DVD RELEASE DELAYS LEAVE RETAILERS UNFAZED

This is why Hollywood hates the free market:

Netflix appeared to shrug off the latest announcement from Warner Bros. Home Video that it will double the delay — to 56 days — between the time it releases its DVDs to retailers and the time it makes them available at wholesale prices to online renters and kiosk operators. Warner Bros. was not allowing those DVDs to be streamed anyway, and since Netflix is focusing on its streaming business and apparently attempting to phase out its DVD-by-mail business, the new delay would seem to have little impact on its overall strategy. B. Riley & Co. analyst Eric Wold told Bloomberg News that while Netflix may seem unaffected by the move, for kiosk operators like Redbox and Blockbuster Express, where new releases dominate their rentals, “that kind of delay would really hurt them.” Both kiosk operators are expected to begin buying new releases at retail discounters like Wal-Mart and Best Buy and making them available on a next-day basis.

The customers are just as willing to wait, and by the time those 56 days roll around, we’ll probably have forgotten all about these stupid movies.

‘AVATAR’ SEQUELS MAY BE FURTHER AWAY THAN YOU EXPECTED

Is that a promise?

Bleeding Cool recently caught up with AVATAR producer Jon Landau, who told them that the first of James Cameron’s sequels is “four years away”, which potentially puts AVATAR 2 in theaters around 2015 or 2016.

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Via Yahoo:

“I feel incredibly honored to have been invited to the Marine Corps Ball by Sgt. Dustin L. Williams,” Johansson said in a statement to Zap2It. “Not only does Sgt. Williams deserve recognition for his bravery, selflessness and dedication to the United States and its people, but he also displays a cheeky talent for film making. Sgt. Williams, unfortunately due to prior commitments I will not be able to attend the Ball with you this year but I am sending you a case of Moet and Chandon with gratitude. In my absence, I raise a glass to you and all the men and women of the U.S. Marine Corps, past and present, in thanks for your continued commitment to preserving the safety of our nation.”

A kind and gracious response, no?

It sounds like Williams will be understanding of Johansson’s conflict.

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Military Times:

Due to the immense media attention Sgt. Scott Moore has received for his YouTube Marine Corps Ball invitation to Mila Kunis and the operational tempo of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, he has elected to make a written statement and answer the most commonly asked questions. …

Q.1 Where are you and what do you do?
A.1 I currently serve as the data chief for 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. My military occupational specialty is Data Systems Technician, which is responsible for implementing and monitoring security measures for Marine Corps communication information systems networks, and ensuring that systems and personnel adhere to established security standards. My unit is located within the district of Musa Qal’eh in the Northern Helmand province of Afghanistan.

Q.2 How did you come up with the idea for the video?
A.2 It was kind of a bet between me and Marines in my platoon. I told everyone I was going to do it, but they didn’t think I would go through with it. One day we had a couple minutes, and I took another Marine out with me and we shot two takes. The first one was without sunglasses but I was squinting too much because it was so bright, so we shot the one I uploaded to YouTube. The rest of the Marines liked it, so I posted it that day.

Q.3 When you posted the video, did you ever think you’d really get a date with Mila?
A.3 I always thought I had a chance, and sometimes that’s all you need. The Marines I work with did their best to spread it around.

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Josh Fox has responded to valid journalistic questions about his documentary Gasland by stifling the freedom of the press.

I travelled to Chicago for a Q&A where Fox admitted hiding facts from his documentary that contradicted his scaremongering about drilling for natural gas.

And Fox’s response when we posted the video on YouTube – he got his lawyers to have YouTube pull it down.

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That’s right – he has tried to use lawyers to silence journalist from asking difficult questions and putting his answers to those questions on the Internet.

Fox’s excuse is a breach of copyright. In a video that is 3:10 minutes long we used 26 seconds of Gasland only to show how Fox was being unethical and misleading. It is a classic case of “fair use” of someones work for the purpose of criticism and is totally legally allowed if not encouraged under fair use law.

But Fox does not want any criticism. He does not want any freedom of speech.

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Praise be, they’re back.

MTV has recently announced the triumphant return of Beavis and Butt-head. Original series creator Mike Judge is on board to produce new episodes which will air on the one-time music network later this year.

As John Altschuler, head writer for the new series, explained to Rolling Stone, “In the years since Mike quit doing ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ he realized that there was a lot to make fun of.”  The pair will reportedly be the same Metal-loving, nacho-chomping numskulls they were back in the day (the last episode of the original series aired in 1997), but with a twist: instead of sitting on the couch and watching and pillorying music videos, they will now be sitting on the couch and taking aim at clips from YouTube and reality shows like “Jersey Shore.”

No doubt that modern pop culture (culture! Imagine I wrote that with a straight face) will provide much fodder for the un-dynamic duo, but I wonder…

Beavis and Butt-head seemed so much a product of their times, those gay ’90’s, when the Cold War ended with a whimper and the nation could afford a President with nothing better to do than chase interns around the Oval Office. Beavis and Butt-head both rode and propelled this peculiar, peace-dividend zeitgeist; Americans loved hanging out with these horny, semi-retarded boys, because really, what else did we have to do? (more…)

I’m a mom with a full-time job and two dogs, so spending $75 on a babysitter and a couple of movie tickets so I can take a nap in a dark theater is not my idea of a good time.  Television isn’t much better.  I anxiously awaited HBO’s The Pacific only to be given a selective recollection of World War II as seen through a post-9/11 prism.  Then there was AMC’s The Walking Dead. It really had me up until the final episode’s waning moments when a member of the CDC explained that, when it came to the Zombie Apocalypse, the French scientists were the picture of courage while the Americans cried like babies.  Yeah, right.  The reanimated dead are walking the earth?  Okay, fine.  But the world’s foremost country in waving the white flag is now the paragon of bravery?  That’s a bridge too far.

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Since 2010 only got me out to the movies twice (that I can remember) to see The Town and The Social Network, the internet became one of my main forms of entertainment.  That was where I found Drinking with Bob. Sure, he looks a little angry, but so am I.  However, thanks to Bob, I don’t need to get my blood pressure to the boiling point; he’s here to do it for me.  I was starving for an alternative viewpoint.  Sick and tired of being distracted by liberal celebrities and their need for attention, I needed some meaning.  And strangely enough, Bob delivered.

Somewhere in between Facebook, Sean Hannity, and the occasional Tivo’d Red Eye, I found Bob’s rants.  His website and YouTube channel represent the reason the internet has become an alternative venue for entertainment for so many.  It doesn’t have any sponsors or politically correct audience to temper its intent or its delivery.  Sure there is a lot of crap, but when you come across a gem like Drinking with Bob, it makes it all worthwhile.  Each installment starts off with: “What’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next…” and then blasts off into a tirade over anything from the NFL cancelling a game due to snow to why he thinks Ben Affleck is a hypocritical d-bag.  He covers it all and no one is safe, especially President Obama and his nonsensical policies.  You know the ones that make you want to punch your own head, like spending millions on a census commercial during the Super Bowl?  (more…)

Here’s a little mid-week scare courtesy of the 4thgraders4obama YouTube Channel. (Don’t waste your time — I searched high and low and no luck finding the 4thgraders4bush YouTube Channel.) Yes, you read that right, an entire portal filled with nearly a dozen videos devoted to nine and ten year-olds singing, speaking and in general, getting awfully excited over a politician on the brink of having us all long for the good old days of Jimmy Carter. Here’s a taste:

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The programmer teacher is Ms. Clark (she makes a short appearance here), but there wasn’t anything that identified the actual school. In last week’s Elementary Epidemic you saw a mix of Obama-enthusiasm. Some of the videotaped students were reminiscent of POWs speaking against their will on camera as they blink a Morse code plea for help, others were truly excited — and it’s the excited ones that are most worrisome. They’re gone. Lost forever… Ms. Clark’s entire class is like that.

The 4thgraders4obama videos do give us a broader glimpse into the methodology at work in our nation’s classrooms. In a couple of the videos you’ll see the kids watching President Obama on television and the whole class is as giddy as though they were in line for Space Mountain. Other videos have the kids standing before the camera reading what sounds like love letters to the First Family. Public or private school — that makes no difference. You don’t do this to young minds. There’s a wide berth between infusing your children with values and this. (more…)

People have it all wrong about Richard Heene.  He’s not the perpetrator of a poorly-executed hoax, but a victim, a victim of America’s callous disregard for those who suffer from the silent plague that is Media Absence Disorder (MAD).

Sadly, the dead white males who imposed the Constitution on America enumerated only negative rights that limit the power of the government over its citizens.  But if you squint your eyes and look beyond obstacles like the plain text, lurking in there somewhere behind the penumbras and emanations is the positive right of every American to be a TV star.  Those with MAD are not cretins to be shunned but civil rights visionaries at the edge of a new frontier of governmental largess and probably a lot of profitable litigation.

It’s obvious that American society has failed the Heene family.  After he and his brood’s triumphant appearances on Wife Swap, Heene was left media-deficient and was forced to feed his addiction with crude YouTube videos.  In one, he speculated that Hilary Clinton is a shape-shifting space reptile, which would be totally cool if true.  In another, he claimed that he spoke to aliens at a local fast food restaurant, which is actually pretty typical, at least at Southern California fast food joints.

This sad state of affairs was a direct result of the deep, black emptiness in Heene’s life that could never be filled by superficial things like work, religion or family.  Like all MAD-men, he craves, needs, must have the validation that only comes from having his mug flashing across America’s television screens.  He not only wants his MTV, he has to have it.  And we owe it to him. (more…)

“On November 4th 2008, we held a mock presidential election in my third grade classroom. Students spoke their minds about the candidates, and I facilitated making sure all sides were heard. Secret ballots were cast, and Barack Obama won getting 18 out of 20 votes. John McCain and Cynthia McKinney split the remainder. Later that night of course history was made.” — misterbee

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The video, lyrics and an explanation of how the video came to be were posted on YouTube, September 7th, 2009, by user misterbee2009:

The Obama Song (“Proud American”)
By Mr. B and the students of Room 8
February 2009

Obama is the President!
First African America in history
44th president of the United States
The ground has shifted
The world has changed! (more…)

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah.

They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned.

When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came to my office to show me the video of him and his friend, Hannah Giles, going to the Baltimore offices of ACORN – the nation’s foremost “community organizers” – dressed as a pimp and a prostitute and asking for – and getting – help for various illegal activities, he sought my advice. In the past, Mr. O’Keefe created brilliant social satire that rocked his college campus and even made its way on to the talk-radio and cable-news shows, but the magnitude of his latest adventure had the potential to rock the political establishment.

I was awed by Mr. O’Keefe’s guts and amazed by the footage, but explained that the mainstream media would try to kill this important and illuminating expose about a corrupt and criminal political racket, and that the well-funded political left would go into “war room” mode, with 25-year-old Mr. O’Keefe and 20-year-old cohort Miss Giles in the cross hairs. I felt I had a moral obligation to protect these young muckrakers from the left and from the media, and to devise a strategy that would force the media’s hand.  (more…)

This week’s Washington Times column:

Now that White House “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones has resigned, what’s next?

Inevitably, the American mainstream media – ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, et al – must be held to account for sitting on the sidelines as this major story kept building without them, went viral on YouTube, and then became so large that a key appointee of President Obama was forced to step down.

But with their decision to ignore the Jones story, they may have actually done Mr. Obama far more harm than good: Who vetted this guy? How did he get past the FBI? What did he say, and how did he answer the infamous seven-page questionnaire that all Obama appointees were required to fill out? Inquiring Freedom of Information Act minds want to know.

For most people in this country, the resignation was the first they had heard of Van Jones. For this sin of journalistic omission, there’s institutional media blame. Bias is too tame a word for the utter shamelessness on display: Only Republican scandals – real and imagined – matter. (more…)

Now that Bush is out of office and Palin has become a Tweeter, the left has been searching for other straw men to hang in effigy. Lately, Fox News’ Glenn Beck is filling the bill. He has been ever since he switched to Fox in January and became a major player there.

On Wednesday he attracted three million viewers with guests like Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove.

In fact, the more the left hates Beck, the more popular he becomes.

A race-based pressure group called “ColorOfChange” has been running a boycott against Beck for the last few weeks because he said he thinks President Obama may be racist against white people. And, because he dared to express an opinion they don’t agree with, ColorOfChange has been trying to get every advertiser on the show to pull their ads. Apparently they don’t believe in free speech or opinions that run contrary to their agenda.

But Beck’s ratings are soaring ever since the boycott started. And it hasn’t really affected Fox’s revenues as the advertisers who pulled their ads just moved them to other shows. The problem with boycotts is they end up promoting the thing they try to destroy. Movies that probably would have failed before they were “banned in Boston” often make a profit. TV shows that get boycotted often go on to become hits — people want to see what the fuss is about. And if the show is entertaining, they attract steady viewers. (more…)

On April 1, California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s campaign for U.S. Senate against Barbara Boxer released the YouTube, “After the Hope of November is Gone,” a parody video based on Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.” The video criticized President Obama and mocked celebs like Henley who have been made “crazy” with desire over the President. 

It took just six days for Henley to file a copyright claim under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and YouTube immediately took the video down.  

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Refusing to be intimidated, DeVore fired back with a DMCA counter-notification and on April 14th created another YouTube parody aimed at Boxer’s support for cap-and-trade. ”All She Wants to do is Tax” is based Henley’s “All She Wants to do is Dance” and immediately began racking up 10,000 views a day.

Though he doesn’t hold the rights to ”Dance,” Henley filed a federal suit against DeVore and encouraged the true copyright holder to file a copyright infringement complaint with YouTube.  Within a few days YouTube took DeVore’s second video down. Then DeVore caught Henley off guard and fought back with a counter-suit claiming Henley was infringing on his First Amendment right to political parody.   (more…)

This week’s Washington Times column:

Mario Lavandeira, the mean-spirited impresario behind the celebrity-obsessed mega-Web site PerezHilton.com, was left scratching his pink-tinged pompadour last week, wondering aloud in a campy cry-baby YouTube classic why, after being physically assaulted in public, he is now universally scorned and widely considered the villain of an incident that left him appropriately “black eyed.”

Aside from the basic rules of karma, here’s why: The calculus of political correctness is like roshambo, the “rock-paper-scissors” game. Different identity groups hold specific levels of power over others when their battles play out in the media. To wit: Black beats white. Gay beats white. Black beats gay.

Don’t ask why. It just is.

For those not paying attention to this tawdry tale, Mr. Lavandeira, aka Perez Hilton and the self-proclaimed “Queen of All Media,” referred to Will.I.Am, the black frontman of the platinum-selling Black Eyed Peas, by an anti-gay slur at an after-party of the MuchMusic Awards in Canada.

This interlude was born of the L.A.-based hip hop trio’s displeasure over critical comments about their recent album on the Perez Hilton Web site. The affair later culminated in the band’s black manager, Polo Molina, reportedly slugging Mr. Lavandeira after an evening of silly ego- skirmishes between the two parties. (more…)

Perez Hilton aka Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. is the worst.  I’m not just referring to his much-publicized hit job on Carrie Prejean during the Miss USA contest.  I’m referring to his entire career.  His website, PerezHilton.com, is a parade of puerile garbage, a sleazy attempt to raise himself to celebrity status by tearing down other celebrities.

So it was not unsatisfying to watch his latest run-in with fellow Obama-supporter, assumed-name-fellow-traveler, Will.i.am.  In fact, it was delicious. Perez Hilton/Mario got into a verbal confrontation with Will.i.am, which ended with gay Mario calling Will.i.am a “faggot.”  Will.i.am’s manager then got into the act, punching Mario in the eye.  To which Mario responded with an enraged and hilarious YouTube video.  Because, after all, what better way to respond to being punched than to bitch about it on your blog?  (more…)

Apparently, reality TV couple Spencer and Heidi Pratt – who got their start on MTV’s The Hills and are now a part of this summer’s I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here – have run afoul of one of NBC’s reality programming head honchos with their latest attention-getting antics.

“They are everything that’s wrong with America,” executive vice president of alternative programming for NBC and Universal Media Studios, Paul Telegdy, said in a statement to Access Hollywood. “They are insincere, lazy, entitled and they claim the devil has possessed them.”

Apparently the couple not only demanded the royal treatment, but threatened to quit more than once and basically acted like a couple of spoiled brats.

I’d like to ask Mr. Telegdy: what did he expect? Reality shows take everyday people and turn them into minor celebrities overnight. It’s not like they had to work for years honing their craft while they waited tables and went on endless auditions, hoping and praying for their big break. (Of course, if one or both of your parents is Hollywood royalty, you skip that part and move right on to the big time.) The only “work” involved in reality stardom is standing in line to audition, hoping to get picked; although sometimes people with unusual life circumstances are approached by producers who hope to exploit their lives for ratings that translate into dollar signs (think Nadya Suleman, lovingly referred to by society as the “Octomom”). (more…)

I was going to let this one go.  I like the story, I was a fan, and it made me smile and yeah, (sniff) warmed my heart, too.  But after a week-long worldwide hoopla, and finally this morning hearing Mike Gallagher gush about this story on his radio show, (plus the fact that I’ve been mysteriously stricken this year with a terminal case of Can’t-Shut-Up Syndrome)…

…I must weigh in.

(Hey you think living with me is fun?  Ask my family – I’m insufferable.)

Susan Boyle became an overnight sensation with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent.   A rather frumpy and homely middle-aged woman by today’s beauty standards, she presented an unlikely candidate for singing stardom last week in front of the Celebrity judges, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, and Piers Morgan.  But as she began to sing, everyone was snapped into shock, so unanticipated was her fine singing voice.  The ovation and accolades that followed went straight to YouTube and set Boyle on the road to viral cyberspace superstardom. (more…)

All She Wants to Do is Tax! Music video parody of Barbara Boxer in time for the tea party rallies. 

Political parody has a long tradition in the West, with the First Amendment affording significant protections for political speech.  In spite of that, our political parody of President Obama, “After the Hope of November is Gone” using rocker Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” as the vehicle attracted the wrath of Henley, as he engaged lawyers to threaten an alternative paper and temporarily bounced the music video from YouTube.  (more…)

The laughless legions of the left have struck again. Eagles band member Don Henley demanded the removal of my “Hope of November” parody song on YouTube.  YouTube took the music video Obama parody down yesterday after it was approaching 1,000 views.  

I was inspired to write the lyrics for “Hope of November” using Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” as a starting point after I saw a fading Obama bumper sticker while campaigning in the Bakersfield area.  

Liberal warriors are notorious for their thin skins and Don Henley is no exception. 

Perhaps I should mine some of Henley’s other songs for satirical gold.  “The End of the Innocence” comes to mind.  That 1989 song slammed Ronald Reagan, a man I worked for in the Defense Department, in the form of the line, “they’re beating plowshares into swords, for the tired old man that we elected king.”  At this line in the song the music video shows several Reagan posters while at the line “armchair warriors lead us into war” a television displays scenes of LtCol Oliver North’s congressional testimony.  Or perhaps the overbearing lyrics of “Little Tin God” will do.  The line referring to Reagan, “The cowboy’s name was Jingo,” cries out for parodic reengineering.  (more…)