Some interesting developments on the film distribution front came to my attention today. First, there’s the “soft launch” of Movielink, a site brought to us by some of the big studios. Broadband and either Real or Windows Media players are required. I’m not sure that waiting (around 40 minutes) to download movies for which I have a more limited playback window (any 24 hour period within 30 days) is worth paying $3.99. That said, I should probably give it a try.

Of course, Movielink (with its pretty and Miramax-invoking logo) is only showing material from its studio partners. Enter Kevin Spacey, of all people, who coincidentally is lauching TriggerStreet, a site designed to bring an audience to films and screenplays created by people who don’t have Hollywood connections. It’s been tried before, and Spacey has no plans to produce the “winners,” though that worked to great effect on Project Greenlight. (I saw PGL on DVD, and I really liked watching a ton of episodes in one sitting. But I liked the show so much I’d think about getting HBO a la carte this season.)

Today Macromedia announced a very intriguing product called Macromedia Contribute. It’s intended to be a user-friendly (multi-platform!) application that will allow “content contributors” to make changes.

As a sometimes Web professional, I welcome this application. There’s nothing that bores me more than making small modifications (dates, prices, etc.) to a list of pages. However, it is essential that this product be extremely intuitive. If it’s just one more thing I have to explain, it’s no use to me. (I’m now downloading the “technology preview” version, so we’ll see.)

Also, Contribute supposedly includes “the latest Dreamweaver MX update.” I’ve been waiting for a fix to an annoying MX bug for some time, so I hope it’s more than just a plug-in to link the two applications.

The studio projections are in for the weekend and it looks like {Eminem is going to post an impressive $54.5m debut, showing Britney and the like who’s boss.

Next weekend will promise to be even more intriguing, as we’ll see what sort of drop-off the film experiences. In the current market, it’s not unusual to see a 40-50% drop in take (example: in its second weekend, Jackass: The Movie dropped 44.1%). This is due to the studios’ strategy of opening a film as wide as possible in order to a) demand a larger chunk in revenue sharing from the exhibitors and b) outrun bad word-of-mouth (though the Internet has done something to inhibit this; see also Nash, Pluto).

That’s why I am fascinated by My Big Fat Greek Wedding. After 204 days in release, it gained 2.3% this weekend, for a cumulative total of $192.75m. (That places the $5m picture ahead of MiB II for the year, which had a $140m production budget.)

I hope this is a story that will be repeated even more in the future, as the landscape changes to allow different stories to have access to distribution — perhaps even those that don’t star white rappers.

Had a good time yesterday. Matt came over about 2 and we went out to eat, then drove around, having a good conversation. Then we split up for awhile and I read some of Lessig’s book, lounging lazily on my good chair. Jesse found me near dozing an hour or so later, and then we had a good conversation that ranged from the specialty of “journalism” vs. “mass communication” through to what we planned to do with the rest of our lives.

Then, logically, we went bowling.

The three of us — Matt, Jesse and myself — made a surprisingly good bowling combination because we were all not so good. We each talked a little smack but none of it was taken seriously. I almost won the first game with 112, but then Jesse pulled it out. Matt won the second. I convinced them to play for a third, which I called “a tiemaker, err, tiebreaker.”

Final result of that game? I won with a 149, including a 10th frame “turkey.” Good times.

P.S. Happy birthday, Jesse!

I’ve now seen this Michael Moore film twice. Each time, the crowd gave the film a round of applause at the end. (I can’t remember the last film I saw that received such a reception.)

It is worthy of applause. Unlike the dreck that Hollywood is producing, Columbine has humor, seriousness, and (in some scenes) a fierce honesty, as when Moore captures a home security consultant overcome by the “viciousness” of the shooters at the school, or the sadness of the principal at Buell Elementary, where a 6-year-old shot another 6-year-old.

Unfortunately, in other parts it can also play a bit fast and loose. Rather than interview the owner of the gun used in the Buell shooting, Moore ambushes Dick Clark with questions about welfare-to-work. It sure can be fun to see celebrities squirm, but in this case it didn’t feel true.

On the whole, though, these misgivings are a small part of an otherwise good film, and I must wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. We need more people like Michael Moore, asking important questions and sharing views in the movie theater. Here’s hoping more documentaries like this one get wide theatrical release.

I’ll admit, I entered the film distracted. When I read in StudioBrief that Ann Hornaday, a Washington Post movie critic, had labeled Eminem‘s mouth “aristocratic” I just had to find out what the hell that meant.

I still don’t know, but now that I’ve seen the movie and read her review (the way-too-cutely titled “The Reel Slim Shady“) I conclude that she does know what she’s talking about — at least as far as acting and pacing is concerned.

Eminem is definitely watchable. Even at rest he has an intensity that draws your attention. Still, there isn’t much to work with here, both in terms of his available range as an actor and what the script offers. It takes a long time to get to an ending that everyone knows is coming. (The vaunted rapping is a small fraction of screen time, and the rest is less compelling.)

Mr. Mathers does have two interactions with a gay man that seem designed to soften his homophobic image. The effect is somewhere between contrived and convincing, but it’s a start.

Final verdict: acceptable. And I’d watch Eminem again.

I’m not quite sure how to take Punch-Drunk Love. It’s different right from the start, when it opens without any titles. Barry (Adam Sandler) is on the phone discussing plastic breakage and offering his home phone number to a clearly nonplussed vendor.

Then a strangely timed accident, a mysteriously appearing harmonium and a quirky woman enter the picture, setting off a train of events that includes strangely timed accidents and quirky women, with the odd harmonium reference.

If it all sounds weird, that’s because it is. But it’s an enjoyable ride. I let some of my analysis faculties take a rest while I took great pleasure in imagining how the stereotypical Adam Sandler fan would react to the picture. Perhaps it was best captured by the couple in front of me:

Woman: What the hell…
Man (overlapping): What the fuck was that?

Q. What is the matrix?
A. A pain in the ass.

Well, at least it’s a pain in the ass that has ended. I would so much like to write “the presentation went off without a hitch,” but there were hitches. We had technical difficulties, for one: the sound dropped off midway through. Strangely, it only happened on AVI clips and not QuickTime 6 (MPEG-4) ones.

I was able to use this as an excuse to skip 2 of the 4 clips that were in the second to last section (Culture & Context). Even though I skipped that 3 minutes of video, and even though we instructed all the 6 groups that 10 minutes was the limit for each section, the two guys in that section took 23 minutes to present — and my lord, was it boring material. Slides full of text and a monotone drone about the Tao and blahblahblah. It was completely unresponsible and it left the final section (me, of course) with about 4 minutes. My partner had 3 video clips which he went through like a champ and I got about 75 seconds.

On the plus side, though the general presentation quality wasn’t anywhere near my standards, the stills/video clips looked gorgeous. I showed presenters how to make captures from the DVD which netted a lovely 960px wide image, while I ripped sequences directly from the DVD to AVI. Then we ran it on a large projector with a 1024×768 native format. Crisp, gorgeous.

Ha, that reminds me. Guess what computer we used? My tower. Kelly was able to secure a laptop from her department for us to use but the thing was locked down (Win2k) in such a way as to prevent my connecting it to any network other than on-campus. That prevented my transferring of the hundreds of megs of files we needed. That meant I had to bring my tower (and get a ticket for parking close to the building.)

I thought about cracking the admin password but I was up all night and busy as it was. Damn, I need a CD burner.

It seems my unlisted phone number and rarely-provided address have only protected me for a short time. First there was the mailing from State Farm. It’s interesting to speculate as to where they could have collected my name and address.

To this point, the only companies who know I live here are:

• Qwest (but I was supposedly taken off their lists)
• AT&T
• City of Ames (the utility is owned by the city)
• Hunziker Property Mgmt.

Given that the mailing came from State Farm HQ in IL}], I’m going to finger AT&T. Bastards.

Of course, even worse is that yesterday I got my first telemarketing call. I’m hoping it’s just a computer dialer (i.e., dialing all numbers.) But perhaps they’re looking for someone else: just moments ago I got another call asking for Dan. Unlike last time, this one was a female. Those at least are fun…

…Netscape dominated the browser “wars”? I was just treading down memory lane thanks to a hopelessly outdated presentation that I have to read for my Society & Technology class. In addition to a chart showing a computer connecting to an “on-ramp” at 28.8, it links to this great survey that probably makes Netscape employees wax nostalgic.

(For the record, the spirit of Netscape innovation is alive and well. It’s rising like a Phoenix…)

Well, the polls have now closed in Iowa. (I hope you voted!)

I always find Election Day very exciting (with last year especially so) and it’s very pleasing to hear that turnout could be up this year. (It’s also good to hear that exit polls are being more or less ignored.)

I’m getting my news from public radio, which has included commentary from a BBC reporter and our own Steffen “Dr. Politics” Schmidt. A bit earlier I caught an ABC News report, which noted that turnout was especially high in Minnesota. The report said that though electronic voting was in place, it was necessary to use paper ballots for the Mondale/Coleman race. What the hell? You can’t update an electronic ballot in time?

And oh yeah: as of this writing, it’s looking good for high-level Democrat candidates in the state, and that’s a good thing.

The dilemma has been solved. Even when my connection returned, connecting the coax to the TV gave me nothing. Well, mostly nothing: EXTREMELY fuzzy channels 2 & 3 (which appeared to be Discovery and CNN, respectively.) So that takes care of that question.

Methinks this might be a bug. (Also try page advance.)

[ “Huh? It worked for me” mirror. ]

The name of John has made you serious-minded, responsible, and stable. You love the security of a home and family, you are fond of children, and, as a parent you would be fair and understanding. Although you have good business judgment, you are not aggressive in your dealings because you do not like to create issues. You would be successful in any position dealing with the public as you have a diplomatic and tactful manner and possess a charming, easy-going nature which puts people at ease. People are drawn to you because they feel that you are patient, kind, understanding, and responsive. You would be effective in a career or in volunteer work where you are handling people and serving in a humanitarian way. While you are honest and responsible, one weakness that is paramount in your life is your lack of self-confidence and initiative, which causes you to put things off and avoid facing issues. Generally speaking, you have few problems with your health; however, there is a weakness affecting the fluid functions of the body.
— Baby Names – John

I could actually buy a lot of this. But what exactly are “the fluid functions”? (Insert Dr. Strangelove “our precious fluids” allusion here.) In any event, it beats weakness in the heart, lungs, and bronchial organs.

One of the great things about grandmothers is it’s like visiting a grocery store, without the inconvenience of paying. After a super-turbo visit for Jennifer‘s birthday, I was sent home with:

• Twenty bucks
• 1 lb. shrimp, cleaned
• 1 8 oz. container shrimp sauce
• 2 apples
• Gallon-size Ziploc bag of homemade choc chip cookies
• 2 packs Nestle Toll House break & bakes (also chocolate chip)
• 1/2 gallon best lemonade ever (in trademark glass bottle, natch)
• 1/2 lb. Chicago-style roast beef, deli sliced
• 2 cans Coke (gave to papa)
• 1 package Double-Stuf Oreo cookies
• 1 bag bite-size Hershey’s (with almonds, sadly — also to papa)

I love that woman.