***MAJOR SPOILERS***

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With only 6 months down, and 6 to go, I already have to take a moment to thank my readers for the amazing success this site is enjoying this year.

Normally I do a round up of how things have gone on this blog at the end of each year, but considering the growth I’ve seen this year, I felt compelled to take a moment out of the day now to say “thank you”.  While I originally started this blog more for myself than anything else, I have been amazed to discover that people actually seem to enjoy reading my ramblings.  Why they do I have no clue, but I must admit I find it gratifying.

Measuring January 1st, 2008 – June 30th, 2008 against January 1st, 2009 – June 30th, 2009 finds that my unique visitors have grown by 1,075.47%, and total page views has grown by 897.83%. Even more stunning is if I compare all of 2008 against the first six months of 2009, unique visitors has already grown by 175.31% and total page views are up 149.51%.  I am stunned by this growth, and I am at a total loss as to what has caused this to happen.  I haven’t changed the stories I cover very much, and it’s still just me sitting here plugging away day in, day out, but obviously something has changed somewhere in the mix, and, well, I’m surely not going to argue with it.

Mind you my numbers are still very much in line with a personal blog, as in I am not getting anywhere near the number of visitors some of the blogs I work for get, but for a blog of my type, the numbers have become very respectable.

So, again, thank you for coming here and reading my extremely random commentaries on the world around us.  I know not every post is going to be for every reader’s taste, but I hope you are willing to wade through the ones that may not seem like a natural fit for you.

Sometimes I read something online that is so mind numbingly stupid that I can’t even conceive how someone reached that conclusion. Yep… this is one of those times.

Over the weekend, Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch wrote up a post about how Judge Richard Posner wrote up a blog about the death of newspapers, and he had one of the craziest ideas I’ve ever heard of for saving them from the worsening economy:

Imagine if the New York Times migrated entirely to the World Wide Web. Could it support, out of advertising and subscriber revenues, as large a news-gathering apparatus as it does today? This seems unlikely, because it is much easier to create a web site and free ride on other sites than to create a print newspaper and free ride on other print newspapers, in part because of the lag in print publication; what is staler than last week’s news. Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.

For those of you unfamiliar with the theory of linking and how it works, it’s a fairly simple concept.  Take me linking the word “TechCrunch” above.  I chose to link to the actual story Ms. Schonfeld wrote, so now when this post is published he will receive a notice called a “trackback” that allows him to know that I referenced his article in my post.  This will also be used by search engines to see how relevant his post is and how much credence they should give it.  The more links a site or story receives, the more importance a search engine puts on it, and the more chance of people searching on the appropriate terms will see it.

Essentially, links are the life’s blood of blogging.

Now, what Judge Posner is suggesting that linking to copyrighted material, or using a portion of it as a quote (like I did with his blog post above), should be illegal under copyright law , you have to wonder how he thinks this will save the the newspaper industry.  I’m not sure where to even start with just how wrong he has gotten this, but lets give it a go anyway:

Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, or to bar linking…

Okay, lets say you want to link to NYTimes.com, that would probably be fine, but if you want to link to a specific story, say Karl Malden, Everyman Actor, Dies at 97, the link would look like this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/movies/02malden.html?_r=1&hp

This is known as “deep linking”, and I have a feeling this is what Judge Posner is talking about as this is actual copyrighted material.  The problem is that without deep linking you could never share a story with any one.  Are you going to link to the main page and then tell them “Okay, click here… and then here… and then do this…”, no, you aren’t.

Deep linking is also essential to how search engines index the importance of a specific page so that it knows how much priority to gie it when people search on a term.  The more links a page has to it, the more important it is, the higher up in search results it appears.  Deep linking is a very, very good thing in the Internet business.

…paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent

What he is talking about here is block quotes like I did above.  The problem with this is that it would make it impossible for anyone to write a rebuttal to anything as you would have to do a long, drawn out, explanation of what the original article said.  You would have to make sure the wording was different enough so as not to be accused of plagiarism, but then balance making sure you got the original tone of the article.  That is essentially impossible.

Quoting stories is as old as journalism and is essential to editorials as well as stories.  So long as you only quote a small portion of the story it falls under Fair Use, and I don’t really see that ever being written out of copyright law.

It all comes down to “consent”

Judge Posner does stipulate that people could get the copyright holder’s consent and do the linking and quoting, but due to time constraints, and the timeliness of stories, would any newspaper want a dedicated person sitting around 24/7 just to approve requests?  Of course they wouldn’t,  so the solution would be giving people carte blanche to link and quote.  Those papars that wouldn’t do it would quickly see themselves losing popularity due to a lack of links, and… in short, everyone would have to give blanket permission and we would be back to where we started.  Everyone would have permission, and those that didn’t grant it would get zero traffic because of how far behind they are.

So, basically I am saying that Judge Posner’s solution is flawed beyond belief and that he shows a total lack of understanding for how the Internet actually operates.  His ’solutions’ will do nothing but create grief for bloggers and newspapers alike  It would take no time for workarounds to be found, and in the meantime it would end up costing those papers money as they try to handle all of the increased number of requests for permission.

Try to save old media if you want, but at least have a working knowledge of your “solution” before you suggest it.

This week Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself took on, a full load of subjects, and got in a good amount of Gillmor’ing.

- Chris Anderson teaches us that you can write a book by copying large sections of text from Wikipedia.

- Steven got to name the third winner of Dickwad of the Week.

- Michael Jackson died… you know… in case you were living under a rock.

- Panasonic really wants you to use ONLY their batteries.

- Apparently The Cynical Bastards were the only ones paying attention to the FTC story about what they want to do to bloggers.

Push the big green button and have a listen.

June isn’t over yet and already all of the major US networks have announced their premiere dates for this coming fall.

The CW is first out of the gate on September 8th, and from there on out it’s like one big rocket slide to October 16th with premieres just coming one after another in rapid fire succession.    So get out your calendars and start marking the premieres of your favorite shows.

Tuesday, September 8th
8pm: “90210″ (The CW)
9pm: “Melrose Place” (The CW)

Wednesday, September 9th
8pm: “America’s Next Top Model” (The CW)

Thursday, September 10th
8pm: “The Vampire Diaries” (The CW)
9pm: “Supernatural” (The CW)

Friday, September 11th
11pm: “The Wanda Sykes Show” (FOX)

Saturday, September 12th
8pm: “COPS” (FOX)
9pm: “America’s Most Wanted” (FOX)

Monday, September 14th
8pm: “One Tree Hill” (The CW)
9pm: “Gossip Girl” (The CW)
10pm: “The Jay Leno Show” (NBC)

Tuesday, September 15th
8pm: “The Biggest Loser” (NBC)

Wednesday, September 16th
8pm: “So You Think You Can Dance” (FOX)
9pm: “The Beautiful Life” (The CW)
9pm: “Glee” (FOX)

Thursday, September 17th
8pm: “Bones” (FOX)
8pm: “Survivor: Samoa” (CBS)
8pm: “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday” (NBC)
8:30pm: “Parks and Recreation” (NBC)
9pm: “Fringe” (FOX)
9pm: “The Office” (NBC)
9:30pm: “Community” (NBC)

Friday, September 18th
8pm: “Brothers” (FOX)
8:30pm: “Til Death” (FOX)
9pm: “Dollhouse” (FOX)

Monday, September 21st
8pm: “Dancing With the Stars” (ABC)
8pm: “Heroes” (NBC)
8pm: “House” (FOX)
8pm: “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS)
8:30pm: “Accidentally on Purpose” (CBS)
9pm: “Two and a Half Men” (CBS)
9:30pm: “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
10pm: “Castle” (ABC)
10pm: “CSI: Miami” (CBS)

Tuesday, September 22nd
8pm: “NCIS” (CBS)
9pm: “NCIS: Los Angeles” (CBS)
10pm: “The Forgotten” (ABC)
10pm: “The Good Wife” (CBS)

Wednesday, September 23rd
8pm: “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (CBS)
8pm: “Parenthood” (NBC)
8:30pm: “Gary Unmarried” (CBS)
9pm: “Criminal Minds” (CBS)
9pm: “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC)
9pm: “Modern Family” (ABC)
9:30pm: “Cougar Town” (ABC)
10pm: “CSI: NY” (CBS)

Thursday, September 24th
8pm: “Flash Forward” (ABC)
9pm: “CSI” (CBS)
9pm: “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC)
10pm: “The Mentalist” (CBS)

Friday, September 25th
8pm: “Ghost Whisperer” (CBS)
8pm: “Law & Order” (NBC)
8pm: “Smallville” (The CW)
9pm: “Medium” (CBS)
9pm: “Southland” (NBC)
10pm: “Numb3rs” (CBS)

Saturday, September 26th
7pm: “60 Minutes” (CBS)
8pm: “The Amazing Race” (CBS)
10pm: “Cold Case” (CBS)
11:30pm: SNL (NBC)

Sunday, September 27th
7pm: “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (ABC)
8pm: “The Simpsons” (FOX)
8:30pm: “The Cleveland Show” (FOX)
9pm: “Desperate Housewives” (ABC)
9pm: “Family Guy” (FOX)
9:30pm: “American Dad” (FOX)

Monday, September 28th
8pm: “Lie to Me” (FOX)
9pm: “Trauma” (NBC)

Tuesday, September 29th
8pm: “Hell’s Kitchen” (FOX)
8pm: “Shark Tank” (ABC)

Wednesday, September 30th
8pm: “Hank” (ABC)
8:30pm: “The Middle” (ABC)

Sunday, October 4th
9pm: “Three Rivers” (CBS)

Friday, October 9th
8pm: “Ugly Betty” (ABC)

Thursday, October 15th
9:30pm: “30 Rock” (NBC)

Friday, October 16th
8pm: “Supernanny” (ABC)

Billy Mays, the television pitchman that has been a staple of late night television commercials for years, has passed away.

The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Deborah Mays, Billy’s wife, found him dead this morning in their St. Petersburg, FL home.  No cause of death is known at this time, but foul play is not suspected.  He had been on a US Airways 737 flight yesterday that blew a tire upon landing, and was questioned by company representatives after wards, but did not request any medical attention.  It sounds like this may have been more of a coincidence than anything.

Mrs. Mays has released only one public statement at this time:

Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.

An autopsy is expected to be conducted tomorrow, but is unknown when, or if, those results will be made public. According to the police, as of 6:00 PM local time last night he was discussing business with his father-in-law, and everything appeared fine with him health wise.

Mr. Mays was a television pitchman that advertised just about everything you could think of, including:

• OxiClean
• Orange Glo
• Kaboom
• Engrave It
• Handy Switch
• iCan
• Mighty Mend-It
• Mighty Putty
• Hercules Hook
• AwesomeAuger
• Steam Buddy
• Zorbeez
• Big City Slider Station
• The Ding King

His popularity made him a prime target for Internet memes making Billy Mays videos hugely popular on YouTube, many of them featuring alternate audio tracks that simply aren’t appropriate for mixed company.  Do go take a look though, there are nearly 72,000 of them!

He teamed up with fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan for a reality TV series called Pitchmen that tried to reveal some of the process behind the selection of what products they would choose to advertise, and the competition that existed between the two men as to who was better at the job.

While I have spoken several times about how his commercials annoyed me, I certainly never wished the man any harm, and my deepest condolences go out to his family.

Can you imagine another Batman film that doesn’t involve director Christopher Nolan? Well, if Christian Bale is right, you might have to.

In a new interview with MTV to promote his new movie, Public Enemies, Christian Bale was asked about the status of a third Batman film with director Christopher Nolan.

I truly don’t know that we’re ever going to see another Batman movie. It would be purely that [Christopher Nolan] would need to find a story that was good enough. and if he couldn’t find that it wouldn’t happen.

The prevailing rumor has been that Nolan’s original plan called for The Joker to feature heavily in a third film’s plot, but with the passing of Heath Ledger, whom won an Academy Award for the role, those plans came to a halt.  Nolan is reluctant to recast the role, understandably, and so he is left without a story idea he likes.

While Bale is under contract for a third film, Nolan is not.  So I hate to break the news to Bale, but, yes, we will indeed see a third film.  As Box Office Mojo shows, The Dark Knight grossed $533,345,358 domestic, and $468,576,467 internationally for a total of $1,001,921,825 on a $185 million dollar budget.  There is no way there will not be a third Batman film, and it will indeed star Bale unless he finds a way to weasel out of his contract.  The only reason I don’t think there has been any official word on it yet is that Warner Brothers wants to have an official refusal from Nolan as there is no reason to break up a successful team if they don’t have to.

The only other problem right now is Nolan’s latest project, Inception, which is due for release on July 16, 2010.  With pre-production time, there is no way Nolan would be ready to shoot a third Batman until 2011, meaning that the film would be released in summer 2012 at the earliest, a full 4 years since The Dark Knight.

This is an interesting parallel between the last series of Batman films and this one.  After Batman Returns, both Michael Keaton and Tim Burton walked away from the series, and we were award with Batman Forever and Batman & Robin being directed by Joel Schumacher.  I don’t think I have to remind any one just how badly that turned out.  So there is a definite precedent with this character of the fact you shouldn’t mess with success.

I think there are a ton of story ideas that could work for the third film, and they could fit in perfectly with what we were left with at the end of The Dark Knight, as weall as the more realistic world Batman inhabits in these films.  One of my regular readers named Jack made an excellent argument in the comments of my post about The Dark Knight passing $1 billion box office for a “Hunt the Batman” motif.  He was a fugitive at the end of the third film, why not make the Batman himself the “villain” of the third film even as he attempts to save the city from itself?  Could Bruce Wayne continue to reason that saving a city that wants his head is really worth it?

Another friend of mine even suggested how they could use the well-known villain The Penguin without it being over the top.  These films have set up a large mob syndicate operates in Gotham, why not make him the new mob guy who moves in to town and just happens to like wearing tuxedos?  This would lead to him being called “The Penguin” in crime circles, and you could keep the bird motif of the character.  No need for him to be the mutated freak he is usually shown as.

There are a lot of possabilities still out there, and hopefully Nolan will reconsider once he has some more space between himself and the second film.

Scattercast is 49… wow… one more until #50!

- Franklin is finally here.

- What gets in to people like Mark Sanford? What causes them to be idiots?

- Yep, I am sure Transformers Revenge of the Fallen will suck… but I will oddly still go see it… darn me.

- Michael Jackson died… in case you haven’t heard. I mean, only every blog on Earth is discussing it.

- Wow… next episode will be #50 and 1 year (remember I skipped two episodes), amazing how time flies.

Here’s a link to the MP3 for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

There is one drawback to my blog readership exploding in the past year, and that is I am getting more and more reluctant to do personal stories. It isn’t what the majority of my RSS subscribers signed up for, but there are times where I just can’t resist throwing in a bit of personal news, and today is one of those days.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt has arrived!

(You can click the image for a super-sized view of him.)

He actually got here yesterday, but everything was so hectic that I couldn’t get a post up about him.  Here are a couple more pictures and a video.

The blonde Cocker Spaniel is Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, Franklin’s half-brother as they share the same dad.  Teddy is going on 3-years-old and has no clue what to make of the new addition to our pack of Cocker Spaniels (which now numbers 4)

And with a tennis ball to give you a better idea of just how tiny he is right now.

Finally, the video is more just an excuse for me trying out my new HD Sanyo video cam.  Enjoy.

Okay, seriously, you’re the governor of a state, did you think that NO ONE would notice you were missing?

As any one who reads this blog on a regular basis knows that I avoid discussing politics.  It just isn’t my bag, and I have always felt it was the safer route in life.  However, I think the situation with Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina isn’t so much about politics but about possibly the most ill-conceived extra marital affair ever.

You are the Governor of a state, you were in the possible running to be Vice-President in the 2008 election, you are considered a rising star in your political party… hey!  I got an idea!  Why don’t you lie to your staff, don’t tell your family where you’re going, and disappear to Argentina for five days to see your Mistress!  This has to be the best idea ever!

While his staff had been telling the story for days that he was hiking in the Appalachian Trail for Father’s Day, however his Lt. Governor seemed confused, as did his wife, Jenny Sanford, as to exactly where he was, or what he was doing.   It seems the man had just completely disappeared off the face of the Earth.

The State newspaper from South Carolina obtained two emails he sent to his Mistress, and one from her to him several months ago.  While they had them, they weren’t 100% sure on how authentic they were, so they sat on them.  Well, during Governor Sanford’s little… journey… they got a tip he was in Buenos Aries seeing the woman from the emails, and would be returning via the Atlanta airport today.  (which means SOMEONE knew where he was… just no one that seemed to matter)  The newspaper did the math and figured out what flight he should be on and sent a reporter to stake out the gate and… bingo, there he was.  Since the pieces were adding up, they have now released the emails to the public and they are here for your convenience.

From Gov. Sanford,
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 12:24 a.m.
“One, tomorrow leave at 5 a.m. for New York and meetings. Will think about you on its streets and wish I was going to be there later in the month when you are there. Tomorrow night back to Philadelphia for the start of the National Governor’s Conference through the weekend. Back to Columbia for Tuesday and then on Wednesday, as I think I had told you, taking the family to China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand and then back through Hong Kong on world wind tour. Few days home then to Bahamas for 5 days on a friend’s boat for the last break of the summer. The following weekend have been asked to spend it out in Aspen, Colorado with McCain – which has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home …
Two, mutual feelings …. You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light – but hey, that would be going into sexual details …
Three and finally, while all the things above are all too true – at the same time we are in a hopelessly – or as you put it impossible – or how about combine and simply say hopelessly impossible situation of love. How in the world this lightening strike snuck up on us I am still not quite sure. As I have said to you before I certainly had a special feeling about you from the first time we met, but these feelings were contained and I genuinely enjoyed our special friendship and the comparing of all too many personal notes …
Lastly I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before – so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know… In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.”
——————–
From Maria,
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 8:14 p.m.
“As I told you I shouldn’t have done this trip but I would have felt worst if I wouldn’t have come because it was too over the date, he is a very nice guy, great heart … but unfortunately I am not in love with him … You are my love … something hard to believe even for myself as it’s also a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation. Sometimes you don’t choose things, they just happen… I can’t redirect my feelings and I am very happy with mine towards you.”
——————–
From Gov. Sanford,
Tuesday, July 8, 1:42 a.m.
“Got back an hour ago to civilization and am now in Columbia after what was for me a glorious break from reality down at the farm. No phones ringing and tangible evidence of a day’s labors. Though I have started every day by 6 this morning woke at 4:30, I guess since my body knew it was the last day, and I went out and ran the excavator with lights until the sun came up. To me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the back ground, the tranquillity that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds – and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt.”

Again, let me make this crystal clear, I couldn’t care less what political party this man belongs to, I don’t care about anything to do with his politics, heck, I don’t even really care the he had an affair, that is between he and his wife.  What does anger me is that this is a fundamentally stupid man. Sure every Governor is entitled to vacations, no argument there, but to lie to your staff, to just disappear without anyone knowing when you are the man charged with being the head of your state? This is inexcusable and you must resign immediately as you are not fit to lead a Boy Scout troop let alone an entire state.  What if there had been a natural disaster?  What if some form of state wide emergency had happened?  Did anyone even remotely know where he was to reach him and get his orders? The Lt. Governor wasn’t in power, it was Governor Sanford, and the people of his state didn’t know where was.  Even for someone like me he owns a small business, which is nothing compared to running a state, but I am reachable 24/7/365 as that is my responsibility as the ultimate authority in the company… you know… like a Governor.

Basically, this man needs to resign for dereliction of duty.  If you are an elected official, if you disappear, that’s it, you’re done.  Good-bye.

I must request that no one calls my cell phone any more.

Hear me out folks! When certain people call my phone, this causes my phone to ring (I know, what a revelation), and since I have attached a ringtone to their number, that means that music plays to let me know who it is. Folks, every time you call me, did you know we’re holding a performance? It’s true! People jump up on tables and start dancing… spotlights suddenly appear as if from nowhere and shine down on the make-shift dance floor… it’s sort of like High School Musical, or, at least what I imagine High School Musical is like since I have never watched even a second of any of those movies, but you get the idea.

This is what the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) would have you believe.  According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ASCAP filed a brief (PDF link) against AT&T saying that even though consumers have paid a download royalty, the musicians are owed a second royalty for public performance when the phone ring in public places such as a restaurant.  They are going after AT&T because they make the phones be able to play the ringtones.

As the EFF points out, this is pretty much doomed to failure.  There is a specific section of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 110(4)) that says performance without any fee or compensation is ok.

(4) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if —

(A) there is no direct or indirect admission charge; or

(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain, except where the copyright owner has served notice of objection to the performance under the following conditions:

(i) the notice shall be in writing and signed by the copyright owner or such owner’s duly authorized agent; and

(ii) the notice shall be served on the person responsible for the performance at least seven days before the date of the performance, and shall state the reasons for the objection; and

(iii) the notice shall comply, in form, content, and manner of service, with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation;

So, okay, the consumer is protected because they have legally purchased the ringtones, so ASCAP turns to AT&T  because they are selling the ringtones for a profit, so they are ‘charging an admission’ for the ringtone being played.  So basically they are going after the company that sells you the equipment to enjoy this loophole in the copyright law.  The problem with this portion is that it was ruled on years ago in the infamous Sony Betamax ruling that ruled that companies were not liable for how their technologies were used. If they were to be held responsible for those uses, they would have to ask media companies for permission before building new tech, and this would stifle creativity.

Now that it is clear that ASCAP has no legal leg to stand on… does the greed of the music industry know no bounds?  Is there any possible way that they won’t continue to try to bleed money out of the consumer?  If by some miracle they win this case, you know the royalty fee will be passed down to the consumer, so, yes, this does impact you.  Yet again it is just another example of how the music industry treats all of its customers as criminals from day one, and you basically owe them money for even thinking about music.

This story is a couple of days old now, and I actually was going to give it a pass, but as I continued to think about it, the angrier I got.  Just who does ASCAP think they are?  I know of a retailer friend of mine who got visited by ASCAP at least twice over his personal radio he kept behind his counter.  He played music for his own entertainment as he would sort freight, but ASCAP said he owed them a yearly licensing fee because he played the radio at a certain decibel level that qualified it as a public performance.  He offered to turn it down, but he was informed it was too late and he owed them the fees.  Last I heard he had never paid it and continued to refuse to pay them, but they kept trying to get him for it.

Decibel levels?  Really?  Well, here’s a money spinner idea for ASCAP!  Go park an agent outside any given high school when it lets out for the day, and ticket everyone with a car stereo system over a certain level because they are obviously doing a public performance!  Heck, from my days in high school they would have made a fortune!

The music industry continues to wonders why they continue to have such a lousy relationship with consumers.  Well, I’ve got a couple of ideas of how that might have happened, could it possibly be the fact you come after us for every conceivable cent?  Just a thought.

Hopefully this will get tossed quickly, but you never know.

Does anyone remember Megaforce? If you don’t, be thankful, but I think we’re about to experience it again.

In June 1982 there was a movie released that was so bad it set a whole new benchmark for suckatude.  That lucky film was Megaforce.  Considering I was a month short of turning 11-years-old, I wanted to see it.  I remember my father took me, and after it was over he turned to me and asked me what I thought of it.  At the ripe old age of 10-years-old and 11-months I said, “Well… the vehicles were cool.”

Yep, I was already critical of movies.

On later viewings I realized just how bad it was, and when I say it was bad, I mean it was trauma inducing bad.  I think my eyes actually bled at one point.

Unfortunately, this latest G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra trailer makes me think of the same thing.  The unfortunate part is that this time it is based on a beloved property that was loved by many kids in the 1980’s.  Instead of a popcorn action flick, we’re getting something with slapstick comedy, impossibly stupid “accelerator suits” and sub-par line delivery.  So help me, the trailer for this makes Transformers look high class, and that’s saying a lot for me.

If this wasn’t bad enough, you can check out a full scene from G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra here.