Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Recommended Reading

William Saletan on a new front in the political wars: Biotechnical research. I think he's right that it's going to be a major issue in all elections to come.

• Posted at 1:12 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

One of the most-heard, most-imitated voices in the world belongs to Don La Fontaine, aka "The Movie Trailer Guy." There are at least a dozen other announcers working today who quite consciously emulate his sound and delivery. One guy who'd quit smoking years ago told me he took it up again because he thought it would add "texture" to his voice and make him sound more like Don La Fontaine.

We've linked before to this video of Don and four other top v.o. specialists. Here's a four minute segment with Don that appeared on Good Morning, America in February of '05. And thanks to Robert Spina for the suggestion.

• Posted at 12:27 PM · LINK

Road (Runner) Hazard

My cable modem, which used to connect to Comcast, now connects to Road Runner High-Speed Internet. What's different about Road Runner High-Speed Internet? Well, the Internet connection goes out every now and then...and e-mail often doesn't go through...and the Road Runner home page is so loaded with complicated Flash animation that it doesn't load properly...and you can't get anyone on the phone for Tech Support...and I'm getting ready to see if I can find some sort of Wile E. Coyote software that can kill the damned Road Runner.

Several e-mails — including an important one from one of my lawyers that he's now re-sent several times — have never arrived. Of course, we have a double disadvantage in that transmission because he just got converted to Road Runner High Speed Internet, too. As a matter of fact — and I'm not kidding about this — the system seems most likely to lose the most important messages. The Cialis vendors are all getting through with no problem.

This is obviously a variation on the chip that's installed in all printers...you know, the one that makes them more likely to jam when the pages you're printing out are of vital importance and have to be done in two minutes.

• Posted at 11:04 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Eric Boehlert notes how much of the pre-election press coverage got things wrong...including a lot that seemed to have been dictated by Karl Rove.

• Posted at 10:51 AM · LINK

Shining Hour

A few months ago here, we plugged the hell out of Zero Hour, a play written by and starring my old pal Jim Brochu as Zero Mostel. I am pleased to announce that last night at the L.A. Stage Ovation Awards, Zero Hour was named the Best New Play of the 2005-2006 Season. I wasn't there but I hear that an extremely nervous and exuberant J. Brochu was presented with the award by David Hyde-Pierce. Congrats, Jim. Now, get busy and do the play again somewhere.

• Posted at 2:10 AM · LINK