Movies/TV

Team Conan

Jeromey Balderrama

There is so much crap going around about the Tonight Show wars between Conan O’Brien, Jay & NBC. Such good writers have weighed in on this, that I can’t really add much – but I do want to say this: I’m on Team Conan all the way. 

If there’s something I can’t stand, it’s poor performance being rewarded – and with that I don’t understand why NBC thinks how rewarding Jay Leno’s slumping ratings by moving him back into the Tonight Show is a good idea. This just goes to prove that the heads at NBC have no patience, react in nothing but knee-jerks, and are just heartless with the wrong people.

NBC set Conan up to fail from the beginning, by brining in another LA-based show (Leno’s) to compete for guest talent.  By giving an outlet to Leno fans in denial, NBC encouraged these people to stop watching the Tonight Show. I understand they didn’t want to risk Leno going across the street to ABC or Fox, but they could have set up Jay to do some relief pitching when the Tonight Show is in reruns with a similar comedy show, or even allow Jay to do some periodical specials (like the weeknight SNL’s). Instead they set up Conan for failure, then stab him in the back on his way out.

I’ve definitely been watching the coverage over the last few days and I did want to share a few gems from this week:

First you have to see Jimmy Kimmel appearing on Jay Leno’s show Thursday night. For Jimmy to say what he said to Jay’s face – I have the utmost respect for Kimmel and when I start boycotting Jay’s Tonight Show, I’m turning the channel to ABC now.

Check out this article from the New York Times in 1992, when Jay Leno had the same thing happen to him. If you changed the names from “Letterman” to “Leno” and “Leno” to “Conan” you’d swear this was written last week. This just goes to show what a hypocrite Leno is.

Of course you can’t miss Conan’s original statement from Tuesday, which is seriously the must classy punch-in-the-face one could give.

This is all Jeff Zucker’s fault, and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times does a prefect job explaining why.  How this debacle does not result in his firing is beyond me. Under Zucker’s leadership, this network has been run into the ground.  This goes back to them not having any patience, resulting in the cancellation of many great shows like Studio 60 and Journeyman that likely would have developed into worth successors of NBC’s drama cornerstones like West Wing and ER. Let’s be frank: how many Law & Orders can you gravy train off of?

And it wouldn’t be a pop-culture moment if you didn’t have a Downfall parody:

MPAA: Those Evil Movie Pirates

Jeromey Balderrama

Watch this, and feel your blood boil.  Watch as 60 Minutes, a supposed beacon of broadcast journalistic integrity, is spoon-fed propaganda from the MPAA, and eats it right up.

Let me make one thing clear: I don’t support movie piracy. At the same time, I can’t sit here and let the MPAA spread misinformation and scare tactics, painting everyone with a broad brush of evil.

I love how Leslie Stahl eats up all of the information – my favorite part is the look of disgust at 2:50 when she repeats “In the diaper bag” – without offering any kind of challenge or exploration in the truth of their claims.  Instead, she just lets them go on and equate people who film movies in theaters to drug cartels, human traffickers and child prostitution.

I understand that there is a valid point in damage being done the counterfeit DVD circles, but 60 MInutes let the MPAA completely blur the line between them and the kids who download bit-torrented movies on the Internet.  Furthermore, Stahl allows the MPAA to tarnish the US citizens with their broad brush, yet conveniently forgetting about the rampant piracy that is going on in Asia – specifically China – where they’re making money hand-over-fist from piracy.  It makes sense that DVD counterfeits may cost them money, but where’s the direct linkage with bit-torrent? Still, the MPAA goes for their low-hanging fruit – the “gee-whiz computer technology”.

In the piece the MPAA allege that their industry is robbed of $6 billion annually by piracy – yet they base this on the false pretense that everyone that downloaded their movie had the original intention of seeing it in the theater, or purchasing the $25 DVD.  That’s simply not true. According to the MPAA, the people downloading these movies must be doing it because they’re evil jerks who want to rob the “little people” of the movie industry blind.  There can’t possibly be another side to this: the fact that people want to consume this media in different ways – that some people actually don’t want to go sit in a crowded theater with the talking and crying babies and $5 soda.  In the piece they showed people being wanded and searched, as well as forced to turn in their cell phones, just so they can see a movie.  Wow, when you treat your customers like criminals and give them cavity searches, who wouldn’t want to go to a theater?  No way in hell am I going to give you my money, just so I can be treated like that.

It’s one thing if you’re providing a good alternative – like a same day digital release that I can watch in the comfort of my home theater with a cold beer in my hand – but the fact is that you’re blatantly ignoring the changing market conditions and instead just whine about the Internet.  Where was Mark Cuban to talk about his same-day release and digital distribution ideas?  60 Minutes had no interest in providing any other views in this complex issue.  Apparently movie downloading equates to drowning puppies: no one can have a differing view.

I love how they parade out Steven Soderbergh to say that he wishes the Internet was never invented.  I’m sure you do Steven, because now people can warn other movie-goers about some of the crap that people call “movies” and expect people to shell out $8-12 to go see.  Surely the fact studios green-light these sure-fire bombs (soon-to-be Avatar, anyone?) can’t be the reason no one sees these movies. no it’s all based on piracy.

Soderbergh says they’re losing money at an alarming rates, yet I think someone forgot to tell him that 2007 was a record-breaking year when it came to movie theater revenue.  If I’m not mistaken, 2008 was an even better year for them.  Apparently he still thinks they’re not being paid.  Someone should tell him that the revenue you bring in, over the cost/budget for the picture (which I believe includes the salaries for “the little guys”) = profit for the studios.

Again, I’m not advocating piracy or making excuses for those who download movies – however is it too much to ask 60 Minutes to at least do some research before they parrot the MPAA’s talking points?

Surrogates – Worth Watching?

Jeromey Balderrama

I’ll be honest here, this is a quick post to say that I haven’t missed a day blogging.  We’ve been spending a great weekend with family and friends, which takes precedence to blogging.  However, I did get to see Surrogates tonight.  If you haven’t seen it and would like to, skip this blog post because there may be spoilers (I’ll try not to ruin it though).

Basically the movie started off well, but pretty much fell apart half way through.  The premise seemed somewhat believable (in a Sci-Fi kind of way), but as the movie progressed, the more it just came off the rails.  What made the movie most frustrating was that we had a pretty good idea what was going on (in terms of the conspiracy and who the villains were shaping up to be), but Bruce Willis’ character hadn’t figured that out – which simply got annoying.

To top it off, they developed an unnecessary back-story between Willis and his wife in the movie.  There was potential with his personal tragedy, but they never developed that anywhere.

Finally to make things worse, they didn’t wrap up any of their loose ends.  We were led to believe that Bruce Willis was able to cause a catastrophic event, yet go home completely unscathed – especially legally.

Did you see the movie?  What did you think?

The double-album curse

Jeromey Balderrama

Recording is taxing for a band.  A ton of time is spent taping, refining and re-hashing tracks.  You fall into the monotony of playing those 10-12 tracks over and over again, and during that time you’re either not working on new material and probably aren’t playing out much.

Your career is off to a good start, but now comes the follow-up album.  You want to get bigger and better, but now you have to write new material.  In an effort to create something monumental, a band may try to create the coveted double-album.  This may seem like a good idea, but you’re taking all of that taxation and knowingly doubling it.  What may seem like a quick payoff often results in destruction or permanent damage to the band.   I call this: The Curse of the Successful Double Album. Looking back through my music collection I have the following examples:

PinkFloyd

Pink Floyd – The Wall (1979)

After the success they reached with The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall was a monumental 2 disc album that not only caught lightning in the bottle again after Dark Side, but it propelled their status as a legendary band.  However, the curse takes over.  After The Wall, Pink Floyd released The Final Cut, which was basically a Roger Waters album dedicated to his father.  Waters quit the band in 1985, saying that Pink Floyd was a “spent force”.

Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)

SmashingPumpkins

Billy Corgan & Co followed up the classic Siamese Dream with a double CD with one of the defining albums of my teenage years.  The album was so polished, so diverse, and so very defining of the Smashing Pumpkins.  There were a landmark 28 songs over the two discs that were written so well, but again this spelled destruction for the band.  In 1996, their touring keyboardist died of a heroin overdose which led to drummer Jimmy Chamberlin being kicked out of the band.  As if they didn’t have enough problems, the Pumpkins decided that they would stop making “conventional” Pumpkins music, with guitarist James Iha saying, “The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music.”  The Pumpkins never had the same lineup or success ever again.

Michael Jackson – HIStory (1995)

MichaelJackson This album is more coincidental than a curse, and I’ll admit that this may not actually fall within the realm for two reasons: 1) This wasn’t a 2-disc album of original songs, the first disc was a “Greatest Hits” compilation. 2) Jackson’s career was already on the decline due to his 1993 tour cancellation and the sexual abuse accusations.  Jackson followed this up with a huge multi-year tour.  Jackson didn’t release new material for another six years, and Invincible’s sales were notably lower than any of the other albums.

OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)

Outkast This is another one of those gray areas, while OutKast did release this as a 2-disc, these essentially were two solo albums (although they did appear on each other’s songs).  This album was their most commercially successful album, and “Hey Ya” transcended hip-hop to commercial pop, with “The Way You Move” on it’s coattails.   The album won a Grammy for “Album of the Year” in 2004. The curse struck again and they followed it up in 2006 with IdleWild, a film-based concept album.  We’re still waiting for the real follow-up album, and Wikipedia says that they were anticipating a 2009 release. We’re half-way through the year, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium (2006)

RedHotChiliPeppers The Chili Peppers had been around for over 20 years when they released this double CD, which featured 28 tracks.  What I didn’t realize was that according to Wikipedia they actually recorded 38 tracks and were planning to release this on three albums (each six months apart). After touring for nearly 2 years, the band is now officially on a hiatus.  Lead singer Anthony Keidis cites burnout from the touring and says that the Chili Peppers will reunite later this year to begin studio work, but guitarist John Frusciante has no immediate plans to return right now.  Drummer Chad Smith is doing Chickenfoot, so I’m just hoping the curse doesn’t ring true for another one of my other bands.

Double Albums Not Mentioned:

  • Foo Fighters – In Your Honor: This may be very subjective, but this album just wasn’t that big to me when compared to the other double albums and their respective band.
  • Every Live Album: I only considered studio albums