worship the glitch
This is Eric Mortensen's blog. He works @ Blip and lives in Brooklyn.
Why does Google think we want our TVs to act like desktop computers? We don’t even want our desktop computers to act like desktop computers anymore. It’s baffling that, in the age of the iPad, Google would build something like this. Twice.
The West Wing Complete Series @ $99
Readers of this blog have probably noticed that I post about The West Wing a lot. So I’m going to make an outright pitch to you to buy this. It’s way cheap and well worth the money. I paid considerably more for my set.
There are no George Lucas style modifications here. At the end of season one, POTUS does not shoot first.
Thanks to Brett Register for the tip!
Ms. Hammer’s greatest success has been USA Network, which has become rife with original programs that all fit the network’s “blue sky” brand, including “White Collar,” “Burn Notice” and “Psych.”
“The way we look at it is psychographic and psychological blue skies and a visible blue sky,” she said. “The palettes of our shows are bright. … We take everything from a more aspirational point of view. Our characters are flawed but they’re not dysfunctional or negatively flawed. And it’s physical, from the colors we use to how much we go outside during the day versus indoor and at night. There’s less violence and blood even though there may be dead bodies. How we approach everything is much more upbeat.”
USA’s broader approach is the opposite of FX, which favors darker shows and considers AMC, HBO and Showtime its creative competition. FX series have included the dark cop drama “The Shield” and the outrageous comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
“The dramas are edgy, ambitious and original and in comedy it’s the place where smart, original and funny intersects with smart, original and quirky,” said FX president John Landgraf, who considers FX a “writer-driven network.”
Just started watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix.
I’m hooked.
No, Jon Stewart, You’re Not Just a Comedian
”[…] outside of “The Daily Show,” in interviews like the one he gave to Chris Wallace and even his famous 2004 confrontation that may or may not have killed CNN’s “Crossfire,” I find that Stewart (and it pains me to say this, as such a fan) can come across as kind of lame, his “media criticism” beyond trite. In interviews, his complaints against the media tend to be an unsophisticated “pox on all of your houses.” I thought his largely pointless D.C. mall rally in late October repeated the mistake he makes in these interviews — trying to argue that our discourse is too loud while ignoring the real point that he hammers home on “The Daily Show,” that our politics is irrational.
But the lamest thing of all, frankly, is Stewart trying to absolve responsibility from the gravitas of what he does — and make no mistake, the gravitas is there — by claiming that merely, “I am a comedian.” That’s true, but he fails to see what many others realize, which is that he is also much more than a comedian. In a world where far too much of highly paid professional journalism, especially inside the Beltway, has become a joke, it has fallen on the comedians — Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher perhaps the most prominent — to say what on-one-hand, on-the-other hand journalists are too tied up in knots to tell you, that much of America’s discourse in 2011 is bat-guano insane.
Actually, Jon Stewart, you are an activist, and the cause you fight for is most worthy because — as you do correctly note — it is not a purely ideological one, but the cause of reason. And the fight against illogic is not a “fair and balanced” one, that the most dangerous bogus ideas may be concentrated in the spots where global warming doesn’t exist and the way to balance a budget deficit is more cutting taxes for rich people. For whatever reason, in the past your friend and colleague Colbert — who coined “truthiness” and said that reality has a known liberal bias — has gotten it a lot better than you do.
Maybe Stewart is starting to get it, too, He did say on Sunday that he has an ideology that “is non-partisan and focuses on ‘absurdity,’ ‘anti-corruption’ and ‘anti lack-of-authenticity.’” That sounds exactly right, so now it’s time to drop the “just a comedian” schtick, which comes off like a giant cop-out, exactly the kind of thing that you normally expose so very well, night after night.”
I still don’t understand this criticism of Stewart. I suppose I can take issue with the “just” in “just a comedian”, but he is just a comedian. He’s doing what contemporary comedians do. He’s finding truth, either his truth or The Truth. What Jon Stewart has to offer America is Jon Stewart, not Journalist or Pundit or some other predefined roll.
The Daily Show existed before Jon Stewart. Weekend Update existed before The Daily Show. They never had this sort of impact. Stewart isn’t performing the role of Funny News Show Correspondent. He’s being himself. That’s what the best comedians do. That’s why Louis CK is the other great TV truth teller of 2011, not Colbert or Maher. The reason CK’s show is so great is that he’s being a comedian rather than a show runner or an actor or a writer. Colbert is fantastic, but he’s playing a role that’s been played before. He’s insanely great at it, but he’s not the only person doing it. Alec Baldwin plays a somewhat similar role on 30 Rock, for example.
Why are people so obsessed with cramming Stewart into a very specific, tired, traditional, failed role when he’s so successful in the one he’s built for himself? Perhaps the problem is not that they don’t understand tv punditry, but rather that they don’t understand comedians.
Wooty toot! We’ve been working our asses off on this. None of us got much sleep last night, but we’re so very excited to finally show it to you!
Today we launched the new blip.tv destination site. The purpose of the new site is to give original web series a home on the Internet. That’s because, up until now, there hasn’t been a good site dedicated to the discovery of original web series.
Original web series are a product. They compete for people’s attention just like anything else. They must be marketed. Many original web series are art. But even art must be marketed. Art must be presented in a beautiful environment that is curated, that guides you to the good stuff, and that highlights the best of every piece.
Blip’s fifty people have spent the last year building a site that showcases original web series the way they deserve to be showcased. We’ve worked to build a clean, well-designed, curated and beautiful environment that draws viewers in and fills producers with a sense of pride.
We hope that we have achieved that goal. Every part of the new destination site is a product of the research we have done and the inspiration of our team. We couldn’t be prouder of the result. We believe that the experience speaks for itself. And, of course, we should note the obvious: this is just the beginning. New tweaks, improvements and patches will be released every three weeks from now on.
If you’re into it you may want to check out some of the news about the launch from TechCrunch (the TechCrunch article includes an exclusive video interview about the new site), Advertising Age, PC Magazine, Alley Insider and NewTeeVee.
Here’s some more information about the new site:
- The entire site is curated by humans. Viewers and potential viewers told us that they found web video “chaotic.” They said that they found algorithmic recommendations “useless.” If you’re watching Ski the Himalayas we believe that only a human can know which other series would match your taste and mood. An algorithm would simply recommend more skiing videos.
- We’re featuring the top 1,800 original web series. This is because viewers and potential viewers want to be shown “the best” and want a “curated” experience. Series that aren’t featured on the destination site can still use the dashboard and distribute to our entire network. If your series is not featured on the destination site but you believe it should be please contact us. We’ll work with you to get it to the point where we’ll all be proud to have it there.
- We’ve introduced the Show Poster. The Show Poster is just like a movie poster, only it’s for web series. During our research we learned that viewers really want to see episode thumbnails. We want people to know that the episodes are part of a series. The Show Poster does that, and ensures that the series’ identity follows its episodes across the entire site.
- The site is organized into sixteen categories. We’ve carefully designed these categories to give everyone something good to watch, whatever mood they may be in. Find hilarious comedies in Comedy, engaging dramas in Drama, or art and culture series in Learning. Find a great yoga show in Health & Fitness or check out the latest muscle cars in Sports & Cars. You can also watch categories linearly — just like a television channel.
- Show pages are beautiful. Check out the show pages for Aidan 5, Ski the Himalayas, Vernissage TV and Transylvania Television. These pages make the point that these series are high quality and produced by professionals.
- We’ve invested in performance. We’ve invested thousands of man hours in building a site that’s not only beautiful, but is fast too. We’ve done a ton of performance and load testing and optimized every line of code to make sure that pages load quickly and video plays almost instantly.
This new destination site is an important part of what we’re doing to build the original web series industry. But the destination site is only a part of what we do. Our dashboard and distribution network have already driven three billion views, and are now generating a billion views every three months. Our advertising services have led to some producers making half a million dollars last year, and we believe that some will make more than a million dollars this year.
Blip.tv now offers producer products, consumer products and advertiser products. We believe that a full suite of products is necessary to build a sustainable ecosystem for original web series. We will continue to invest in all aspects of the experience around original web series.
In the meantime we hope that you discover a new show by heading to the new blip.tv. Let us know what you like — or don’t like. For a year we’ve been working to solve one question: how do we make it easy for people to discover the best in original web series. If you find a new series you like on the site, we’ve done our job.
Future classics new to network schedules that year included “Cheers,” “Newhart,” “Late Night With David Letterman,” “Family Ties,” “St. Elsewhere” and “Knight Rider.” In other words, 1982 gave us, in order: the paradigmatic post-“Mary Tyler Moore Show ” friends-as-family sitcom that paved the way for everything from “Friends” to “The Office”; a comedy legend’s crowning achievement; a talk show that was also the Big Bang moment for meta-TV irony; the first hipster-parent sitcom; the most influential medical drama of the era; and the birth of the David-Hasselhoff-talks-to-his-car genre. Even 1982’s dreck — “Silver Spoons,” “Joanie Loves Chachi,” “T.J. Hooker” — is iconic. And one of its biggest flops (“Police Squad,” the beginning of Leslie Nielsen’s slapstick war on crime) is now among TV’s most posthumously appreciated shows. You could make a strong case for the transformative impact of 1984 (“The Cosby Show,” “Miami Vice”) or 2000 (“CSI,” “Survivor”), but the sheer number of successful shows that premiered in ’82 makes it our winner.
by Dave Weekes
Doc Searls (via davewiner)
Enter Al Jazeera. Again.
that Mitchell and Webb look is hilarious. Subscribe on Hulu.
Boston ad agency Hill Holliday asked five families to replace their cable connection with one of the current crop of networked TV devices: Roku, Boxee Box, Google TV, Apple TV and XBOX 360.
The results show what many of us already knew: due to a mix of challenges ranging from intellectual property territorialism (e.g. Warner Bros and Netflix and other similar power plays) and the fact that, in most cases, the very cable companies you’re escaping are still providing the broadband pipe into your house, we’ve got a ways to go for truly “connected TV”.
“We’re so passive: TV viewers. We really want someone else to decide for us. We can’t be making all these decisions. It’s too stressful.”
This speaks volumes. About what? I don’t know. Don’t make me think about it. It’s too stressful.
It’s disturbing how quickly these people demanded to be pacified. I understand the desire to zone out, but I’m concerned that this experiment led people to the conclusion that choosing for yourself is inherently wrong.
I had a talk with the standards woman. And we talked about the, I don’t know if you saw that I did a promo with Bobby Cannavale. It’s a thing where I’m talking about maybe going and doing a porn tape, because I’m worried I’m not going to get another show. And he talks about two guys shitting in my mouth in the thing. And so I asked the woman could I say that, since I can say “shit?” And she said, “That’s gonna be hard.” She said, “shitting in a mouth is not something I think we can say.” And I said, “what if it was like ‘shitting in Hitler’s mouth?’” And she said, “maybe…” she said, “it’s all context. There may be a world where you can say “shitting in the mouth” on FX.” And I said to her, “I’m gonna find that.
Bunny ears, rotary phones, dial-up… cable?
Netflix Sees Surge in Subscribers - WSJ.com
(via adamiss)
Bunny ears are still awesome. OTA is key to any cable cutting scenario.
(via adamiss)
The new crop of weekly shows has won a growing audience base among Mexicans nurtured on U.S. series such as “Melrose Place,” “Friends” and “The X-Files,” but who lacked similar home-grown choices. Media-savvy fans swap comments about the shows on Twitter and Facebook and post favorite clips on YouTube.
The trend has also injected Mexican TV with aesthetics and techniques borrowed from filmmaking, and drawn movie workers to a television industry they once avoided. Those in the world of Mexican television say the burst of weekly dramas, though still with modest ratings, is a sign of evolving tastes following more than a decade of exposure to imported American programs. The new shows also reflect social changes in a modernizing Mexico.
“We’re seeing the beginning of a new stage in the Mexican television industry — a stage in which TV series are being made in the style of the United States. We didn’t make this format before. We were used to making telenovelas,” said Alvaro Cueva, the country’s best-known television critic, who works for Milenio Television and other outlets.
Much of the credit is going to Once TV Mexico, a once-stodgy public broadcaster that has shaken up television by launching three series offering unusually frank depictions of life in Mexico in the 21st century. The station has been criticized by social conservatives offended by risqué scenes and language and others uneasy with taxpayer-supported public television producing dramatic series.
Bart Simpson
There are only three yuletide plotlines on television:
- Gift woes threaten to ruin Christmas
- Work threatens to ruin Christmas
- Absent holiday spirit threatens to ruin Christmas
