Hulu

Yesterday I got approved for the Hulu public beta and I got my first look at the site last night. Hulu is a site that offers free viewing of films and TV shows produced by NBC and Fox television. I was pretty happy and surprised by the content. I liked the fact that there was a lot of old shows available, WKRP, Emergency!, Bob Newhart, the original Battestar Galactica, and many more including a lot of new shows, Monk, Are you smarter than a 5th Grader etc.

I watched the first episode of WRKP and the second episode of Emergency! and was surprised at the difference in the quality of the writing of the shows from that time period. The writing for most shows currently on TV isn't very good.

That made me think about the writers strike and the Internet. I believe I heard recently that only about 60% of the writers are union anyway. I think the best option for them is to ditch the union and do your own contract.

The music industry has done that and still does. The musician/artist makes a contract with the record company and that's it, no union to tell you what to do. I know many an artist got screwed by the record company but that is there own fault, they messed up. The writers should cover themselves and forget about some mob union boss to do their bidding.

Thoughts on the show "Saving Grace"

This blog is normally about entertainment in crisis but once in a while there are a few shows that could actually improve the TV scene. The TNT show Saving Grace could be one of them.

We've been watching Saving Grace since the show began and are still trying to figure out where are they going with it. The premise seems mostly good but there are a lot of disturbing things about it. It is good that it is a show about one woman's struggle with God but sometimes the way that they portray God is erroneous. The personality of the angel is kinda cool, different, but his theology is inaccurate.

I don't like it when the writers take a good show and politicize it like they did this past episode (the tornado episode). The guy in prison converted to being Muslim and the angel says basically that it doesn't matter all paths lead to God. Well we know that there is only one sure way to God and the other paths aren't as certain, though it is possible.

The show could loose one's attention eventually because it is getting to be the same struggle but she isn't making much progress. But I guess if she ends up "finding God" The show will be over because the tension will cease to be in the story. We'll have to wait and see where they go with the story and see if it keeps our interest.

Deutsch Grammophon Web Store

Deutsch Grammophon just launched a new DRM-free download store that offers the majority of its catalog. The DG Webshop offers around 2,500 albums -- including over 600 out-of-print CDs -- as 320kbps downloads for between $10.99 and $11.99. Individual tracks under seven minutes will also sell for $1.09 and up.

This should be great for classical music. But yet I am a little skepticle because the music industry in general and especially the classical labels are pretty darn clueless. They wonder why sales of classical music are down and I guess they just can't use their heads. I mean how many versions of Eine Kleine Nacht Music do I need? There's so many orchestras playing the same limited amout of music. When I find a good version of a piece that I like I am not going to buy it just because some other orchestra did it. There's not alot of good classical music being composed now so when someone has a collection of all the classical music they like, they probably won't be buying much more music. And if they already have the CD they aren't going to download it again since it is so easily ripped. It's not like before, when they got your money from reel to reel and/or vinyl, then cassette, then CD.

That's part of the problem with the music industry also. I think the continual advances in technology have left them lazy. With each advance every 10 to 20 years they can sell they same music over again so they don't really need to look for quality music. I think the record labels aren't able to get greedy like when the CD came out. Before CD's, a Vinyl record was selling for about $6.99 to $8.99. When CD's came out they were selling for $16.99 and greed is the only reason I can think of. I had my own small record label and we paid the same amount when we pressed vinyl and CD, so the final cost for a bigger label should have been even less given that they would press more copies. CD's are still way too expensive. It doesn't make sense to me that the movie companies can make a movie and release it on DVD and after a few months sell it for $9.99. Making a movie takes alot more work and involves so many more people, it should be the one to cost more.

Evel Knievel Dies

Legendary stuntman/daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at 69. I'm pretty sure I had some of his action toys as a kid and had lots of fun with them. He was an excellent showman and probably was the start of alot of other acts around. He wasn't without his faults, but aren't we all.