Sunday, March 19, 2006

Recommended Reading

I discussed this in the Las Vegas Guide section of this site which I've recently removed. Increasingly, shows in that there city are being done on a "four-wall" basis where the producer (or performer) rents the showroom from the casino. The Los Angeles Times has an article about this practice. I think you'll have to register to read it but so what?

• Posted at 10:10 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Think Progress, a Liberal website, offers a rundown of significant events (and embarrassing quotes from the Bush administration) from the three years of the Iraq War.

I'd like to link to a more Conservative overview of the same period. Can someone suggest one?

• Posted at 7:18 PM · LINK

Today's BONUS Video Link

It's long (12 minutes) and it has a lot of naughty words in it, and I've already embedded one video link here today. So I won't embed but will recommend this link to "Truth in Advertising," a very funny and incisive Canadian film about what goes on in your basic advertising agency. Much of it also goes on in television studios and movie companies, and some of it reminds me more of people I've dealt with at TV networks than in ad offices. And yes, that's Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? among the cast members.

By the way — and by the way, have you noticed how often I say "by the way" on this website? — this might interest some of you. The video links I've been embedding in this weblog (meaning they play right on this page) so far are all from either Google Video or YouTube. They play here and on those sites via a player that employs Macromedia Flash to load and play a video file.

If you would like to capture any of these video files to your own harddisk, this can be done. Go to KeepVid and enter the direct URL (webpage address) in the appropriate place and it will decode the internecine links and format the file for your downloading pleasure — and it also works for many other websites that offer video clips. In some cases, what is saved to your computer will be an "FLV" file. That's a flash video format and in order to play it, you'll need to install a flash video player like this one. (MAC users: There are several out there that will work on your computers but I don't know which one is the best.)

Capturing online video clips is sometimes a good idea because you'll have them even after the link goes away. But you may also want to do it because clips will generally play smoother and without downloading pauses that way.

• Posted at 10:14 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

If you want to know what's going on with the issue of warrantless searches, you need to read this article in U.S. News and World Report. Basically, we have an executive branch that thinks "9/11 changed everything" with regard to any limits whatsoever on what the president can do if he says it's "national security." This, I believe, is known as The Nixon Doctrine.

• Posted at 9:55 AM · LINK

We Have A Winner!

The great thing about having a weblog like this is that if you ask a question, you get an answer. Of course, you get a lot of wrong answers but somewhere in there may be the correct one.

Last night before bed, I asked here if anyone could identify the background music being played when John Leader is introduced in the video to which I'd linked. This morning, my e-mailbox contains fourteen different answers from 31 people, including eight messages from folks who think it was the James Bond theme. (No, the video starts with that music. I was asking about the piece being played as John Leader is introduced.) Two people also thought the correct answer was "New York, New York" and three said it was the main theme from Chariots of Fire.

Eliminating the obvious wrongos, I went to the Amazon site, looked up the CDs of the other suggested answers, played a little of each and now I know. It's from the 1993 movie, Rudy, scored by Jerry Goldsmith. Thanks to Jim McClain, who was the only one of the thirty-one to send me that information.

Congratulations, Jim...and for the rest of you, we have lovely parting gifts and our thanks for playing Name That Background Music.

• Posted at 9:42 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

I linked to this once before but it's worth another peek. It's a trailer featuring five men who do voiceovers for movie trailers. They are Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Nick Tate, Mark Elliot and Al Chalk. (Oh — and there's a sixth trailer guy in this video...a brief phone call from Hal Douglas, who starred in our video link for yesterday.)

So enjoy it. And can someone identify for me the music heard in the background as John Leader is introduced? It's one of those "I know that tune but cannot place it" things.

• Posted at 1:24 AM · LINK