Category: Culture

The answer to the question “how does filmed entertainment reach the eyes of the viewer” continues to change, as per this article on direct to video movies. This isn’t anything new, of course; Disney has been doing this for years and years. Just ask any parent. Still and all, it’s significant that the direct to video market in the US is gaining… aha. Legitimacy is the word. Direct to video Disney releases is one thing; a direct to video sequel to Carlito’s Way is more interesting.

Huh, that movie had a great cast, didn’t it? Sean Penn, Al Pacino, John Leguizamo, Luis Guzman, and Viggo Mortensen. There’s some acting chops for you. Anyhow.

The sales figures quoted at the beginning of the article are probably misleading. Sure, only 35% of DVD revenue may come from new feature films, but the implication that the other 65% is direct to video stuff is wrong. Warner Brothers clearly finds their line of classic movies profitable, and DVD releases of TV series are huge. (Which is in itself a signal about how entertainment habits are changing.)

Bubble comes out soon. I’ll be really curious about the sales figures.

The Complete New Yorker is pretty cool. Kind of easy to describe, too: it’s every single New Yorker scanned and archived on 8 DVDs. You can get a tour of the interface here.

Yep, I bought it more or less instantly. Come on — $65 on Amazon (or Barnes and Noble)? Sure thing.

It’s cool. The interface is a tad clunky on the Mac, but it’s easy to flip through an issue and it’s very very readable. The search is slowish. I’m not sure how well it’s indexed; a search on Red Sox for the last five years or so returned nothing. On the other hand, a search on Cronenberg was quite successful. I imagine each article is tagged with key words.

For Rob: yes, you can search on department and author so all the Anthony Lane movie reviews are at your fingertips. This is awesome.

I’m curious as to the copyright issues. I don’t know what kinds of contracts the New Yorker signed with its writers; right of first publication? Rights in perpetuity? This came up as an issue when Dragon did their compilation on CD, and I seem to recall an unrelated court decision that opened the door for this sort of thing regardless of the original contract terms. If anyone knows what I’m talking about, speak up and I’ll write more on it when I have some real facts.

Either way, this is a way cool product. Mmm, history.

I should be checking the eTree live music archive more often.

Cowboy Junkies, 94 shows. Drive-By Truckers, 138 shows. Hayseed Dixie, 13. Mike Doughty, 42. Three Decemberists shows. Warren Zevon, 53 shows.

Mmm, tasty.

The ways in which this is not perfect are very few, very few indeed. P’raps my favorite thing is the comment back in the original post.

“When I was really into Buffy I remember thinking everything in The Waste Land secretly applied — it’s good to know it can shift fandoms so well.”

“Well, I was thinking that, more to the point, the poem doesn’t apply — the essence of the parody is in mapping possibly the most influential poem of the 20th century, with its World War themes and excessive literary references and multiple phrases in foreign languages, onto a children’s book series written by a woman who can’t even conjugate her pseudo-Latin…”

Yes.

TiVo will be providing video on demand soon. That’s cool; it’s another step in the process that leads to the question, “Why do we care about scheduled TV programs at all?” Doesn’t look like it’ll cost more than the usual subscription. That probably won’t last, though; the free stuff is from IFC, which needs to promote its programs. Someone like (say) HBO doesn’t need the same publicity — we already all know about The Sopranos.

Interesting note for me: IFC is owned by Rainbow Media, which has a few networks, and which in turn is owned by Cablevision. Not at all the biggest player in the cable market but not entirely insignificant. They’re definitely looking forward when it comes to final mile solutions.

And the Hugo envelope please…

Best Novel: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Best Novella: “The Concrete Jungle” by Charles Stross

Best Novelette: “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link

Best Short Story: “Travels with My Cats” by Mike Resnick

Best Related Book: The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: The Incredibles, written & directed by Brad Bird

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: “33” — Battlestar Galactica, written by Ronald D. Moore and Directed by Michael Rymer.

Best Professional Editor: Ellen Datlow

Best Professional Artist: Jim Burns

Best Semiprozine: Ansible, edited by David Langford

Best Fanzine: Plokta, edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies and Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer: David Langford

Best Fan Artist: Sue Mason

Best Web Site: SciFiction, edited by Ellen Datlow. Craig Engler, general manager

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (not a Hugo Award): Elizabeth Bear

Special Interaction Committee Award (not a Hugo Award): David Pringle

And the full nominee list, for the curious and nitpickers. Also with links to many of the nominees online. I don’t think the big British book with faeries in it deserved to win against Banks and Mieville, but that’s me. Wow, and that’s an amazingly tough field for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Heh. Mike Resnick has five Hugos. The record for Hugos for fictional writing is Connie Willis, with eight. More here, not updated with this years wins as of the time of this writing.

Charlie Stross’ new novel slash collection of short stories is about to be out in stores in the US. It’s also available as a free download. Why wait? But do buy as well if you like it.

Mark Cuban isn’t the only guy experimenting with releasing DVDs on the day the movie hits theaters. I betcha none of the exhibitors are going to threaten not to show this movie, though.