Mr Kane Is Now Fondling A Snow Globe, Which Slips From His Grasp And Falls To The Floor As He Expires
Posted on | December 13, 2008 at 5:14 pm | 1 Comment
I could swear we’ve talked about Audio Description before, but I’ll be darned if I can find it in the archives. Maybe it was on another blog or in some private e-mails with a friend. Anyway, Audio Description is when the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) of a TV signal is used to describe the action on screen for visually impaired people. I remember running it across it once while watching The Simpsons and being fascinated by it.
Anyway, I got the BD of The Dark Knight yesterday. I haven’t watched it yet, though I did sample it. The picture and audio are gorgeous of course. When I was flipping manually through the audio tracks, I noticed one that sounded particularly strange – kind of like audio commentary but not quite. When I went to the menu and looked at the audio options, the track was designated as “Descriptive Narration”. So essentially it’s the same thing as Audio Description. It’s kinda funny to listen to. The movie is narrated in a female voice with a bit of a British accent. The voice is kind of sexy and spooky and bland all at the same time. The narration even dips into the slightly subjective at times. The establishing shot of the skyscrapers in the city at the beginning of the movie is described as “Tower blocks in Gotham City. A high window in one of the blocks is shot out from the inside by a man wearing a clown mask.” Tower blocks? Well, isn’t that an artsy-fartsy description for a building! But then, even the production logos at the very beginning are given a descriptive shout-out, so what the hey.
Do any visually impaired people actually use this feature? It seems like it’s lot of audio information thrown at you all at once, especially when you have the dialog, sound effects, and music mixed in. I think my brain would explode if I tried to process it all. But it might fun to listen to these tracks on other movies, although they could be somewhat repetitive. “Will Ferrell is running down the street naked again.” “Sharon Stone is attempting a facial expression.” “Jim Carrey is sticking something up his ass again.”
I have to say I’m disappointed with the special features on this special edition BR set. The narration track is not a good substitute for a director’s commentary. There’s the standard making-of documentary. There are also some “focus point” featurettes that you can branch off and view while watching the movie, but I’ve never liked interrupting a movie for that sort of thing. The second disc has a couple of 45 minute talking head documentaries, some “Gotham Tonight” TV shows, and a few other minor things. Really, it seems like they could’ve fit this all on one disc. I’m sure it won’t be long until the special special edition comes out. But y’know, I just had to have my DK right away!
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Couldn’t find Cuties at my local Safeway.
Videogame(s) Played Recently: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Eras, Meet Endings
Posted on | December 10, 2008 at 11:04 pm | 4 Comments
In the comments to yesterday’s blog entry, InfK mentions offhandedly the trouble the newspaper industry is in. Indeed. The Daily Show even did a bit about the massive amount of failing newspapers around the country on last night’s show. What hath Craigslist wrought? It was announced last week that the very paper I subscribe to, the Rocky Mountain News, which has been around for 150 years and was Colorado’s first newspaper, has been put up for sale. If a buyer isn’t found in a month or so, the paper will probably close up shop. That would leave only the Denver Post as the metro area’s paper, and who knows how long that will last. The two papers entered into a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) several years ago, combining business operations and publishing only one joint paper on Saturdays and Sundays. That arrangement helped them get along awhile longer, but it sure looks like the writing is on the wall.
The News is the more conservative of the two Denver-area papers, which makes me subscribing to it somewhat surprising. But I’ve been a News subscriber for a long time, and it was mostly because of two things: better comic strips, and the tabloid format which makes it easier to read on my breakfast counter. But over the years, the comics have deteriorated to the point where the Post ones aren’t really any worse. And the conservative bent of the editorial pages is really starting to get to me. Plus, I underwent an experience several years ago which convinced me that most of what gets printed in newspaper articles is, if not outright lies, at least gross misrepresentations of the facts. I assume that at some point in the past journalists were interested in getting all sides of the story and verifying facts, but that doesn’t seem to be the case these days. I still glance at articles to get the gist of what’s going on in the city, but I don’t trust anything I read. Mostly I guess I just still get the paper in order to have something to read with breakfast, and I concentrate on the comics, lifestyle, business, and (surprisingly for me) sports (but only during Broncos season) sections. But with so much other stuff going on in my life, I rarely have time to read the paper during breakfast anyway any more.
So I guess if the News does go under, I will probably not subscribe to the rival Post. Oh, I think I’ll get the Sunday paper (N loves her coupons and I must have Parade!), but no more daily paper for me. I can read the comic strips on the web, and just the ones I actually like. I’ll get most of my national news from The Daily Show and Colbert. If I really need to read in-depth about a local or national news issue, I’ll just peruse the web.
I’m hoping that the newspaper industry dying will spur journalists into becoming real journalists, but that ship may have already sailed. They’ll probably just become bloggers, and we all know how unreliable those people are.
Another industry in trouble is the restaurant one. It looks like Club 404 is not long for this world. The dining establishment at the corner of 4th and Broadway has been a Denver institution for a long time. (Sue would like it, since there’s a nearly-conical glass on the sign.) For years and years, I would go there for dinner and pitchers of beer with friends on Saturday nights, but those days are gone due to the splintering of my social circle. However, it is near my place of work and I frequently go there for lunch with Pilto. The place has changed little in the time I’ve known it – same waitresses, same food , same huge menu, same low prices, same ambiance. Although they did add huge windows to the auxiliary dining area a few years ago, which really opened it up. The place has what I’m pretty sure is the cheapest steaks in town. I hope it doesn’t get sold for a good long while. When it goes away, a part of me will go with it.
Here’s to you, Jerry!
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: The high price of newspaper subscriptions.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “spelling demon pictures”.
Videogame(s) Played Today: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Televised Fairy Tales
Posted on | December 9, 2008 at 11:08 pm | 3 Comments
No time for a longer blog entry lately. But I did want to mention about how ABC is going to do a pilot based on the DC/Vertigo comic book series Fables, which I wrote about while back. Seems like a pretty good fit for TV, as it wouldn’t require a lot of special effects. (Well, that kind of depends on the storylines they adapt, if any.) After all, the characters live in New York and dress and act like normal people, more or less. My big worry is that they’d water it down or make it too fanciful or twee or campy. I would most fear them making it look something like Pushing Daisies, although since ABC has canceled that show, it seems unlikely they’d want to go back to that well. Going that route would make it look too much like a fairy tale, which totally misses the point of the comic series.
(FYI, Pushing Daisies is one of those shows that I keep watching even though I kind of hate it. I like how the look of it is different than anything else on TV, and I really like Anna Friel, yet it all still somehow manages to bug the hell out of me. So I’m probably not going to be too sorry to see it go.)
Anyway, don’t screw this up, ABC!
In other weird TV news, NBC is not only giving up on showing dramas during the third hour of prime time on weekday nights, they’ve also given up on giving Jay Leno the boot (these two things are connected). I can’t help thinking this is an extraordinarily bad idea. The networks are just going all out to hasten their own demise, aren’t they? It’s like they’ve given up trying to compete with cable.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Walking To Lunch The Other Day:
- “Definite Maybe” (Ecotour)
- “Who Do You Think You Are?” (Duran Duran)
- “Bridges Burning” (Mission UK)
- “Where Are They Now?” (The Caulfields)
- “Object” (The Cure)
- “Nosebleed” (Maxïmo Park)
- “See-Saw” (Popinjays)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Damn winter weather! Damn laziness! I’ve been really remiss in my jogging lately and am turning into a total lardbutt.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “cockroach in crispix”.
Videogame(s) Played Recently: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Kung Fu Bustle
Posted on | December 7, 2008 at 9:33 am | 3 Comments
Movie Mention Monday Sunday!
For all of you complaining that I haven’t been watching manly enough movies lately – ha! Last night N and I watched a flick that was filled with fast action and violence. Kung Fu Panda is the story of an incompetent, clumsy son of a noodle chef who is called upon to become the legendary Dragon Warrior and save the village from the wrath of a martial arts master gone rogue (Ian McShane – it’s good to see he’s not getting typecast from Deadwood). It’s a classy flick that not even Jack Black (who stars as the titular hero) could… um… “declassy”. Sure, it has all the clichés of this type of movie, but at least it does it in a different way. For example, the training montage involves food and made me very hungry.
The Blu-Ray presentation was spectacular. N kept remarking on how colorful and live and vibrant it looked in glorious 1080p, and I agreed. Nice TrueHD sound too. The perfect holiday season pick-me-up movie. Watch through the end credits!
In a bit of synchronicity, I watched this movie on the same day that my 14-year old nephew got his Black Belt in Tae Kwan Do. That’s a very young age for such an accomplishment and I’m very proud of him! His parents held a a victory celebration for him after the belt test. Even though he was stressed out beforehand about the test, he kept saying afterward that it wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be. It’s good to know I’ve got a martial arts prodigy in the family! I certainly couldn’t have done what he did.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: The Q company! As I figured would happen, they charged me more for the DSL upgrade than they said they would. Guess I’ll be spending a lot of time on the phone with billing on Monday!
The One With The Title Patterns
Posted on | December 5, 2008 at 10:34 pm | 3 Comments
There’s an interesting article up at the TV Squad blog about the episode naming patterns of some current television shows. Fascinating stuff. For example, I had no idea that the titles of Desperate Housewives episodes were Sondheim songs. But what I know about Stephen Sondheim could fill a carbon nanotube.
Okay, well, this is fascinating to me, though I’m not sure most people care. I’ve always been into episode titles since I was a kid. There’s just something about them that makes the show seem more real, more substantial. It’s like the writers and producers have more invested in the series if they bother to title individual episodes. Of course, one thing I realize now that I didn’t know back then was that pretty much all shows had episode titles even if they weren’t shown. In these days of the DVR and the Internet (not to mention TV on DVD) it’s easy to see what the titles were on those old shows.
Very few shows these days display the episode titles, though I almost always know what they are anyway from the episode info description on the DVR. If they have titles, why don’t they show them? Probably because they have to reserve too much room for the rest of the episode credits, especially in these days when very few shows have separate opening title sequences (another thing I dearly miss) and instead list the regular credits over the opening action along with the guest stars.
I can only think of a couple of shows that I regularly watch that display the actual episode title in the show: Heroes, Dexter, Stargate Atlantis, True Blood. Probably one or two others. Sometimes the title will actually give away something that happens in the episode and will act as a sort of mini-spoiler, but that’s rare. (And maybe that’s another reason they don’t display them.) Science Fiction shows seem to have episode titles more often than other types of shows, probably because it’s a more of a writerly genre. One of the things I loved about Babylon 5 was the episode titles and how much thought was put into them. I can still remember when “The Coming of Shadows” flashed across the screen and brought chills to my spine. Not to mention “Z’Ha’Dum”.
But the best reason for giving a show episode titles is probably just so you can have something to refer to them by. Instead of saying “The episode of Bablyon 5 where the station declared independence from Earth”, you only have to mention “Severed Dreams” and everyone knows what you’re talking about.
Latre.
Spock’s Brain!
Pet Peeve of the Day: I’m not sure I like the new look of Google Reader. Why can’t people leave Good Enough alone? Also, I’ve just upgraded to Firefox 3 and there’s some thing I don’t like there as well.
Music From Heaven
Posted on | December 4, 2008 at 6:18 pm | 5 Comments
So, the other night the girlfriend and I attended a work-related (hers, not mine) shindig at the Denver Zoo. There were refreshments. Yes, there were refreshments. And then we got to wander around the zoo and take in a preview of their Zoolights exhibit, which doesn’t officially open until next week. Basically, it’s a lot of animated light sculptures showing various animals doing various animal-like things. Like this one of a spider catching a fly (there’s also another one with a big cat in the background):
We could also catch some glimpses of real animals, especially in the inside exhibits. They thankfully didn’t light the outside enclosures and disturb the many sleeping animals we saw. And there was the requisite cheesy instrumental Christmas music blasting from speakers in the trees, including one particularly horrid rendition of Jingle Bells that we had to hear over and over and over again. I’d say that the song is now ruined for me, though I’m not sure I’ve ever been okay with it since I was a kid.
Anyway, every once in awhile, when I was away from the Xmas music speakers, I would catch a snippet of other music coming from somewhere. Good music. I kept looking around for other speakers to see if I could tell where it was coming from. At one point, they were playing a New Pornographers song (I think it was “The New Face of Zero and One”) and I exclaimed to N, “Hey, they’re playing the New Pornographers!” and she was like “What are you talking about?” We resumed our trek through the lighted animated pathways.
And then, it happened. I heard “Sword Swallower” by the Loud Family. I stopped dead in my tracks.
N: “What’s up? Why are we stopping?”
Me: “The Loud Family! I can hear the Loud Family! The zoo is playing the Loud Family on one of their other sound systems! I have to find the speaker!” I started looking around and N looked at me with an exasperated expression.
N: “The Denver Zoo wouldn’t be playing the Loud Family”. We both stood there very silently so I could pinpoint the direction of the sound waves.
Me: “Don’t you hear it?”
N: “Yeah, I hear it.” She paused. “It’s coming from you, you moron.”
I pulled my iPhone out of my holster, and sure enough it was on the iPod and was playing a Loud Family song.
I have no idea why the iPhone was playing songs (in shuffle mode, no less). I think the last time I had taken it out was hours before, and I hadn’t done anything with the iPod mode in ages. Somebody at the shindig must’ve removed it from my holster, started playing songs on it, and then returned it. Yeah, that must be it.
Or maybe The Powers That Be just wanted some good music to counter the lame-o Xmas music at the zoo, and my iPhone was Their instrument.
But I still had to shut it off.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Cold temps, light snow & ice causing bad rush hour driving conditions.
Videogame(s) Played Recently: Wipeout HD (PS3), Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
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