The Daily Loper – July 24, 2006

Today’s links of interest:

• Done The Impossible .Torrent
  The Firefly fan documentary is now available for download. Grab yours today.
• The Movie Business Challenge
  How do you get people into the theater without spending a fortune on marketing? If you can answer that question Mark Cuban will give you a job. If you can answer that question you probably don’t need a job.
• How 25 Years of MTV Have Changed the World
  Whew, pretty soon it’s going to be older that even the outer edges of its target demo.
• Pavement to Re-Release Wowee Zowee
  Pavement released five albums in the 1990s: all of them good-to-great (and the second one an all-timer). In looks like in the 2000s, they are going to release them all again. And somehow make them even better the second time around. It’s a neat trick.
• Hey Luke Wilson
  An open letter from Steely Dan to Luke Wilson about Luke’s brother Owen starring in "You, Me and Dupree," which they think may have been recontexualized from their song "Cousin Dupree."
• It’s no longer one size fits all, but one size fits me
  Navel gazing at the world of television. How does television fit into the world of media curating?
• Media companies court teens through the Web
  The question is: can you reach the teen set if your corporate image forces you to stay in the safe zone?
• Olbermann dons O’Reilly mask at TV meeting
  Because, well, if you can’t have fun with Bill O’Reilly, why live?
• Men, Signing Off
  Year: 2006. This: news. Women are the dominant force in television newsrooms.
• The Long Tail, reviewed
  Apparently the Long Tail doesn’t apply to everything. This will come as a disappointment to the ‘loper cats. They thought they’d finally become trendy.
• Will the next iPod be an eBook reader as well?
  Hmm, well, there’s no reason why the iPod can’t be technically adapted to allow for the reading of text. And we’ve noted that the iTunes store is already selling PDF files. Even if the rumor is third-hand, it’s a logical leap.
• Soldiers? Words May Test PBS Language Rules
  In the meantime, Team ‘loper anxiously awaits the fines related to George Bush’s recent slip of the tongue. You gotta get tough these days.
• The blockbusters you’ll never see
  The reason mid-level movies don’t get made? They, bizarrely, don’t make any money. It’s the cheap movies and extremely expensive movies that show profit potential.
• Hollywood Clicks on the Work of Web Auteurs
  Hollywood worries that content producers will pass "Go" and collect their mega-bucks, all without paying rent to the studios. Or, middleman? We don’t need no stinkin’ middleman.
• Just whose idea is it anyway?
  Extreme Copyright — coming to an arena near you soon.