Jim Connelly

The Joy of The Last Season of The Sopranos

April 11, 2007 by Jim Connelly

That awesome promo poster for season 5 As you may have noticed, we are in the final run of The Sopranos, with only nine — check that — eight more episodes to go before it ends.

And despite the existential angst that you might feel while watching these past few episodes — think of all of the times you’ve thought “oh, that’s not going to turn out well” after someone has some remark made or brandished some object– it seems like the buzz surrounding this last season, isn’t that of sadness and loss, but rather one of celebration and joy.

You can feel it in the articles discussing the possibilities of this season. You can feel it in the tone of the recaps and reviews of the actual shows. You absolutely felt it in the “Sopranos in 7 Minutes.” Something wonderful is coming to an end, to be sure, but it’s a wake we are having here, celebrating the life of The Sopranos, as opposed to mourning the death of The Sopranos.

The (Bi-)Weekly ‘Loper – April 8, 2007

April 8, 2007 by Jim Connelly

While you were trying to figure out how you could get yourself one of those machine gun legs, here’s what we’ve been looking at:

Creator Of Frivolous Lawsuits Files Lawsuit Against Other Frivolous Lawsuit Filers – There oughta be a lawsuit!
Examining NBC Universal and News Corp’s So-Called YouTube Killer – Will their content override YouTube’s ubiquity?
One Positive Step For MySpace – Now if they can do something about that terrible terrible UI.
Buffy’s Back! – The Season 8 comic books are off to a rip-roaring start.
That’s What I Like: The Glory of War – Tyson takes a look at a Fresno-based online war historian.
DuroSport Strikes Again: Second Life Store a Health Hazard – Our understanding is that on the weekend that this store opened, Second Life started having some huge huge issues. Coincidence?
DuroSport and Star Trek: A Match Made in Hell – Apparently, a lot of Trekkers couldn’t handle our harsh criticism of this new service, and chose to lash out in the comments section, pretending that the whole thing was some kind of lame joke. If so . . .
DuroSport and Star Trek: The Party’s Over – . . . the joke was clearly on DuroSport, because the service was terminated by Star Trek after only a single day.
Why “Vote For The Worst” Just Might Work – It’s not that I hate American Idol, per se, it’s just that I am so very very over it.
Hell Feezes Over: A Major Record Label Does The Right Thing – All about EMI’s decision to let Apple sell DRM-free music, and how the fact that a major label did the right thing almost made Kirk’s head explode.
Steve Jobs’ DRM Double Standard – Of course, apparently what’s good for the musical goose isn’t so good for the video gander. Or some such twisted, labored metaphor.
Sometimes My Arms Bend Back: A Personal History of Twin Peaks – While I’ve watched the first season of Twin Peaks at least a half-dozen times (I kept having to show it to people, as if to say, look at this!!), I’ve only ever watched the second season once, during that initial run. I remember really really loving the epic battle of good v. not-so-good that they were setting up, as well as the epic friendship between Dale Cooper & Harry Truman. I remember being disappointed by the ending, though. In any event, I can hardly wait to watch it again, and find out how it holds up after watching all of the shows its influenced.

Why “Vote For The Worst” Just Might Work

April 3, 2007 by Jim Connelly

This guy sucks, you should totally vote for him. In the past couple of weeks, an interesting phenomenon has been happening in American Idol. A singer named Sanjaya Malakar has been surviving the popular cut despite the fact that he seems to have no vocal talent whatsoever.

A lot of people have been attributing this to a groundswell made up of people who either really don’t like American Idol, or just want to mess with it. Cool! This has been crystallized by a website called Vote For The Worst, which (along with a host of morning show DJs) has thrown its backing behind Sanjaya week after week after week.

I fully support this. Partially because its fun to frack with something as ubiquitious as American Idol; partly because its funny, but mostly because if he somehow wins, it would go a long ways towards proving a theory that I’ve had since the early 1990s. I call it the Theory of Popularity, and it goes a little something like this:

In a culture defined by niches, the more popular something is purported to be, the less popular it actually is.

Creator Of Frivolous Lawsuits Files Lawsuit Against Other Frivolous Lawsuit Filers

March 26, 2007 by Jim Connelly

Hollywood, March 26/ MR Newswire

Steve Samwell, the creator of the concept of filing frivolous lawsuits against the producers of hit TV Shows, Films and Records, has today announced that he will file a lawsuit against “everyone in the past 40 years who has filed a lawsuit claiming that their idea was stolen.” Mr. Samwell is asserting that these people have stolen his intellectual property and are profiting from that theft.

The Weekly ‘Loper – March 25, 2007

March 25, 2007 by Jim Connelly

While you were busy watching your brackets get blown all to hell — again! why does this happen every year? — here’s what we were looking at:

NPR Starts A War – I actually feel sorry for the RIAA. Because the planet on which they live is obviously not a world where people actually enjoy music, which is sad, because music is one of those things that makes life worth living. Maybe someday, the RIAA will actually figure that out. Until then, however, they’ll continue to try to take the enjoyment of music away from the rest of us. Hmm. Forget that part about feeling sorry for them.
Emmys’ Essay Experiment – “Dear Emmy, I’m the next Pussycat Doll, and I think that our show should totally be nominated? After all, where else can girls like me get all empowers and stuff? I think Our show shows men who pay tons of money to stare at our perfectly builded bodies that we don’t need them? And that’s a message that totally needs to get out there?”
After the New Media Flood Comes the Niche – Actually, I don’t mind shopping at Fry’s. But is kind of difficult to find stuff in iTunes. For example, they a Hold Steady at live at Lollapalooza show there for months before I accidentally discovered it. That ain’t right.
AppleTV: Bigger Disappointment Than Deal? – Dear Apple, all I want is a set-top box that gives me everything. In HD. Please let me know when you’ve finished it. Love, Jim.
“You havin’ a laugh?” – The New Yorker Cartoons – This week, Tim discusses an ongoing treasure trove of humour that somehow never gets old.

AppleTV: Bigger Disappointment Than Deal?

March 22, 2007 by Jim Connelly

AppleTV Apple is shipping its long-awaited AppleTV today, and from everything that I’ve read, instead of being the final step in getting computer video to the TV, it’s actually a huge disappointment in that regard.

Rather than taking this opportunity to seize what is still a wide-open market, Apple has instead opted to go after a narrow market share: the people who have downloaded videos, etc over iTunes. That’s it.

Emmys’ Essay Experiment

March 20, 2007 by Jim Connelly

In this day and age, it’s easy to make fun of a show like the Emmys. There is a wealth of good-to-great TV shows, and variances in taste make it impossible to definitively come up with a list of nominees, let alone winners, that have some kind of consensus.

However, the Emmys, gods-bless-’em, keep trying to figure out how. Last year, they instituted blue-ribbon panels to come up with nominees, and since that failed miserably (any nomination for Grey’s Anatomy is a nomination too many), this year, they are trying a different approach.

They’ve turned the nominating process into an essay contest. No, seriously. An essay contest.

Why I’m Not Worried About The TWoP Buyout

March 15, 2007 by Jim Connelly

Semi-big news this week for those of us who care about such things: Bravo has purchased Television Without Pity, which is for some of us, the Web’s biggest and best source of ongoing TV commentary.

For people who automatically equate artistic freedom with not being under any sort of corporate yolk whatsoever, this might cause some alarm. I’m not one of those people: I don’t think that we will see any major change in the overall editorial voice of TWOP at all. I think that there are people who can do great work within the system, and my guess is that the TWoP gang will do just fine.

The Release Window is Closing, But Not Fast Enough

March 12, 2007 by Jim Connelly

According to the L.A. Times, the release window between the time a film is released in theatres and the time it is released has shrunk another 10 days in the past year.

And while that’s enough to make the National Association of Theatre Owners very nervous, that’s still not nearly fast enough. The fact that there is any time at all between the time a film is released in theatres and the time it is available for DVD, pay cable and downloading is swiftly becoming an anachronism.

The Weekly ‘Loper – March 11, 2007

March 11, 2007 by Jim Connelly

While you were busy packing up for SXSW, here’s what we were looking at:

Could Microsoft or Apple Be the Future of EMI? – The question is, of course, would being bought by actual technology companies mean the end of technophobia in the music industry? And is Sony’s purchase of Columbia Records an object lesson in either direction?
The 2008 Presidential Campaign: The Best Reality TV Show Ever? – Possibly, though probably not.
Publishing, Search, and Consumers — The Weird Triangle – Will the publishing industry embrace the book search technology that might just bring them more customers?
Austin Or Bust – As I write this, Kirk & Kassia are hanging out in Austin. And I’m not. I hate when people have more fun than I do.
Juan In A Million – A little-known California State Law passed in the wake of the rolling blackouts caused by Enron requires native Californians like your ‘Lopers to hate everything about Texas. With Juan exception.