Some notes to Hollywood and friends
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Before the folks in Hollywood, Nashville and other media-centric locations that may be celebrating the Supreme Court's decision in the Kazaa/Grokster/Morpheus cases celebrate too much, perhaps they should remind themselves of a few things.
First, there's our friends in Hollywood that are crying about a continued slump in box office number without seeming to figure out why.
Second, there's our friends in the music industry that also should be paying attention, though they have been a bit smarter about supporting legal sales of individual copies of digital music.
Third, there's our friends in the media that let actors like Tom Cruise claim to be more educated than most doctors when it comes to prescribing ADHD meds.
Fourth, there's idiots like say the Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore, Bruce Springsteen, and a host of others that want to tell us who to vote for, and insult our choices when we do not do their bidding.
All of these things circle around several issues.
First, regarding box office -- I had the occasion this last week to take my family to the movies. If you must know, it was to Herbie the Love Bug, Fully Loaded, or whatever the title was. It was an ok flick. Family friendly, and somewhat nostalgic if you grew up on the original Herbie films. Movie tickets: $20. Time spent with family: priceless -- oooops, wait, sorry, moving away from the Visa commercial analogy for a bit, not so priceless. I think it was just over $20 for the movie tickets. That was for 2 adults, 2 kids, matinee prices. Not bad, but not cheap. $20 is still something that takes me a while to earn, and I know many people find that it takes more than a while. If you are working for minimum wage, that's about 5 - 6 hours after taxes. Not cheap.
Oh well, it's not that bad, right? Ooops, wait, when you walk in, your senses are bombarded with the smell of popcorn, nachos, and other things for you to spend money on. Once you get the popcorn, you have to have something to wash it down with -- especially if the weather is like this past weekend, hot as hades outside, and humidity to match. How much for the combo again? From the sellers side: Priceless. Say whaaaaaaaat? $31+ for 2 large popcorn, 2 large drinks, and 2 boxes of movie theatre candy. Are you friggin' kiddin' me?!?! Nope, sad but true.
So, let me count this up again, time spent with family in theatre: $55 (give or take) for 90 minutes of movie that rates 2 out of 5 stars, plus food.
And Hollywood wonders why people are not going to the movies, and instead are buying DVDs or worse yet (for them) just renting from Netflix?!? Let me do the math for them again -- $17.99 for Netflix for a month. That means 3 movies out, as many as I can turn around in a month. Lets figure 4 movies (on average) a week -- movies of my chosing. If I add microwave popcorn -- even the good stuff -- it costs me just $2 (give or take) to have one big bag of popcorn while I watch. Two bags feed the whole family. That's more like $3.50 (give or take).
If I watch at home, it costs me zilch for gas (which continues to climb at the pumps). I can pause, rewind, fast forward, turn on commentary, watch the previews, skip the previews, and maintain total control. The only thing I have to worry about is that the quality of the content stays high enough to remain interested, or...... I can just watch classics. Movies made back when people made quality films. Not trash and rehashed old stories. And best of all for me, I don't have to worry too much about the people I'm watching in the classics opening their yaps and saying something that is completely the opposite of my political tastes. I don't have to feel like I'm watching a traitor that would rather go live in France, Iraq, or some other place.
Back to the music industry - again, nice that they seem to have figured out that legal sales of individual songs would help their industry. It took them how long to arrive at that conclusion? And even still, the idiots are still trying to include CD copy protections that keep people like me from "ripping" the songs from CDs to transfer to my Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) device, or keep me from making WMA or MP3 versions of the files at my own quality levels, if at all. Instead, we get some manufacturers that make the lowest possible quality digital copies available, while "locking" the original content to discourage file trading.
Hey clueless ones -- I ain't interested in trading, except as a way to perhaps sample something new so I know what I may be interested in buying. Something that Sat-Radio, as well as Internet streaming (such as the free Windows Mobile, or free Comcast Rhaposody site) help on.
Never mind though that for the most part I keep hearing the same old content, from the same old artists, that is repeated endlessly because the music industry seems to be on the payola, or at least seems to be filled with people who refuse to break the mold and take a chance on airing something other than what was on the very short playlist that was handed down from Clear Channel central. How about going a bit deeper on the original CD? How about talking more with the artists and providing more samples from their works? Nah, not something that the recording industry feels obligated to do. Much like why I don't feel obligated to buy their products -- except via Sat Radio perhaps -- so much anymore.
Circling back to rant #3 above - Hey, Tom Cruise -- shut the hell up. Actually, you can shut up Matt Lauer, Katy Couric and a host of other idiots with you if you don't mind, and even if you do. But above all, all you morons that think you know more than the rest of us - you don't. You read some books -- whoopy for you. You read some articles in the news. Great. You have some some research, congrats. Now use it yourself and leave the public out of it. Especially Cruise. Commenting repeatedly about others like Brooke Shields does not impress us. You think you know what was going on for Ms. Shields - great, call her on the phone so she can hang up on you directly. But don't tell us about your medical and psychiatric beliefs. You aren't a doctor. Hell, I don't even remember you playing one in your film career. So shut up. Either that, or I'm gonna demand the right to preach to you about how f-ed up your choice of religions is. What? I'm not an expert in that field? How dare I? Who says I have done the research? I know your religion just as you know Psychiatry. Gotcha, didn't I?
Rant #4 - heck, that's just an old one that is spiked up because of rant #3. Again, all of you celebs - shut up. Heck, please shut up your mouth pieces in Washington also (Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, etc.)
That's enough for now, but feel free to vent some here yourself.
First, there's our friends in Hollywood that are crying about a continued slump in box office number without seeming to figure out why.
Second, there's our friends in the music industry that also should be paying attention, though they have been a bit smarter about supporting legal sales of individual copies of digital music.
Third, there's our friends in the media that let actors like Tom Cruise claim to be more educated than most doctors when it comes to prescribing ADHD meds.
Fourth, there's idiots like say the Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore, Bruce Springsteen, and a host of others that want to tell us who to vote for, and insult our choices when we do not do their bidding.
All of these things circle around several issues.
First, regarding box office -- I had the occasion this last week to take my family to the movies. If you must know, it was to Herbie the Love Bug, Fully Loaded, or whatever the title was. It was an ok flick. Family friendly, and somewhat nostalgic if you grew up on the original Herbie films. Movie tickets: $20. Time spent with family: priceless -- oooops, wait, sorry, moving away from the Visa commercial analogy for a bit, not so priceless. I think it was just over $20 for the movie tickets. That was for 2 adults, 2 kids, matinee prices. Not bad, but not cheap. $20 is still something that takes me a while to earn, and I know many people find that it takes more than a while. If you are working for minimum wage, that's about 5 - 6 hours after taxes. Not cheap.
Oh well, it's not that bad, right? Ooops, wait, when you walk in, your senses are bombarded with the smell of popcorn, nachos, and other things for you to spend money on. Once you get the popcorn, you have to have something to wash it down with -- especially if the weather is like this past weekend, hot as hades outside, and humidity to match. How much for the combo again? From the sellers side: Priceless. Say whaaaaaaaat? $31+ for 2 large popcorn, 2 large drinks, and 2 boxes of movie theatre candy. Are you friggin' kiddin' me?!?! Nope, sad but true.
So, let me count this up again, time spent with family in theatre: $55 (give or take) for 90 minutes of movie that rates 2 out of 5 stars, plus food.
And Hollywood wonders why people are not going to the movies, and instead are buying DVDs or worse yet (for them) just renting from Netflix?!? Let me do the math for them again -- $17.99 for Netflix for a month. That means 3 movies out, as many as I can turn around in a month. Lets figure 4 movies (on average) a week -- movies of my chosing. If I add microwave popcorn -- even the good stuff -- it costs me just $2 (give or take) to have one big bag of popcorn while I watch. Two bags feed the whole family. That's more like $3.50 (give or take).
If I watch at home, it costs me zilch for gas (which continues to climb at the pumps). I can pause, rewind, fast forward, turn on commentary, watch the previews, skip the previews, and maintain total control. The only thing I have to worry about is that the quality of the content stays high enough to remain interested, or...... I can just watch classics. Movies made back when people made quality films. Not trash and rehashed old stories. And best of all for me, I don't have to worry too much about the people I'm watching in the classics opening their yaps and saying something that is completely the opposite of my political tastes. I don't have to feel like I'm watching a traitor that would rather go live in France, Iraq, or some other place.
Back to the music industry - again, nice that they seem to have figured out that legal sales of individual songs would help their industry. It took them how long to arrive at that conclusion? And even still, the idiots are still trying to include CD copy protections that keep people like me from "ripping" the songs from CDs to transfer to my Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) device, or keep me from making WMA or MP3 versions of the files at my own quality levels, if at all. Instead, we get some manufacturers that make the lowest possible quality digital copies available, while "locking" the original content to discourage file trading.
Hey clueless ones -- I ain't interested in trading, except as a way to perhaps sample something new so I know what I may be interested in buying. Something that Sat-Radio, as well as Internet streaming (such as the free Windows Mobile, or free Comcast Rhaposody site) help on.
Never mind though that for the most part I keep hearing the same old content, from the same old artists, that is repeated endlessly because the music industry seems to be on the payola, or at least seems to be filled with people who refuse to break the mold and take a chance on airing something other than what was on the very short playlist that was handed down from Clear Channel central. How about going a bit deeper on the original CD? How about talking more with the artists and providing more samples from their works? Nah, not something that the recording industry feels obligated to do. Much like why I don't feel obligated to buy their products -- except via Sat Radio perhaps -- so much anymore.
Circling back to rant #3 above - Hey, Tom Cruise -- shut the hell up. Actually, you can shut up Matt Lauer, Katy Couric and a host of other idiots with you if you don't mind, and even if you do. But above all, all you morons that think you know more than the rest of us - you don't. You read some books -- whoopy for you. You read some articles in the news. Great. You have some some research, congrats. Now use it yourself and leave the public out of it. Especially Cruise. Commenting repeatedly about others like Brooke Shields does not impress us. You think you know what was going on for Ms. Shields - great, call her on the phone so she can hang up on you directly. But don't tell us about your medical and psychiatric beliefs. You aren't a doctor. Hell, I don't even remember you playing one in your film career. So shut up. Either that, or I'm gonna demand the right to preach to you about how f-ed up your choice of religions is. What? I'm not an expert in that field? How dare I? Who says I have done the research? I know your religion just as you know Psychiatry. Gotcha, didn't I?
Rant #4 - heck, that's just an old one that is spiked up because of rant #3. Again, all of you celebs - shut up. Heck, please shut up your mouth pieces in Washington also (Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, etc.)
That's enough for now, but feel free to vent some here yourself.
