I’ve survived the summer using Hulu, HBO Go, channel sites, and iTunes in case of emergency. For the most part I can watch most of what I want. It gets to be a pain having to go to a bunch of different places and keep track of what I’ve watched. Only Hulu has a decent queue system, HBO has a watchlist but it doesn’t seem to update quickly or remove things I’ve watched. Some of the channel sites are pretty awful. Actually, all except Hulu and HBO are pretty awful.

Not all shows are online. It’s frustrating how even some networks pick and choose what is available. What makes even less sense are the shows that they decide to put on, but not for a month after it originally airs. Tosh.0 and The Car Show are the ones airing now, and I’m pretty sure Real World was like that on Hulu as well. The Real World makes some sense because it was available on the MTV site. MTV makes their own money from streaming it for a month and then makes it available to a wider audience to make a few more bucks. The others aren’t available on their channel’s site (Car Show’s site just embeds the Hulu player).

Ok, it’s helpful that the shows are available eventually, but what are they trying to accomplish with this delay? I can think of two types of Hulu users:

Catching up with Hulu – People don’t see the start of a show or miss a few episodes. Hulu is great to get back on top of a show and then start watching again on TV. I’m assuming the top goal of the network is to get people to watch a show on TV. Delaying posting for a month means you never have the option to go back to TV until the next season starts.

Online Viewer – Maybe some people just live online and watch everything online. They are fine waiting the month, because they don’t really know any better. But there is no reason to make them wait. All that’s being done is splitting these people off from the people who are up to date. This kills off talking about the show.

The other option is iTunes but paying $2-$3/episode to catch up or buying a seson pass that costs more than the DVDs will cost (and don’t give you the DVDs) is not something I’m willing to do. The only show I bought on iTunes this summer is The Soup. It wasn’t available for streaming and I thought $6 for 8 episodes was a very fair price.

I don’t know how to solve this exactly. The Hulu Plus model should open up more options of how this can be handled by having their free and paying users. How about this method. Just post every show the next day. For the free viewers only leave the show up for a week or two. Then everyone is on the same page. No reason to have a large catalog of more than one or two episodes. The network obviously doesn’t care about the catch-up audience. Paying customers can get more of the old shows. Even a day or two window that only paying customers can access is valid. The rule the network needs to follow is that everyone should be able to watch the last episode before a new one airs on TV.

For me, I’m just going to put these shows in my Hulu queue and then forget about them until a new episode shows up. I won’t be able to talk about them with people who watched them live or the week they aired. I won’t share clips from something like Tosh.0 because they will be stale by a month.

One more thing I need to menion are ads. I’m ok with the 30-60 second ads. However, TBS has started 3 minute commercial breaks on Conan. I’m watching on my computer. A 3 minute break and I start browsing and forget what I’m watching. I’ll mute it and play something else and then forget I was watching until the show is half over. Now when I watch Conan I just watch one segment.

Instead of trying to figure out how to ditch the DVR, I’m trying to figure out how to ditch Hulu Plus. The DVR is so much easier to deal with than this online mess of varying rights. When I get back home, I’m swtiching to Tivo, which will hopefully get my season passes in order (something Comcast couldn’t handle very well). Still, not having Daily Show and Colbert on a non-Tivo TV (using my blu-ray player) or my iPad will be difficult.

Wait, What? is by far the best segment on Norm’s Sports Show. I like that now they don’t introduce the segment so you figure it out while watching. I’m not even looking for it. When you hear these stories it’s so obvious that you just say it to yourself.

Not sure this is peppy enough for the summer soundtrack. But just listen. It’s so familiar and catchy. A few seconds in, it sounds like you’ve heard it a thousand times before.

Source

Then I noticed a lot of people, who wouldn’t normally be into that sorta thing really liking her.

Then I saw this video of what happened when she had a soundboard failure and gained a whole new level of respect for her. One of the things that drives me nuts about popular music these days is it has completely lost the ‘show must go on’ attitude, I need not mention all the lip singing scandals in recent years.  When they tried to pull her off the stage she said, “I promised them a 30 minute set, and I’m not stopping.” That is awesome, more artists should follow her example. It’s good to see a popular artist that really understands this.

Then I saw this video of a performance before she became Lady Gaga. You can’t ignore that talent. She knows how to play and man she can sing. That video knocked me over. In a same respect this is a more recent video  with an acoustic performance of Poker Face.

And most recent was this video with Elton John at the Grammy awards. It’s fantastic and I can’t in any fair mind call it anything else.

The evidence of her talent is overwhelming, you just can’t ignore it. But I can’t get into her normal pop style. It’s just not the kinda thing that sounds good to me. I feel like she isn’t playing what’s right for her… but I guess she wouldn’t get the audiences she does if she did anything else.

I guess I’ll remain a fan of her side stuff, because it is fantastic.

The Critics Choice awards had it right. They gave Avatar best action movie, best cinematography (although I don’t totally agree wit this, but I’ll survive), best art direction, best editing, best visual effects, and best sound. those were exactly the things that were great about Avatar, but those were the only things that were great about Avatar.

Okay, enough about Avatar.

So, when I first read about The Lovely Bones I was pretty stoked. I was excited to see Peter Jackson and his writing team step away from their usual fare of epics, and go into something smaller. The movie itself was a bit of a disappointment, but I can understand why Stanley Tucci is getting all the attention for it. Hell, if I hadn’t known he was in it, I never would have guessed. He did a great job at transforming into the character. Whenever he spoke it seemed a bit forced, but a majority of his part was without dialogue.

Tarantino has gotten completely shafted this year. He must be used to that by now.

I think one of the biggest surprises from 2009 would have to be Mo’Nique’s role in Precious, the awards seem to agree. I’ve never been a fan of hers, probably because she has only been in in awful movies. It’s clear now that given real content she’s a rock star. I hope she lands more quality stuff in the future.

Up in the Air was probably my favorite movie of 2009, It wasn’t just great at a few elements that make up film (I’m glaring at you Avatar), but everything was balanced beautifully. I’m glad it’s getting all it’s nominations, but I can understand why it’s being beaten out. Anna Kendrick was especially fantastic, and I hope she doesn’t get typecasted with her role in the Twilight Saga. After Up in the Air that would be a serious shame.

In my opinion Christoph Waltz had the most impressive performance of 2009. His part in Inglorious Basterds was legendary in a role that Tarantino thought was impossible to cast. I’m so glad he’s getting the attention he deserves. It’s a shame that it has taken this long for him to be seriously discovered.

I think Pixar is going to implode the first time another animated movie beats out one of their flicks. It should be alright though, because that probably will never happen.

Oscar nominations were just announced. Usually if you pay attention to award shows leading up to the Oscars you can make a pretty good guess at what will be nominated, and usually you can guess pretty accurately what will win. I’m glad that District 9 got a nomination for best picture, but it doesn’t need to win. I also hope Tarantino gets more from the Oscars then what he has gotten from the other awards. If Avatar wins best picture at the Oscars I’ll probably have a seizure.

List of nominees

…I guess you have to hand it to Cameron, he knows what the world wants… I guess… I’m not bitter at all I swear.

Moon (2009)

This was writer/director Duncan Jones’s first major film, and a very ambitious one. It saw mild international success with little in the states. It’s likened to Kubrik’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it stands on it’s own. It’s difficult to make a movie like this and have it be original, I basically felt I knew what to expect getting into it. I was thrown for a loop when I found out the plot was not to be expected. Sam Rockwell was given a roll that really would be difficult for any actor to pull off, and did it in a way that really lets the audience buy into it. This is important because his role gets very surreal and at points it would be easy to loose the audience. Moon is a great movie, and it is a shame that it saw as little success as it did. In 15 years I see it being one of the huge cult science fiction classics. Maybe it is just a little before it’s time.

Public Enemies (2009)

The main criticism of Public Enemies is it’s style. I have to say that I’m inclined to agree, at first. It doesn’t take long for you to get used to it’s style, and once you do it works well. Public Enemies is the story of the cat and mouse game  between the notorious gangster John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and the cop that is trying to catch him. As usual Johnny Depp manages to completely transform into his character, and it’s a nice departure from his usual role. Public Enemies tries to show the no holds barred lifestyle of John Dillinger, and what it takes to maintain. I will warn you, Christian Bale is frustratingly awful in this, but he does get better through the duration of the movie.

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

This is a quirky little project that is playfully charming and over the top all at the same time. It makes the viewer completely uncomfortable but laugh hysterically. It’s basically just the day in the life of simple people, and their odd lives. It somehow delivers risky and disturbing content in a way that it seems neither risky nor disturbing. There is not much more to say about it, except that you should see it. You will be pleased, and probably a little stunned.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

This is a movie that was hugely successful with critics, but just didn’t grab a large audience. It’s a gangster movie with a different approach and completely authentic feel. We watch as Jesse James observes, with much amusement, what he thinks is his biggest fan. We watch as Robert Ford comes to realize that reality the Jesse James mythology in which he has come to love, isn’t quite what he had hoped. Unlike your usual gangster movie, this glorifies nothing. We don’t think Jesse James is cool, or that the lifestyle is full of fame and riches. When we see Jesse ride off into the sunset on horseback, we only feel sympathy. This is just a movie about a kid with unrealistic desires, in a glorified lifestyle that he is unprepared for. A neat thing about this movie, is that there are distinct undertones that can potentially change the way you see the movie. I won’t explain these because I think they are interesting to discover on your own, I just want to point out that they are there. This is a long movie, and pretty slow, so it does take a level of patience to watch, but it is well worth it.

Primer (2004)

Primer is probably the most obscure movie on this list, and the most difficult. With a budget of only $7000 an incredible script is virtually the only trick they had in their bag. Luckily the script for this is incredible. This movie re-defines the idea of time travel in a way that confuses as well as leaves the audience in awe. One of the things I look for in a great movie, is that it has re-watch-ability, as in, if I watch it more then once, will I get more out of it, or do I get it all in the first go around. If this movie has anything, it has re-watch-ability. In fact, it’s required. I guarantee you will not completely grasp the intricate twists and turns that they have constructed on the first or even third watch. It’s a movie that will leave you completely unsatisfied because of how little you will understand, but it will leave you with a strange curiosity to watch it again. That is so unique to this film, it is completely unsatisfying, but you need more of it. This is really a movie that needs to be committed to, and studied, in order to understand, and it is great for that.

On a side note, I swear it’s purely coincidental that there are two gangster movies, as well as two Sam Rockwell movies on this list.

Amazon: Song Album