site isn't going so well either (did he hire MarchFirst, Viant, or Scient to build it?) Oh well, there's always his Yahoo! page. Did they already do a Behind the Music show about him, and I missed it? I guess I'll never get to pull my hammerpants out of the closet.

Bonus question: Which web design company was the M.C. Hammer of the late 90's?