Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But there’s no reason to let this stuff go to waste: I can still share it with you, for your amusement, and start the new week with a clean slate.
Herewith this week’s leftover links, in no particular order:
An ‘Idol’ Ratings Loss, but Not in Its Pocketbook
When good kids’ movies become bad adult flicks
‘Masters of the Universe’ movie hires screenwriters
Green Lantern’s Skin-Tight Suit Will Be Completely Computer Generated
Nearly 800,000 U.S. TV households ‘cut the cord,’ report says
Girls on Film: Weight, Women, and Reality
Netflix To Delay All New Releases for Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.
No One Wears Tights in ‘Robin Hood,’ So Stop Asking
‘Hustle and Flow’ Director Takes on ‘Footloose’ Remake
Rockwell, Johansson Signed to ‘Lost’ Kubrick Script
Paramount Regrets Racy Shrek Photo Shoot
Cannes 2010: Lineup reveals a heavy dose of auteurs, with a dollop of celebrity
Gurinder Chadha: ‘I’ve had it with jokey and commercial’
A forgotten history of London on film
Is Everyone A Nerd These Days?
Japan’s “History Girls” Is Better Than Your Average Japanese Fad
Upcoming ‘Twlight’ eBook More Expensive Than Hardcover
Israel Bans iPads from America
New Hoodie Will Update Your Facebook Status On The Go
Social Media Not a ‘Marketing Play’ for Starbucks
Corrupt Practices Accelerating the Decline of American Journalism
Kinda makes sense that the GL suit would be CGI, as it’s meant to be a construct created from the ring rather than actual cloth. In fact, it always bothered me in the comics that 90% of the constructs that a Green Lantern would make were simply transparent globs of green light, yet their uniforms, created through the same process, were completely solid and made up of a variety of colours. Was that ever explained?
Man, that Netflix article really pissed me off. It’s so one-sided, and makes it look like the delays are a deliberate decision by Netflix, rather than strong-arm tactics by the major studios. From what I understand, the biggest complaints from Netflix customers are that the company doesn’t own enough copies of new releases, and that not enough movies are available for instant watch streaming. Both of these are things Netflix has been trying to address, but the studios will not play ball, because they believe DVD sales will be hurt. The studios have agreed to expand the online library and allow the company more copies of new releases, but only if they push back the date on renting those new releases. Considering people at the lower end of the queues were already waiting as long as three months to get a really popular new release, and the additional copies will drastically reduce that, I don’t know why people are bitching. Wait, yes I do. It’s because people don’t THINK about things. Bah. I think Netflix had to make a really difficult decision, but when I look at the big picture, I think they made the correct choice. These new deals will severely piss off a very small percentage of Netflix customers, and hugely benefit everybody else. Sometimes, that’s the best you can hope for.