Passionate Star Trek fans, armed with Paramount Pictures blessing as long as no money is made, are continuing the adventures of Star Trek the Original Series (STOS).
Episode #3 of Star Trek New Voyages will debut on the internet August 23, 2007. For a limited time US residents can register for the contest (official sweepstakes rules) for a chance to watch the premiere and dine with Sulu, George Takei, the writers and director of the episode at the FINE ARTS THEATER in Beverly Hill.
You can find mirrors for the pilot, the first two episodes and some other goodies at the special downloads and episode downloads. A registered members only forum is also available to discuss Star Trek New Voyages which requires admin approval to access (mine took an hour or so to be approved).
As for the quality of the episodes, today’s Hmmcast gives a very brief teaser, so go download and check them out. It’s clear they’ve worked hard to preserve the feel of STOS. The acting is not really pro-quality but the sets and special effects are pretty faithful to STOS.
After getting through today’s challenge there’s only three days left of the Bourne Ultimatum game. What will we do until the next movie challenge comes along? Google should just go from one movie to the next with these challenges. There has to be enough movies in the pipe to warrant a continual stream of games like these. They don’t take too long, are fun and engaging.
Day 12
We’re back to Nicky Parson’s Dater Notes profile and particularly scanning her pictures in the image filter.
Hint: Don’t forget there are three image filters, A, B and C.
Last week the big story in the virtual world of Second Life was a ban on all forms of gambling for “anything of value.” Today I needed only to look across the virtual street in world to find a casino still operating. When does the gambling ban really begin? How long before they start actually enforcing the ban?
The Linden dollar hasn’t yet been impacted, still hovering at an exchange rate of around L$265-270 - $1 USD.
Two of the three Back to the Future films were worth watching, the third one based on a western motiff should have stayed in the can. The coolest stage prop was the time machine itself which thankfully wasn’t the refrigerator as once planned.
John Delorean may have died in 2005, but the car with his last name lives on.
Espey’s company acquired the parts and engines that were left over after DeLorean’s company went belly up; it also owns the trademarks and many of the engineering drawings. Espey’s 20-person operation handles a dozen or so rebuilds a year and has an eight-month waiting list. (Buying and restoring a used DeLorean will cost you about $25,000; they’ll strip one to the frame and completely rebuild it for a base price of $42,500.)
We’re still looking to buy a car and unfortunately the Delorean rebuild is over twice what we’re looking to spend. The Delorean wouldn’t be complete without the Flux Capacitor. I wonder if that’s included?
One of the coolest looking cars ever created, I can see why a fanbase lives on. Although the linked article gives most the credit to the Michael J. Fox movie, what other cool looking cars under $50,000 can you cite?
We got another break over the weekend, which means this will be another full week of the Bourne Ultimatum game. Here’s the schedule:
Monday July 30 - Day 11
Tuesday July 31 - Day 12
Wednesday Aug 1 - Day 13
Thursday Aug 2 - Day 14
Friday Aug 3 - Day 15 = it’s over
Day 11
Ugh. A crossword puzzle. What’s next, Sudoku? Good thing Bernice stopped by this morning and told me to not bother actually doing the crossword puzzle.
Hint: via Bernice:
LISTEN to the video that David Strathairn does when you log-in…then use those nifty tools we have … clue: it’s a city name.
Opening night, Friday, our family got to see one of the most anticipated movies of all time: The Simpsons Movie. The movie earned a PG-13 rating and contains enough jokes that one Rotten Tomatoes reviewer made the excellent point that to catch every joke repeated viewings will be required. This makes me wonder how many people will return to see it in the theater or wait until the inevitable DVD release to savor each joke.
Before getting to the review and for a limited time, Wal-mart is offering a Simpsons T-shirt with the complete seasons with donut hole packaging for $21.99 - $24.99. That’s less than the price of two tickets and popcorn to the movie for an entire TV season. DVDs continue to provide the most value.
The plot
A dome has been placed around Springfield trying to contain an ecological nightmare no thanks to Springfield’s dumbest but most lovable nuclear power plant employee, Homer Simpson. Speaking of the power plant, that’s one of my disappointments: barely featured in the plot. Mr. Burns and Smithers? You’ve probably already seen their scene in the previews. The previews spoiled some of the gags, unfortunately.
Other minor disappointments? No drinking inside Moe’s scenes. It’s almost like having a TV adaption of Cheers without a bar scene. There’s at least one Moe’s bar external gag. And very little of my favorite non-main character: Barney. Itchy & Scratchy made it, but it would have been nice to see them bookending the movie based on their placement in the plot. Principal Skinner? Don’t even remember seeing him, but he might have been there briefly(?). In fact, while Springfield is the center of the plot, a lot of the action happens outside of Springfield.
And no they don’t give away where Springfield is actually located other than a joke about it being bordered by four states (that you’ve probably seen in the previews). Maybe we’ll get the answer to that enigma in the sequel?
Is it too early to start talking sequel? I don’t think so. This movie isn’t quite as big as I’d hoped for, kind of like eating a single donut leaves you wanting a second one. It’s not the over the top awesome must see movie of the century, but it’s not Star Wars I Phantom Menace either. It’s, well, somewhere between Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars IV, the original Star Wars on my favorite movie of all time radar.
The movie theater physical experience
Why this movie didn’t make it to the best theater in town is a mystery. I was frustrated and uncomfortable by the crappy theater chairs and lousy angle of the screen. We arrived about just minutes before the 7:20pm showing and there were still 30-35% seats left, but in order for our family of five to be able to sit together we had to take the very front row. Definitely not the best viewing angle, but what did we expect? I was surprised we could walk in at the last minute literally on opening day and get any five seats together, but I blame this partly on the shoddy theater.
Regal Cinemas has much nicer theaters a few miles down the road but the Simpsons wasn’t showing on any of those screens. Strangely, they chose the more ramshackle theater for The Simpsons Movie (three screens). Disappointing. If they do this all over the country, the movie sales aren’t going to soar as I’ve predicted in the past. Harry Potter, Transformers and the new Sandler movie were eating up screen space at the nicest theater in town. Maybe if sales are strong enough, they’ll knock out a few of those screens and replace them with the Simpsons movie.
For those who saw The Simpsons Movie, was it playing at the nicest theater in your town? I’m really curious if this was something unique to our area because with a major movie launch this is the first time I remember this ever happening. Whomever made this decision certainly didn’t help Groening and crew.
Summary and grade
There are some gags in The Simpsons Movie that you won’t see on TV which I won’t spoil and unless you are immune to humor will make you at least chuckle. Despite a few adult gags you can still take the family to this movie and laugh together. During a poignant scene in the movie I heard crying and at the end of the movie there were a few scattered applauses. We didn’t stick around to see what goodies were in the credits rolling, if any.
Reader Wayne took his girls to see the movie and they enjoyed it, adding:
I don’t know that it will end up sinking Titanic’s record though. I consider myself a HUGE Simpsons fan and don’t see myself paying to see it again. It just doesn’t feel like it breaks enough new ground to warrant repeated theater viewings.
You can read my comment response there, but let me remind that the Simpsons are an international phenomenon and while the TV show isn’t as good as it was the first five or so years, this movie proves there is still gas in the tank. This wasn’t just an overly long TV episode. In fact while leaving the theater I felt it was maybe 15 minutes or so too short.
Not sure I’ll be paying to see it again in the theater — definitely not in the same theater — but perhaps in a better one. Still, I’m sticking by my original prediction after seeing it despite the unfortunate screening position by Regal Cinemas that while The Simpsons Movie probably won’t beat Titanic gross gross receipts it will make the top 10 overall. Furthermore, I’ll go on record predicting that it will take down Shrek 2 which has the record for highest gross receipts worldwide for an animated film ($920.7 million via Box Office Mojo) and is #8 on the all-time gross receipts list. That would make The Simpsons Movie the highest grossing animated film ever.
I saw Shrek 2 and The Simpsons Movie is better. A sequel is the highest grossing animated film ever? Wow.
Does The Simpsons Movie break a billion? It has to in order to get into the top three movies all time. It’s going to need to break $1.8 billion to be in Titanic’s league which are unchartered waters for any other movies. We’ll have to wait and see how much steam is left after a month in theaters. Movies tend to fade fast these days after the opening weekends. Remember Spider-man 3 (#11 all time)? That made almost $900 million worldwide and it wasn’t nearly as good IMO as Spider-man (#16) and Spider-man 2 (#21).
$100+ million the first weekend? Sure, why not? Grab a donut and hit the theaters now. Grade: A-
Update July 30, 2007 9:09am PST: The Simpsons Movie was #1 opening weekend with $71.9 million domestically (source: Box Office Mojo) and $168 million worldwide (source). #2 was the newest Adam Sandler vehicle ($19 million) and #3 Harry Potter ($17 million).
I’m hooked on Burgerville. Closest one to us is in Centralia, which is a good hour drive away, but well worth it. We stopped by Burgerville yesterday while taking one of our sons down to stay with a friend in Vancouver.
If you’ve never been to the states of Washington or Oregon then you won’t have seen Burgerville before. They feature local specialities like giant Walla Walla Sweet Onion Rings and Oregon Blackberry Shakes. If you come to this state, seek one of these burger places out and dine in fast food heaven.
I used to like Hardees when they had the true flame broiled burgers, but they made some change to the way they cooked them and they don’t taste as good any more. Jack in the Box is ok, lousy fries in my opinion. McDonald’s has great fries, but I feel like I’m getting fatter every time I walk in the door of a Mickey D’s. Burger King doesn’t do it for me. Dairy Queen actually has pretty decent burgers.
What’s your favorite burger joint? Or do you try and avoid these calorie factories? I’m particularly interested in burger restaurants that feature local favorites like Burgerville. You can learn more about Burgerville as well as locate stores in Oregon and Washington at the burgerville.com website.
On Thursday the Heavenly Sword demo was made available along with two free Heavenly Sword wallpapers that PS3 owners can plaster over their Playstation 3 dashboards.
I haven’t followed the Heavenly Sword game, but I know at least one reader is into this game. The Heavenly Sword demo gameplay reminds me of the game Final Fight. You go around and pull off different button mashing sequences to kill the bad guys.
Even with my subpar screencaps of 1080p gameplay, the game looks worlds better than Final Fight ever looked. And it’s 3D versus heavily pixelated 2D.
Andy Serkis, the world’s leading CG actor, famous for his roles as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong,” was heavily involved in the creative process. As well as starring in Heavenly Sword as the
villain, King Bohan, Andy was a major contributor to the character development, writing, casting, directing and performance capture for the PS3 title.
Interesting how more games continue to be produced these days like major motion pictures.
No wonder it takes millions to produce a game like Heavenly Sword. I’ve gotten a lot of entertainment value out of games that were created with a dramatically smaller budget than titles like Heavenly Sword. A feature that would make me more interested in this game would be the ability to play live co-op with others over the Playstation network. Not sure if that will be a feature or not, but it should be. That and being at 1080p, of course.
Assuming the theaters aren’t too packed, we’re planning on seeing The Simpsons Movie this weekend. How about you? The Simpsons are clearly on surfer’s minds searching for Simpsons-related posts at this blog. Pictured right six of eight search query results as of this writing are related to the Simpsons.
We’ve been watching the DVD of the Complete Season Nine Simpsons upscaled on the PS3. Good stuff. I’m liking how the PS3 upscales DVDs and it is fast becoming our DVD player of choice. While we’re still not playing many games on the PS3 it’s nice to see it getting use as the most expensive DVD player in our home. With Lair, Heavenly Sword and other hot games on the horizon as well as the HOME interface, I’m seeing a brighter PS3 future this winter and beyond.
What’s the secret behind the Simpsons staying power?
What about those Simpsons, how have they endured so long in our collective minds? I think it’s because of the excellent writing, characters and jokes. It’s hard to get through a couple minutes of the Simpsons without at least a smile. It’s healthy laughing. It relieves stress. Groening and company seem to get that treating an animated show like a stand-up comedy act was a good recipe for success and they’ve been handsomely rewarded for their efforts.
The non-main character that makes me laugh the most is Barney. His drunken antics are great and I’m looking most forward to see what his part is in the Simpsons Movie. As for main characters, I’ve never been a huge Bart fan. The Lisa storylines have been kind of boring too. Homer is my favorite main character. What’s yours? Why?
In a post wondering what’s going on with PodTech.net, TechCrunch claims to have spoken to CEO John Furrier who admitted they pink slipped a few employees, were refocusing on “syndicating third party stuff” and moving out of the content creation business.
Scoble’s still there, Feldman is hanging on. I think we’ll know when the iceberg of podcasting has fully pierced the Podtanic when those two scramble for the life boats.
Of Podtech’s new direction, Techcrunch postulates:
Their new model, which finds and signs talent for guaranteed revenue, and then aggregates sites to advertisers, is a good one. They need to continue to cut staff and get their burn rate very low - they will effectively become a production house and ad sales team for their partners. If they can complete the transition before they run out of cash, Podtech could still have a bright future ahead of it.
The magic words: if they don’t run out of cash.
Scoble left a hint in one of his recent posts about just how much time it might be before Podtech completely implodes. On a post July 19 titled “Changes at Podtech”, he wrote:
Just for the record, I’m 100% committed to PodTech and the moves that John Furrier and the executive team is making and won’t reevaluate my career until Spring of 2008.
Summer of 2008, Scoble heads back to Microsoft? Becomes Apple evangelist? No odds will be given on Scoble replacement at Podtech when that happens.
Scoble and wife Maryam are having a baby in a couple months and they have racked up some new bills with an expensive house. Take it from a guy with three boys, kids ain’t cheap. I hope Scoble lands on his feet somewhere else with a good paying gig when — not if, it seems unfortunately — Podtech tanks. Scoble is one of the nice guys out there, contributing a mountain of neverending raw tech footage with some gold in them thar hills. Sidenote: no clue if the Podtech budget cuts mean that Scoble’s editor got the axe too.
As for the other content created at Podtech? I’m sure many outside Podtech are saying: “what content?” because they haven’t had a single Rocketboom to their credit. Too bad with talented, but marginally focused guys like Loren Feldman they couldn’t generate a breakout title. Video and podcasting isn’t nearly as easy as it looks. Speaking of Feldman, check out how he artfully calls out Nick Douglas at Valleywag’s negative Podtech coverage because Podtech said no to Look Crappy, er Shiny. More proof that Feldman has comedy chops? Check out his Om Malik impression below
Funny stuff, but something your company can build a business model around? Probably not unless you’re Loren’s company 1938 Media and doing direct ad deals. Doubtful that Podtech can do anything with this type content that they haven’t already done. And don’t even get me started again on mixed message shows like the one hosted by Jennifer Jones. Not a tech audience? I’m still chuckling over that one.
Mixed reviews of Podtech’s future direction
You’ve probably figured out that I’m not in agreement with TechCrunch that it’s a good move to focus on finding other Ze Frank’s and Rocketboom’s out there especially with Steve Gillmor as their new VP of Creative Development. Gillmor is one of the most obtuse guys I’ve ever listened to or read. Some think he’s genius like professors at conferences who rattle on about the long tail but he’s failed keeing this writer’s attention for longer than a few minutes.
Raise your hand if you can actually understand most of what Gillmor is saying. If he’s your company talent scout, you might as well pack in the production now, tickets are going to cry dust. Gillmor could be a really swell guy in person, as Kent Newsome has met him and recounts, but I’d much rather follow what his much more coherent brother Dan is doing on the web. Crap dice, Podtech.
Again.
Personally, I think PodTech would be smarter to fold up shop early while they still have money and pick another niche. Perhaps build some killer app with the remaining funds and ride that pony. Beating the dead horse of monetizing podcasting is a noble goal, but doesn’t seem to hold much in the way of a true business model. Many have tried to monetize podcasting and failed. I know we all want to believe that citizen journalism and radio is the new frontier but, you know what, it’s not. I believe anybody can be a talent, but it takes time, effort, money and lots and lots of practice. You don’t just turn on the cameras and microphones and become the next Larry King or Oprah Winfrey.
A good day for reflection surrounding goals of amateur content creation. If you produce a podcast and/or videoblog, who is your audience? Why are you doing it? What are you hoping to get out of the experience? If you’re looking to learn a new skill, hone an existing one and/or broaden your publishing horizons more power to you. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing with the weekday Hmmcasts. I don’t have any lofty goals for the production and think it’s fairly clear that I’m experimenting and learning a heck of a lot about the skills that go into the ongoing production and publishing of a videoblog. It’s never a bad thing to increase your skillset and I know that time is the most powerful ingredients in any venture.
At Podtech, and in the immortal words of a great Iron Maiden song, the sands in the hourglass are running low. Running lowwwwwwww.
