Thursday, December 25, 2008

Max...Sit. An Amuse Bouche Video.



Who says a Jack Russell Terrier can't sit still for longer than a minute?


Sunday, December 21, 2008

Free TV on the Internet

Here are some of the ways I have watched free television over the internet.

Hulu is not only a destination where I went to watch television. It is also a hub from which NBC Universal and News Corporation distribute content either by allowing users to embed video or by partnering with other web sites. Due to the former, I can embed video in my blog for free. Because of the latter, there are a number of web sites on which I can watch the same content.

OPENHulu uses the embed code from Hulu just like I could on my blog.

Veoh works just like OPENHulu; that is, it uses the embed code just like I could on my blog.

Fancast aggregates content from CBS, USA Network, Sci-Fi, and from Hulu. (So is Hulu a competitor or a wholesaler?)

ABC has a great site for their own shows. You have to download a plug-in but it was painless and the player has great controls.

TV4U is a strange-looking little site replete with episodes of rare classic television shows from the fifties and sixties, commercials and movies. I think it is all public domain and very well done.

Public Domain Movies is another site for the titular films. Well-organized and official-looking.

TV @ AOL Video is similar to Hulu and, in fact, carries their content. The difference between them all is getting murky though - maybe this site carries Warner stuff in addition?

Joost is one I just discovered and haven't delved too deeply into BUT it has Divorce His/Divorce Hers, the ABC Movie of the Week starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Lookin' good.

Metacafe is similar to YouTube.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

Go west on Route 66, take a few pictures and turn right.


Goodbye, Porpoise Spit!


Since that right turn, I've been driving around San Jose, California in my leased-for-Denver Toyota Tundra, a big honkin' truck with Colorado plates. It was never my intention to drive this big honkin' truck with Colorado plates in California which is why it was leased rather than bought. But here I am driving this big honkin' truck with Colorado plates on little Bailey Avenue with its one little driving lane and its one little parking lane. I'm the California cowboy.


GeorJet with whom I share an insurance plan.
We're pinned.


Walk proudly into Fry's (my least favorite store in the Bay Area) with my new moniker to return the Bluetooth ear phone I had bought to adhere to California's Hands Free Cellphone Law. As a technical writer I am applauded for my electronic acuity but the attempt to connect these two pieces of electronicity was so frustrating that the frustration soon eclipsed my desire to speak on the telephone while driving. So I am returning the earphone and calling from the side of the road (as others sociopathically flaunt their own law-breaking activities).


Excellent 1945 B-movie still playing in Barstow, CA in 2008
Watch it online here for free.


I had to give my telephone number to the sales clerk at Fry's to get my money back for the ear phone. After she punched it in the register, she spews names from the database.

Eduardo Caldez. Is that you?

No.

Nancy Miranda.

No but her name comes up when I use my telephone number at Safeway also.


She looks at me.

Robert Prince.

No but your closer. He's an old roommate.

michael teger.

That looks right but it should be capitalized.


I said this jokingly but she clicked one more forward.

Michael Teger?

There you go.



Feline Conservation Center Rosamond, CA
with brilliant end-of-clip commentary...simply brilliant.


On the list of things I will miss in Denver is the Denver Public Library. This library system is Blockbuster and Netflix in one. You go online, reserve what you want, and it is transferred to your local branch. I would then pick them up and drop them off on one of my walks with Max. The only DVD I recall them not having was the 7 disc box set of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's German television series Berlin Alexanderplatz. And I'm not being high-falutin'.

Now I go to the San Jose Public Library. When I try to reserve something online I can't. After searching the site I found this answer to a Frequently Asked Question:

Due to staffing budget cuts, Library staff are not able to search for and hold entertainment videos (DVD, VHS or VCD) or music CDs for you.


Online or in branch. So I either search the online, see which branch has the DVD, drive to that branch and hope that, in the time it takes to drive, it was not checked out by another member of the public OR just go to my branch and hope for the best. Sure they have the 7 disc box set of Rainer Fassbinder's German television series Berlin Alexanderplatz in rotation but who has the energy? Thanks Governor Schwarzenegger.


Be it ever so humble


Further down the list, we had a 2900 square foot house, three printers, and a dishwasher in Denver. In San Jose we have 900 square feet, three printers in boxes sitting in the carriage house (and I'm not being high-falutin' - it's a carriage house) and are considering the purchase of a portable dishwasher because it's really hard to go back to using your hands. I now feel that one of the last vestiges of uncivilized behavior is washing dishes by hand. And I am being high-falutin'!


There's no place like home


I think the infamous season-ending episode of the 1980s drama Dallas illustrated it best when, it turns out, Bobby Ewing woke up and discovered that he had dreamt everything that had happened during the year. I feel that sensation as I walk Max around our San Jose neighborhood again and think of Denver. Who knew the Dallas writers were on the cutting edge of clinical psychology?

I won't be the California cowboy much longer. I have to register the big honkin' truck in California come January. After that I'll be just another California resident driving a gas guzzler to his home in San Jose. What a feeling.





Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bad DVD Cover Art: Day of the Dead Edition

When I first reviewed the 2008 reimagining of Day of the Dead, I had found the DVD in rotation at the Denver Public Library with this DVD cover art.



I investigated further and found out about the movie's straight-to-DVD status. Fast forward to San Jose, I decide to buy the movie (sometimes you have to) but the copy I bought had this DVD cover.



It also came complete with a slip case that simulates the motion of the zombie vomiting.



I knew something was amiss but didn't put together that this was not the same cover I had previously seen until I went to the Day of the Dead page on Amazon and found the movie advertised with this cover.



Further investigation unearthed this Kiwi version I found at the Day of the Dead Bad DVD Cover Art board.



Why bother?

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Harbor Green Goes to Biltmore Shores

A reunion of sorts for some of the kids from the subject Massapequa neighborhoods.









Wednesday, December 10, 2008

George Zhen Releases Dust of the American Pixel CD

My brother-in-law George Zhen is releasing his new CD, Dust of the American Pixel. Here's the first video for the song The American Pixel Part Two. It features my nephews Jeremy and Cameron and a nod back to music history.



Here's the 80s history - INXS's Need You Tonight/Mediate.



Here's the 60s history - Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.