Recently in Entertainment Category

Some Serious iTunes Goodness–2 of 2

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Tip of the fedora to Dan for this great idea.

Do you ever get tired of hearing the same music over and over again from your iTunes library?  Here's a possible cure.

Select all of the music in your music library.  Right click on one of the highlighted items and select "Reset Plays" to make the play count for each item "0." Create a smart playlist based on whatever criteria you want.  As the final criteria, add Plays is 0.  Click OK.

Now, once you have listened to an item in the playlist, it drops out of the playlist.

Dan syncs all of his music library to his iPod.  Every time he listens to a song the play count goes to "1" for that song.  When he re-syncs his iPod to his computer, that song drops out of the play list.  At the end of the year, he starts over.

 

A Gifted Stage Presence

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Do you know who this is, filming a movie in Dublin? Check out this link for more info and a picture of the character versus the actual person playing the roll. You will be surprised, I think. One of my favorites. And I had no idea!

Hint: 63 years old!

This Just Slays Me

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Tip of the ole fedora to Jon Spivey, who shared this on his Facebook Wall.  I laughed out loud.  It's short.  It's both tragic and hysterical.

One can only assume that the poor organist quietly slipped out the back and left town.

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Merry iChristmas from the iBand

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Boys and their toys!  Of course, I can't complain.  I would be up their with them if this were my church.  While not particularly musically gratifying, this is certainly clever, creative and fun.

North Point Community Church's iBand.  (YouTube Link)

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You Go, Jon Stewart!!

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Jon Stewart is smart and funny.  I love how he refers to Glenn Beck as his kid's college fund.  Well, if Palin (Will she ever go away!  Who keeps paying for us to see her, anyway?!) and Beck can have a rally, so can sane people.

The Rally to Restore Sanity, being held by Jon Stewart, is slated for 10-30-10 in Washington DC!  I wish I could go.  It has to be a great and funny event about something serious. Here's how Stewart describes it:

We live in troubled times, with real people who have real problems. ... Problems that have real but imperfect solutions, that I believe 70 to 80 percent of our population could agree to try, and ultimately live with. Unfortunately, the conversation and the process is controlled by the other 15 to 20 percent.

"You may know them as the people who believe that Obama is a secret Muslim planning a socialist takeover of America ... or that George Bush let 9/11 happen to help pad Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock portfolio. You've seen their signs: 'Obama is Hitler'; 'Bush is Hitler'... But why don't we hear from the 70 to 80 percenters? Well, most likely because you have @^#% to do."

The voice of the moderate majority in this country needs to be heard.  Moderates need to be seen.  Extremism has got to go!

Stephen Colbert, another funny guy, will also be participating with his "Keep Fear Alive" rally.  Follow rally developments on Twitter.

Comic Time Lapse

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About a month ago they measured. This week they installed.

The shutters completely change the feeling of the living room.  Tim likes.

Here you have about 4 hours of worked distilled into 1 minute and 20 seconds. Enjoy.

 

The Immorality of the Morality Police

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I recently was in a very large church facility.  My visit had nothing to do with the church.  The event managers had simply secured this facility for the event.  I was sickened by what I saw.

The people of this church have built a mega-multi-million dollar facility.  It was beyond enormous.  The power bill alone would be beyond the entire budgets of the churches I attended as a child.  The facility was so large, I felt as though I were in one of the super malls:  one section had a two story (at least) plexiglass enclosed children's play area with the largest set of the tubes kids can crawl around in I've ever seen in my life, one section was bigger than several Starbucks combined and had that wonderful freshly ground coffee bean smell, large living trees were all about, the "sanctuary" could easily stage any contemporary rock concert, broadway show, or symphony, the gym facilities and enclosed olympic pool were stunning.  And I only walked in and later walked out.  I didn't go exploring the vast hallways to see where they led.

As I walked in, along the right side of a large corridor was at least 12 wireless credit card-based cash registers on rolling carts.  They could be wheeled anywhere in the enormous facility to take your payments.  Who knows what the church sells on Sundays besides their mocha lattes.

I was devastated.  This "place of worship" is a testimony to greed and selfishness, part of the "it's all about me" philosophy that has brought our nation's economy to brink of bankruptcy.

I found this organization to be revolting.  I felt tainted for having been in it.

This is not a church.  It's an enormous business enterprise.  It was built from the ground up with tax-except dollars that gave each contributor a tax benefit.  It can therefore offer its "services" at below market value.

I can't imagine the people of this organization (I can’t bear to call it a church.) living the beatitudes that the savior they claim to follow taught from his own lips.  Instead, I see their Jesus, the Christ, coming into that place and, in a complete rage, ripping out the wireless cash registers and money-making ventures.

How have they so lost touch with the teachings they claim to follow?!  This isn't just hypocrisy or big tax-free business.  This is evil!

And, tragically, I am confident that the vast majority of the people who attend and support this mega-enterprise are good people.  But their organization has lost touch with what the church is all about.

 

The Face & Voice of an Angel

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The most unexpected thing: you immediately forget your look at a child, because what you are hearing is the rapturous soprano voice of an adult. Then, at then end, when the host announces her prize, and the tears flow, you realize that she is indeed a 10 year old child.  Jackie Evancho's voice is astounding.

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Bored at the Hotel

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Normally, when I travel, I keep pretty busy.  But this past trip, when I arrived at the hotel, I did a quick digital checkin and then flipped on the TV —a rare thing. I couldn't find anything of interest; so, I left the TV on HBO with some crazy vampire thing, TrueBlood, about to start. I had some passive knowledge that HBO had a series about vampires and thought it ridiculous.

They played two episodes back to back. So awesome! I'm now completely hooked! I bought the first two seasons at the iTunes store (Season One, Season Two) and have now caught up.  Unfortunately, HBO has not released any episodes in the current season (three).  Season four has been scheduled for production.

HBO has a brilliant marketing campaign for the series, including bottles of "TrueBlood" that can be purchased. I particularly like this iPhone wallpaper, a special bandage just for vampire bites for "fang bangers." If they sold these, I think I would purchase a box as a conversation starter!

Alan Ball, of American Beauty and Six Feet Under (both of which I loved!) is the creator and producer of the series. I think he also is one of the screenwriters for this series, which is based on the book series by Charlaine Harris. However, a quick internet search reveals that the HBO series includes at least one additional character not found in the novels.

The intro to the HBO series is fantastically evocative and exquisitely sets the tone for the series! The music, with its cajun influence, is awesome.  I bought some of the tracks at the iTunes store.  The small town setting in Louisiana is compelling and authentically done. The symbolism is nothing short of brilliant. The religious overtones are, as they should be, nothing short of disturbing. The set design, lighting, casting, and costume design are flawless. This series is exceptionally well done!

Lost: The TV Series

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The most brilliant storytelling ever on television. Ever!

Epic. Heart wrenching. Complex. Ever evolving. Captivating. Brilliantly crafted. Flash backs. Flash Forwards. Flash sideways. Convergence.

Ironically, I didn't watched it on TV until the final episode. Even then, I didn't see it live. I saw it on my iPod and my iPad as an iTunes purchase. Another first. Every episode.

I will miss the characters.

Brilliant!

 


The Canon 5DmkII

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I really like my Canon 5DmkII DLSR.  I've grown a lot more comfortable with it and am continuously amazed at what it produces.  Nothing astounds me more than the HD video it shoots.

I'm not a person who watches TV.  I've never watched the TV series House.  But this year's season finale of House is notable because it is the first TV episode to be shot entirely using the Canon 5DmkII.  Take a peek at the teaser.  The image quality is stunning.

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The Matrix Is Here, Dude

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Americans need to stand up and say, "Hell No!  We will not live out SciFi!"

Hollywood claims that, in the future, they will allow you to see movies that are currently in the theater at home on your TV set while the movie is in the theater.

Horse Manure!  Here's what Tim predicts: DVD's as we know them today will go away.  The price of movies will go up.

To see any movie, you will be forced to stream it over the Internet to your TV.  To keep you from ripping a copy of the movie by sending the audio and video feed out of your TV and into a DVR or other recording device, Hollywood will reach into your home, into your TV set, and shut off these outputs.

[Apple has already quietly pulled off shutting off your external computer monitor jack when playing HD content.  Did you know this Apple users???  Go ahead and try it on one of the newer Mac laptops.  Try plugging in a projector to your laptop (with the new MiniDisplay port) and playing an HD movie you purchased from the iTunes Store.  It doesn't work now, does it.  It will only play through the AppleTV or on a specific Apple monitor.  Isn't this just the most clever thing.  Guess what Apple is up to!]

What else will they want to do in 10 years?

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Hollywood will soon have the power to remotely disable the analog outputs on your set-top box, under a decision by federal regulators on Friday intended to prevent home recording of new movie releases.

The move by the Federal Communications Commission grants cable and satellite providers the power to block consumers from viewing just-released movies in an analog format through a process known as Selectable Output Control. Hollywood requested SOC powers as a condition of allowing providers for the first time to release movies to their in-home customers while the film is in theaters.

The Motion Picture Association of America said its member studios would not authorize the early movie releases unless it won the ability to deploy Selectable Output Control. The reason: Analog video signals can easily be recorded, while dig"

[Source: FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks | Threat Level | Wired.com.]

 

Boys and girls:  This is not a good thing.

 

'Tis the Season

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Yes, The Oscars are upon us!

Back when I first visited my new dentist (who, incidentally, I really like!), I drove by a building I thought to be a church.  I was surprised to see that it is The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences--the people responsible for The Oscars!  I made a mental note.

Today, with the festivities fast upon us, I drove back out there and took some pictures of the building as well as the Hollywood sign, which is only about 5 miles further.  Three pictures of the Academy lurk behind the one shown below.  Click it to see them all.

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And, in a moment of delirium, I've decided to share with you two versions of the identical photograph of the Hollywood sign:  the actual shot itself as it came out of my Canon 5d Mark II, and then the "public version" of the same exact picture after I did a little bit of piddling.

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The image is cropped; the roof, telephone pole and wires (enlarge to see) are removed; the sky especially (and the image as a whole) has a bit of my 11 different herbs and spices; and the electronics, fence, and road at the top of the hill are all removed.

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About this Page About this Archive

This page is an archive of recent entries in the Entertainment category.

Creativity is the previous category.

Environment is the next category.

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