Jim Connelly

The Village Voice Breaks Up With Robert Christgau

September 5, 2006 by Jim Connelly

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my life-long love of the writing of music critic Robert Christgau. One of the points of the piece was that I still looked forward to reading his monthly Consumer Guide on the Village Voice website.

Well, not so much anymore, as the news has come down that the Village Voice — or corporation that owns the Village Voice, as well as a bunch of other “Alternative Newsweeklies” — has given Christgau his walking papers.

I’m sure that I speak for an ever-smaller group of music geeks when I say this:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

From Japan, it’s the iPodBot!

September 5, 2006 by Jim Connelly

How many times have you asked yourself, “if only my iPod docking station were a robot? And not just any robot, but a robot that will follow me around, playing all of my favorite iPod music?”

If you’re like me, the answer is “dozens, maybe even hundreds, of times.” Well, finally all of your hopes have been fulfilled and all of your prayers have been answered.

I’m going to call it the iPodBot, but its real name is the Miuro, and it is going to be your newest — and bestest — robot friend!

How Not to Do A Character Blog

September 4, 2006 by Jim Connelly

One of the topics that has been discussed a lot at our recent Medialoper staff meetings is character blogs. Character Blogs are written from the point of view of a fictional character in a film, TV show, book or what have you. The internet is rife with these blogs, and when done well, the can be a powerful tool for promotion, backstory, or just to get deeper into a particular character’s head.

Booksquare just did a recent series of pieces looking at this phenomenon in the literary world, so I’m going to focus on a different medium, Television. (All of you who aren’t surprised, raise your hands . . . nobody? right.)

Will Spiral Frog Leap Into Our Music Collections?

August 30, 2006 by Jim Connelly

[Lopy notes: Spiral Frog finally launched, and we finally reviewed it]

Free legal downloads!! From a major label, no less. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? It’s supposed to be a reality, as a site called Spiral Frog has contracted with Universal Music to provide free downloads starting in December.

Of course, there is a catch — you are going to have to deal with advertising while you download. Here’s how they describe it:

Why HD DVDs Won’t Save Hollywood

August 29, 2006 by Jim Connelly

On the surface of it, I’m a natural candidate to upgrade to one of the latest HD DVD formats: I have an extensive and ever-growing DVD collection, and I have a pretty decent HD TV and sound system.

So it would be logical for me to take the next step — upgrade to either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. But I’m just not going to do it, not yet, and maybe not ever.

I’m also guessing that I’m not alone. Here’s why:

The Weekly ‘Loper – August 27, 2006

August 27, 2006 by Jim Connelly

While you were relishing the chance to make yet more Uranus jokes, here’s what we were looking at:

CBS Reaffirms Its Commitment To Appointment Television – CBS’ online newscasts: one step up, two steps back. What’s the point in doing online news and restricting access by time zone?
Watch Out For Falling Serpents!! – Hey everybody! Remember that whole Snakes on a Plane thing? Wasn’t that funny? Absolutely one of the best pop culture moments of Springtime 2006.
What Happens When Your Radio Station Switches Formats – You don’t have to be a Country Music fan to understand the reasons why the wholesale abandoment of the format by radio in our larger metropolitian areas sucks. Adding insult to injury in Los Angeles: the return of hack DJ Rick Dees.
There Is A Cure For the Summer Tube Blues – Stop whining about nothing being on TV and start watching these shows!! Oh wait, most of them have their finales this week. Oh well, there’s always next summer.
Hollywood Today – Not so different from Hollywood yesterday. Which doesn’t bode so well for Hollywood tomorrow.
The Truth About Pluto’s Demotion – Neptune is celebrating, as it always regarded Pluto as a bit of a poseur. No word on what Uranus thinks, which is weird, as it’s usually not shy about expressing itself.
That’s What I Like: WordPress – You gotta love a Web Pub Tool that makes it this easy for schlubs like me to immediately share our bad jokes with the rest of the world.
Zune Autopsy Photos Revealed By FCC – Still looks better than the Prism Durosport 6000.

The Truth About Pluto’s Demotion

August 24, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Today, in shocking news, Pluto was demoted from Planetary status to something called a “Dwarf Planet.”

The official story by the International Astronomical Union was that Pluto was too small to be an actual planet, and thus the demotion. But why was Pluto considered a planet for all of those years? And why so suddenly, when just a couple of days ago, Pluto’s planetary status seemed assured? And will, as a Dwarf Planet, it be forced to change its name to “Gimli?”

In a Medialoper Multiverse Exclusive, we have learned the shocking truth about Pluto’s demotion.

There Is A Cure For the Summer Tube Blues

August 23, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Thanks to FOX, who like to start their shows early because they spend October ruining the Baseball Playoffs, the fall television season is starting this week. Which means, finally, rescue from the summer TV doldrums, right?

Wrong.

If you think that there hasn’t good stuff on the tube this summer, you haven’t been paying attention. Or you don’t have cable, which is where these half-dozen good-to-all-time-classic shows live.

Watch Out For Falling Serpents!!

August 21, 2006 by Jim Connelly

So Snakes on a Plane didn’t do as well as expected. What surprises me is why anybody is surprised about this. But they are, and the backlash against the blogosphere has already started.

“It doesn’t create any sort of mandate for Internet promotion,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, noting that all the Web hype for Snakes on a Plane didn’t translate into ticket-buying.

The Weekly ‘Loper – August 20, 2006

August 20, 2006 by Jim Connelly

While you were using the Web to arm yourself with information about new cars — and still ended up paying more than you intended — here’s what we were looking at:

Why Zune & iPod Should Have the Radio On (Radio On!) – Hell, even the Prism DuroSport’s got the AM, so why aren’t Microsoft and Apple down with giving us as many listening choices as possible?
It’s Hard Out There For A Critic – In a world where critics aren’t the gatekeepers and tastemakers, what role will they end up playing?
Assessing The Impact Of the AOL Data Spill – Kirk takes an in-depth look at the impact of AOL’s leaked user search data.
10 Ways To Protect Your Privacy Before The Next Data Spill – This sort of thing is going to happen again, and you’d best believe that your data is being traded privately all of the time anyways, so here’s how to minimize the impact.
That’s What I Like: The Complete Peanuts – In the latest installment of our highly acclaimed* series, Jim looks at early days of the iconic comic strip and points out that, originally, they were just weird little kids.
Nothin’ From Nothin’ Leaves Nothin’ – It’s obviously going to take Billy Preston to convince John Lennon to let Yoko know that it’s time for The Beates to join the iTunes parade.

*To each other