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Jim Connelly

How Can I Get My TV Pilot Picked Up?

July 21, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Dear Lopy:

I just made a pilot for a big (OK, big-ish) TV Network, and it was rejected for being different from other TV shows. How can I get it picked up by another network?

Signed,

Hapless in Hollywood

Dear Hapless,

Here’s how to get your rejected pilot picked up by another network, in six easy steps.

[Read more…] about How Can I Get My TV Pilot Picked Up?

Filed Under: Dear Lopy, Television, YouTube Tagged With: bill-lawrence, NBC, nobodys-watching, scrubs, YouTube

That’s What I Like: Robert Christgau

July 21, 2006 by Jim Connelly

I first discovered Robert Christgau in the hallowed pages of Creem Magazine. It was nearly 30 years ago, and I was a music-crazy high school kid trying to come to terms with not just the two decades of rock ‘n’ roll I’d already missed, but this punk rock thing I was reading about, but not hearing. You gotta remember that, back in the day, not only was there no internet, there were no radio stations in Fresno that were playing anything more adventurous than The Cars, and everybody I knew were on a steady diet of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Kiss and AC/DC. So I bought album after album without hearing a note; based entirely on what people wrote about them. That’s just what you did.

Punk Rock changed my life, for sure, but Creem was the catalyst. (And The Clash was the agent, but that’s another story.)

Since I spent every penny of disposable income on records, I didn’t have the money for a subscription, so I went to Thrifty’s Drugs (Tower Records wasn’t selling magazines yet) every day during the middle of every month because that’s when I noticed it would show up.

There was no doubt that it was just about my favorite thing in the universe. I devoured each issue, over and over again, month after month. And my favorite thing of alll was Christgau’s Consumer Guide.

[Read more…] about That’s What I Like: Robert Christgau

Filed Under: Music, That's What I Like Tagged With: Creem-Magazine, Music, Robert-Christgau, Rock-Critics, Village-Voice

CinemaNow Steps Up (A Little)

July 19, 2006 by Jim Connelly

A couple of days ago, I discussed the announcement by the film download service Movielink that they had licensed software to allow downloaded films to be burnt to DVD. Of course, there was still the tiny little hurdle of getting the studios to go along with their plan. Maybe by the end of the year.

Enter CinemaNow. They announced yesterday that they have not only licensed DVD-burning software and gotten a studios to take a flyer on the concept, but they have actually started offering the service. Naturally, there are issues.

[Read more…] about CinemaNow Steps Up (A Little)

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Movies, Services Tagged With: Cinemanow, downloads, Movielink, Movies

CBS Eggvertising: The Yolk’s On Us

July 18, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Mention the 1960s and 1970s to broadcast TV execs, and you probably get sad sighs, as they reminisce dreamily about a time before the internet; before TiVo; before VHS; before original cable programming; before the remote control; when people would turn the TV to one single network and leave it there all night, watching the commercials and everything. It was the “Golden Age of TV,” for sure. Because TV got all of the gold.

Those days are gone, of course, but it doesn’t stop the broadcast networks from devising plans to once more grab, trap and have their way with a mass audience. Last week, ABC reportedly wanted to disable the fast-forward buttons on DVRs, and this week, CBS has announced their bold new marketing strategy: they are going to advertise on eggs.

[Read more…] about CBS Eggvertising: The Yolk’s On Us

Filed Under: Focusing on the Wrong Problem, Marketing, Television Tagged With: ABC, CBS, eggs, eggvertising

Movielink Steps Up (A Little)

July 17, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Some good news for those who are interested in legally downloading film: Movielink, one of the major services originally created to sell movie downloads, is going to allow consumers to burn their downloads to DVD.

Will this be the magic steriod that will kickstart the mostly-ignored film downloading service? Probably not, but it is a start.

[Read more…] about Movielink Steps Up (A Little)

Filed Under: Mediacratic, Movies, Services Tagged With: Cinemanow, downloads, DRM, Movielink, Movies

The Weekly ‘Loper – July 16, 2006

July 16, 2006 by Jim Connelly

While you were wondering when you were going to get indicted for Tax Evasion because they couldn’t pin anything else on you, here’s what we were looking at:

  • Hyping The Music, One Song At A Time – Communities that form around online blogs are different — smaller, but more passionate — than communities that formed around radio stations.
  • The Perfect DVR – My Wish List For the Ultimate Television Machine – Kirk tosses out a wish list for what will tempt him to dumpt his venerable Series 1 TiVo.
  • Only Spielberg Can Mess With His Movies, Dammit! – A judge rules that self-selected censors can’t remove the good bits from movies prior to renting them to the public.
  • More Fun In The New World – How will AT&T’s foray into the online concert world fare? Hopefully, it will work better than the phone “service” they provide me.
  • ABC: Always Being Clueless – Yeah, because the viewing public is clamoring for DVRs with disabled fast-forward buttons . . .
  • Baby Eisner Is Losing His Grip On Reality – Two words: Baby NASCAR.
  • Fools Go Forth: Digital Distribution And Artist Compensation – Since digital distribution is significantly different from physical distribution, how long will it take artists to rebel against digital distribution deals that are essentially the same as the physical deals?
  • That’s What I Like: Marketplace – Kassia finds an actual reason to listen to NPR: a show that is smart, educational, and has some snark.

Filed Under: The Weekly 'Loper

ABC: Always Being Clueless

July 12, 2006 by Jim Connelly

ABC, the network that has been at war with DVR owners for the past several yearrs may be going nuclear. According to at least one report, they are in talks with cable & satellite companies to disable the fast-forward button on future DVRs. Somehow, I doubt this is one of the features that Kirk had in mind when he wrote about his ideal DVR.

Even better, they claim that consumers will be OK with this, that people don’t actually want to fast-forward through the commercials. That the only reason they use DVRs is for the time-shifting aspects. And that we’d all be willing to put up with commercials to continue to time-shift, so there would be no backlash whatsoever.

Holy Jesus Frack! Do these people even use DVRs? There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t even know where to begin.

[Read more…] about ABC: Always Being Clueless

Filed Under: Focusing on the Wrong Problem, Television Tagged With: ABC, DVR, Television

Only Spielberg Can Mess With His Movies, Dammit!

July 11, 2006 by Jim Connelly

In a bit of good news for censorship foes, a Federal judge in Denver has ruled that retailers who were “sanitizing” films by removing all of the good parts prior to selling them to a probably-witting niche were also violating copyright laws.

This case has been in motion since 2002, when CleanFlicks tried to twist the First Amendment by claiming that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to these films prior to sending them out to the public. The judge, however, saw right through that bullshit:

[Read more…] about Only Spielberg Can Mess With His Movies, Dammit!

Filed Under: Censorship, Copyright, Movies Tagged With: Clean-Cut, CleanFlicks, DVD, Family-Flix, film, Phantom-Edit, Play-It-Clean-Video, Steven-Spielberg, Video

Should Episodes of Chappelle’s Show Have Stayed Lost?

July 10, 2006 by Jim Connelly

I never really got the whole Dave Chappelle thing. During the height of the frenzy, when he was selling skizillions of DVDs, I watched a few episodes, but it never really stuck with me the way that other sketch comedy has. Given the fact that plenty of people whose taste I respect like him, I’m perfectly willing to say that is a defect on my part. Just add it to the list.

However, I found his whole abandonment of his megastardom fascinating, and a bit refreshing. It seemed to be part and parcel of whatever anger fueled his comedy in the first place, and it actually made him more interesting to me.

Of course, what’s “interesting” to me was a goddamn nightmare for Comedy Central, who have plenty of experience dealing with badly-behaving geniuses (Matt and Trey!), but probably never had to deal with someone who just left all of the money on the table.

[Read more…] about Should Episodes of Chappelle’s Show Have Stayed Lost?

Filed Under: Piracy, Television Tagged With: Comedy-Central, Dave-Chappelle

The Weekly ‘Loper – July 9, 2006

July 9, 2006 by Jim Connelly

While you were BBQing tequilia-marinated chicken during a 4th of July thunderstorm in Seattle, here’s what we were looking at:

  • How iTunes Can Help The Publishing Industry – Simple: combine the ubiquity of the seemingly indestructible Portable Document Format with the ease of iTunes.
  • How About Independence From Demagogues? What better way to celebrate our nation’s 230th B-Day than a with a rant about asswipe Congresspeople trying to whip up their base in an election year? Well, for starters, with that BBQ chicken.
  • New Online Media Sharing Service, New Model, Same Problems – What if you got paid for those crazy wacky homemade videos that you keep uploading to the Web? eefoof is willing to do just that. Cool! Er, that is if enough people find your video. Good luck with that. Also, have we really run out of even brand-new madeup words for Websites? Is any random combination of vowels and consonants now good enough?
  • How The Pilot That Nobody Watched Got Itself Seen By Everybody – Or “Everybody’s Watching Nobody’s Watching.”
  • The Universal Plan To Save CD Sales – I’ve got a plan: lower your prices and release better music!
  • That’s What I Like: SubEthaEdit – If you thought that SubEthaEdit was how the Galactica communicated with its Viper pilots, Kirk & Kassia will set you straight with this explanation about a powerful writing collaboration tool.
  • Emmy Noms: Two-and-A-Half Cracksmoking Monkeys? – BTW, no disrespect meant towards Martin Sheen, who’s always owned that role, it’s just that he wasn’t in West Wing enough this season to deserve a nomination, that’s all. On the other hand: Charlie Sheen? Are you fracking kidding me?

Filed Under: The Weekly 'Loper

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2392: Soundgarden – “Blow Up The Outside World”
  • Certain Songs #2391: Soundgarden – “Ty Cobb”
  • Certain Songs #2390: Soundgarden – “Kickstand”
  • Certain Songs #2389: Soundgarden – “Spoonman”
  • Certain Songs #2388: Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun”

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