The Immigrant Song

A moving skyscraper makes me scared

Accoding to a BBC story:

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.  The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.   

I am immediately horrified by this idea, but perhaps that is because I saw this really weird movie called Cube.  7 strangers wake up in an “endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps” (excellent imdb plot summary.) They are in a cube made up of dozens of smaller cubes, and at random intervals the cubes shift around.  They have to find their way out, like solving Rubik’s cube from the inside as it tries to kill you. In case you were wondering Cube 2 was awful, not nearly as entertaining as the first.

Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75 - New York Times

I'm sad to hear that Roy Scheider is dead.  My favorite Roy Scheider films 2010 and The French Connection for sure. Roy brought a great voice and presence to the screen and even ad-libbed the line "We're gonna need a bigger boat" while filming Jaws. Sigh. 

Link: Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75 - New York Times.

Cloverfield 1.18.2008

Man, this looks really friggin cool. 

DEN (>EN) is Back- see promos

I'm not going to lie- I really eally iked the >en.net  (den.net) show called "Frat Ratz."  It was just silly enough to be an enjoyable caricature of fraternity life.  DEN (Digital Entertainment Network)  was kind of ahead of its time in terms of offering  streaming original content over the internet for free.  Whatever advertising they may  have been able to get was probably dwarfed  by production costs [probably the production costs element hasn't c hnaged much- for  independent content producers, it's really really hard to make money  off of the "long tail" longtail.com] 

What has changed, then?

1. Monetizing content someone already produced, especially if they went bankrupt doing it, is probably easier than ever./  Someone already realized they aren't going to get Seinfeld-order revenues from syndicating web video, but if they can get eyeballs, they have some options.
2. Shows like Ask A Ninja or RocketBoom have proven that advertisers will get involved in content that has a wide audience, even ifg it's a little, um, juvenile or adventurous.  Advertisers are increasingly aware that they must venture into these waters
3. Operating an ad-sales and delivery network for web video has gone from a custom built solution to a totally efficient option from likes of Revver. 

So check out the promo for DEN...and my old favorite, Frat Ratz is in there!

 

Sweep the Leg

I'm proud of my Sweep the Leg t-shirt.  So, I imagine, would the band No More Kings whose video for "Sweep The Leg" I have embedded below.  Nice use of the original castmembers  of The Karate Kid plus, I think, Mr. Belding from Saved By The Bell.

Enron Movie in Pre-production grosses $3 billion

from the item on Digital Media Wire: "CNBC reported that Warner Bros paid a little over $1 million for the movie rights, a fair price according to industry analysts.  No release date for the film has been set."

Apparently, the movie has already grossed $3 billion, but no one is sure how they did it.  Time Warner stock has soared on the news, which represent record revenue for a theatrical project in pre-production.  Sources inside Warner Bros. declined to discuss the particulars of the project, stating simply, "We're just really, really good at this business."

It was the Dukes!

"Well if Mr. Beeks  does what we paid him to do, we should have a very Happy New Year." - Trading Places

I love movies.  I have rated 487 movies on Netflix.  I just secured my very happy new year with the purchase of:

Goodfellas
Ronin
Heat
Spartan
House of Games
The Usual Suspects

So, when I get bored of watching "A Christmas Story," I'll have plenty to watch.  If I haven't shot my eye out by then.