Congratulations to the Duke Blue Devils, winner of the NCAA men's basketball championship. The Duke-Butler title game was one of the best games I've ever watched. Both teams played very well; not many stupid mistakes by either team, few turnovers, and terrific defense. The game was close the entire time - there were a couple times Duke looked like it might pull away, but then Butler would drop in a couple baskets to keep it close. And the finish was fantastic.
I'm a big Duke basketball fan, but even I was a little disappointed that Butler didn't pull it off. It would've been amazing to see a mid-major win it all - especially if Haywood's half-court shot at the buzzer would've gone in.
And congrats to the women from Connecticut, winning the women's title with their 78th straight win. I don't care what sport you're in - a winning streak that long is simply incredible.
Am I the only one who thinks people are making a mountain out of a molehill with this whole Boy Directs Air Traffic Control story? Yes, the guy was wrong for letting his son communicate with the pilots, but isn't relieving the guy - and his supervisor - of their jobs a bit extreme? It's not like the kid was talking gibberish here; he was simply repeating what his father probably told him to say. If the guy would've brought his wife in and she would've said those same words, it would be no big deal. But since it's a kid, it's now a national controversy?
Like I said, I don't think it's right; the guy shouldn't have let his kid do that. But did the pilots care? No. Did the other controllers care? No. Does the media care? Obviously. Does anyone else really think they are less safe because of this? I certainly don't, and I can't imagine anyone making an argument in opposition to that.
This article is from last week, but it's so ridiculous that it needs to be brought up again. NBC, in it's mind-numbing attempt to fight piracy, has purposely limited the amount of live streaming Olympic videos. The reason?
"One of the things we learned in Beijing is that people really go to the Web for highlights," said Perkins Miller, svp, digital media at NBC.
That's all well and good, except it's not true. NBC then goes on to admit that they are actively policing the web in order to stop anyone from streaming these events. So apparently people do want to do this. Instead of providing people a legal method to do so, they're not giving any live streaming (save for hockey and curling) and then telling everyone else that they can't do it either. Talk about providing value to your customers. Mike Masnick of Techdirt (one of my favorite blogs) sums it up:
Again, you solve the problem of people going elsewhere by giving them what they want, not purposely deciding not to give them what they want and then getting upset when they go find it elsewhere.
Why do the folks at NBC not understand this? Is it really a difficult concept? So instead of letting more people watch events online (which would likely get them interested in watching on television as well), they're trying to stop it. Unbelievable. At least, it is until you remember who NBC's general counsel is - Rick Cotton:
"Our aim is to make access to pirated material inconvenient, low quality and hard to find," said Rick Cotton, NBC's evp and general counsel. In terms of Web piracy, "you are never going to go to zero. But there has been a sea change in terms of recognition of the problem."
In other words, instead of providing value (high quality, easy-to-find content), they're making it more difficult and lower quality, forcing people to look elsewhere. And then sending the lawyers in to try to stop people from going elsewhere.
Sources:
MediaWeek - NBCU Fights Olympic Piracy
Techdirt - NBC Continues To Do The Exact Wrong Thing When It Comes To The Olympics Online
UPDATED: I thought I'd throw together a list of my favorite movies that were released in 2009. A lot of people do this, so I figured I'd share mine as well. These may not be what I thought were the "best" movies, but only my favorites; feel free to disagree.
Honorable mentions: Up, Taken, District 9, Coraline, Adventureland, Drag Me To Hell
6. Avatar
It's hard not to form an opinion about a movie before it comes out; I told myself that there was too much hype surrounding this and it wasn't going to be that good. However, Avatar did manage to impress me. It definitely wasn't great - too many stereotypical characters and the plot was amazingly familiar (can you say Dances With Wolves?) - but it still managed to captivate my attention and keep me interested. Plus, the use of 3-D was very good; definitely worth the extra price for seeing it in that format.
5. Sunshine Cleaning
This was a well-made film that was funny and yet heartfelt. It's hard to really pin down why I liked it so much, but it's one of those movies that just grabs you and makes you care about what happens to the characters.
4. Up In The Air
George Clooney absolutely nails his performance (as does the rest of the cast) in this amazing film. A great script, great direction, and great acting really puts this movie ahead of a lot of other favorites.
3. (500) Days of Summer
An absolutely charming film, this is an original spin on the classic boy-meets-girl movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are outstanding as the boy and girl, and the script is sweet, touching, funny, and emotional. This is a great film - if this was a "Best Of" list, this and Up In The Air would be vying for the top spot.
2. The Hangover
Simply the funniest movie I've seen in the past couple of years, much less this one. The actors were superb, and the story and jokes were funny and entertaining. I'm looking forward to watching it again.
1. Star Trek
When I first heard that J.J. Abrams was taking Star Trek and casting new actors to play younger versions of the original characters, I was very skeptical. I figured it was going to all action-oriented and become just another unnecessary retread. I was way wrong. Abrams did kick up the action, but still managed to retain much of the Star Trek essence. The actors he chose for the roles were all great - Chis Pine as Kirk was exceptional. Plus, he managed to use time travel - which is very difficult to make work in a movie - in a way that didn't seem contrived or stupid.
I rewatched it last week and am actually looking forward to seeing it again; there aren't too many movies that I can say that with, so that's why this is my favorite movie of the year.
Of course, this list would almost feel incomplete if I didn't pick a few bombs; movies that I would tell anyone to avoid at all costs:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Utter trash. Between the horrible script, terrible acting (the robots seemed more real than most of the humans), and stereotypical characters, this was easily the worst film of the year. The Blu-ray is a good demo disc for your home theater; that is, if you can stand watching more than five minutes of this garbage.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Everything - the plot, the characters, and the action - felt way too crammed and brought this movie down. I like the Wolverine character, but I felt like this movie tried too hard and it just became a mess.
Crank 2: High Voltage
What was the reason for this sequel? The first Crank felt fresh and fun; this one felt like a complete retread of the first. Nothing original, and nothing to make it worth watching.
I didn't watch the Golden Globes last night; I wanted to, but I kind of forgot they were on. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't because I likely would have been very annoyed. Granted, everyone knows the Globes are mostly a joke - they're more or less a form of entertainment, not a true reflection on the best in film over the year. Looking at this year's list of winners though, it looks like the Globes turned into the People's Choice awards.
The biggest problem I have is Avatar winning Best Drama. Are you kidding me? I liked Avatar and think it's a good film, but there's no way it's a best movie of any year. Up In The Air was immensely better, and it's very likely that The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds are better films too, at least based on the reviews I've read thus far (still waiting to see them myself). I just really don't understand how you can award a movie with such a basic plot and stereotypical characters (I mean, c'mon, the whole plot was pretty much the story of the Native Americans). Besides the technology, there's nothing extraordinary about Avatar besides the insane amount of money it's made (which I'm assuming is the real reason it won last night).
I don't have as big of a problem with Best Director - I think the direction in Avatar was pretty good - but I think the Foreign Press just gave it to him because he's Jim Cameron.
Haven't seen (500) Days of Summer yet, but I love the win for The Hangover over the other films in the category.
Most of the other winners were fairly respectable, I guess, but it really did feel like a People's Choice winner's list. Hopefully the Oscar's actually ignore this (they usually do) and actually give their awards to deserving films.
Another year-end list, but I thought I'd share my favorite songs from the year as well.
- Two - The Antlers
An absolutely haunting song, I get chills every time I listen to it.
- 1901 & Lisztomania - Phoenix
Combining these two into one entry. I never get tired of hearing these tracks. Phoenix is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands.
- The Fixer - Pearl Jam
I've always liked Pearl Jam, but this song just rocked. Glad to have new stuff from them.
- Hell - Tegan and Sara
Fast paced and fun, I just always love hearing this one.
- Fables - The Dodos
Love the chorus line on this; really makes the song.
- Crying Lightning - Arctic Monkeys
Haven't been a big Arctic Monkeys fan, but this track may change that.
- Percussion Gun - White Rabbits
I can never get the beat to this song out of my head, and that's a good thing.
- (If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To - Weezer
Another fantastic Weezer song; upbeat and fun.
- The Fear - Lily Allen
This song was stuck in my rotation for quite a while, and I still enjoy it.
- Handclap. - Kinch
Very short (about 2 min), but another one that I love listening to.
The first official mixtape is out from The White Panda. If you haven't heard of them, they create mashups of popular songs - generally a pop song beat overlaid with rap lyrics. I'm not a big rap fan by any means, but these mashups are fun. They've put out a bunch of individual tracks before, but this is the first hour-long mix. Check it out at their official site.
My favorite is definitely the first track, the T.I./Passion Pit mix called What You Know About Little Secrets, but there's a lot more to like too.
If you like that, you might want to check out the Super Mash Bros. too. They tend to mash more songs together in each track and it's not quite as hip-hop based. They've got two full albums out - well worth a download.
http://almashortfilm.com/
Here's a beautiful short film, free to watch for a limited time during the Christmas season. It's not exactly a feel-good tale, but definitely a good little film.
Congress Gives $30 Million to Fight 'Piracy'
This was the result of a 'piracy summit' convened by our Vice President Joe Biden. He, along with many other major figures in government (including the Attorney General and director of the FBI) met with many of the major players in the entertainment industry (including Jeffrey Zucker and Rick Cotton - see the full list here). Of course, there were no representatives from the technology industry or consumer groups - people that actually represent what consumers want and use.
To the government, this is obviously chump change. Still, isn't it amazing how much the Obama administration keeps giving to big industry? This may be the worst one though - at least the banks were kind of struggling for a bit (although they aren't now) - the music and movie industries are having one of their strongest years and are constantly growing. And yet our federal representatives give them $30 million in taxpayer money to help them prop up an old and out-of-date business model?
Phoenix is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands; I've really gotten into a lot of their stuff from their latest album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - especially "1901" and "Lisztomania".
Today, I came across a cool series of small performances (called Take-Away Shows) that the band did in downtown Paris for director Vincent Moon. They played "1901" in the middle of a crowd of tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower and "Lisztomania" on top of a tourist bus. Very cool and it sounded really good. I'm an even bigger fan after watching these.
You can see the videos of the performances here.
Is there anyone out there (outside of Washington) that cares about these so-called White House party crashers? Why is this getting so much media attention? I heard a congressman on the Today show this morning say the entire thing was about ensuring the safety of the president. Was he really so much more unsafe there than he ever is? Think about it - these people weren't on the guest list, but they still went through a metal detector and were likely fully checked for weapons, so why did they pose any more danger to the president than when he makes an appearance anywhere else?
I'll tell you one thing - I'm so glad our elected officials are putting in lots of their time "investigating" this incident rather than working on a budget or health care plan. Aren't you?
Here's a fun little pop song - White Russian Doll by Lucky Soul. You can stream it free here. I'm not usually a big pop music fan, but I'm liking this group. Check out their other single, Whoa Billy!.