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America Loves Gangsters

America loves Gottis, America loves bodies
Pacino counting C-Notes for shooting up club lobbies
While Eddie Nash controls bankrolls in Wonderland
Tony Soprano hits channels and holds down On-Demand
–CunninLynguists – America Loves Gangsters

I never watched The Sopranos when it originally aired on HBO, but I have always been a fan of mob-themed movies. I don’t know when this fascination started, but I can’t get enough of movies like The Godfather pts I and II, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Donnie Brasco, etc. Well, recently I started watching The Sopranos and throughout the series Tony Soprano does some disgusting things that repulse you, but then there are other times where you realize you start admiring the man for the good things he does for his family, and his “family.” He’s a hypocrite, just like the rest of us, maybe that’s what makes his character so intriguing. One minute he’s friendly with the parents of the friends of his kids, the next he’s taking their business due to gambling debts, and enjoying it. It’s compelling television.

What is it with America’s fascination with gangsters? Do we like the violence and power or do we like the deep characters? Some of the most widely acclaimed movies involve some of the most violent characters. Think Scarface. I don’t think I’ve seen an episode of Cribs where either the movie isn’t playing in the background or there’s a giant poster on the wall. In Godfather, Michael Corleone rules in a more calm manner, but the amount of violence and destruction he can inflict with one command is amazing. So do we love the violence and power or do we love well-written characters that happen to be violent? I don’t know what the answer to that, but I do know there’s more to the characters than violence. You see Michael Coreleone’s frustrations when he wants to make the family business legitimate, but struggles along the way. “C” finally realizes how bad the gangster life is after his hero falls in A Bronx Tale, but you also feel sad because Sonny dies. And I can’t wait to see the cat and mouse game between Christian Bale and Johnny Depp in the Dillinger movie, Public Enemies. So why do we love them? I don’t know, but Hollywood knows we do and as long as there are gangsters, Hollywood will be making movies about them.

The Future of Television

It really is an interesting time for television. The traditional way we watch TV has changed over the years. We started out with over the air programming to cable and satellite programing, and now we have internet TV and on-demand programming at the touch of a button. I can see why the TV networks were scared of this future. It’s hard to create a pricing structure for traditional TV when more and more people are using alternative methods to watch their favorite shows.

I recently installed the beta version of Boxee to see what all the twitter hype was about. Boxee gives you a true entertainment experience to enjoy your movies, TV shows, music and photos, as well as streaming content from websites like Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and flickr. No longer are we confined to what the cable companies give us. We have many options to choose from, with more and more being added everyday. Tv.com is becoming a huge portal for on-demand streaming content and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that service added to Boxee. We also see more and more dvd players and TVs with Netflix streaming ability built in. I think it’s great that the major networks are finally jumping on board with the on-demand streaming of programs. What have they got to lose? They are gaining advertising dollars. Now people have a legal place to watch their favorite shows. Hulu was an excellent start and ABC’s HD streaming of Lost is fantastic.

I think we will see more and more televisions and media devices (such as DVRs, game systems, and DVD players) with built in streaming technology in the very near future. Eventually, I envision a TV with a single DVD player box that allows for all the services like DVR, Netflix, and internet streaming all tied into one. It will be exciting to see where all the technology goes.

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KMOV and Charter Communications

There is a battle going on in St. Louis between the local CBS affiliate, KMOV, and a cable television provider Charter Communications. Normally, wherever there is Charter-bashing I am there. This time, I have to agree with Charter.

Here is the situation. KMOV has been in negotiations for 2 years on making Charter pay to carry its signal. Now their contract is up and Charter is going to stop carrying them on January 1st. KMOV tries to make their argument on their website. One of their main arguments, what they say isn’t right is this:

What they don’t tell you is they have been taking local programming for free and then charging you. Charter pays practically all cable networks for their signals, networks that are far less popular. But they don’t want to pay for local channels. That’s not right, it’s not fair and Charter knows it.

Here is the thing, and they said it right in that passage, Charter pays for cable networks. Those cable networks were created to fill a niche, and if you wanted to watch them, you had to pay for them. They pay for TBS, TNT, AMC, but not local affiliates, nor should they. The airwaves were given to the networks and in exchange they have certain duties to fulfill (airing local programming, public interest pieces, covering politics). Why should Charter have to pay for something that is available freely over the air with a pair of rabbit ears? People aren’t paying for Charter to watch local programming (well, some people who aren’t in signal range do, but that’s the very, very slim minority and they still receive more channels than the local channels). People pay Charter for those other channels. I think it’s ridiculous for KMOV to make Charter pay for programming that is supposed to be free to the people. KMOV is supposed to be acting in the interest of the public. How is making people pay (which is essentially what they are doing) in the interest of the public? Congress should have never given the airwaves to money-grubbing corporations. They belong to the people.

KMOV also states how Charter is paying for local affiliates in other cities, which I still don’t agree with, but if that’s the only reason they have, then I feel no reason to take their side. I don’t like defending Charter, especially since this will no doubt be a reason for them to increase cable fees, but they are right in this one. While I will be mad that the couple CBS shows I watch on KMOV won’t be available until it’s worked out, I think they have to do what they have to do. No one should have to pay for local affiliates. No matter what.

No matter if you agree or disagree with me, I do encourage you to make your voice heard to both Charter and KMOV.

Charter Communications offices: 314-965-0555
Charter Customer Service: 1-888-GET CHARTER (1-888-438-2427)
Charter E-mail:[email protected]

KMOV Contact Form

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Local TV Affiliates

One thing I hate about my local CBS affiliate, KMOV, is that about once a month they replace normal prime time programming with their own programming. I can understand doing this during the summer when everything is in reruns, but when they do it when new programming is airing it bugs me. The only time slot I notice the change is on Mondays at 7:00pm. This is the time slot of The Big Bang Theory, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite television shows. Most of the time they replace it with a local cooking show sponsored by one of the big grocery store chains in the St. Louis area. You know what, if I wanted to watch a cooking show, I’d tune into the Food Network. Broadcast the show you are supposed to in that time slot, and don’t move it to 2:30 in the morning. If you want to show that programming so bad, show THAT at 2:30 in the morning. I’ll bet you they’ll have just as many viewers: 3. So please, local affiliates, if the network has new programming on the schedule, air that programming! No one wants to watch crappy local TV specials. We want our regularly scheduled programming.

Total Geekery: Saved by the Bell Comic Book

sbtbI’m going to geek out hardcore right now.  I just found out that there was a Saved by the Bell comic book published in the 1990’s.  There weren’t many published in the series, but enough to make this SBTB geek want them.  The stories are probably more lame than the stories of the TV show (which I still contend are not lame at all and can help save the world).  The drawing looks very Archie-ish.  Look, they even drew Slater’s mullet.  There are two issues that feature a photo of the SBTB cast instead of a drawing.  One is a special collector’s #1 issue, the other is a special Christmas issue.  The photos on the covers of both are essentially the same and from what I’ve read on the internet, the stories in both comics are the same.

Besides those two issues, it looks like there are 5 additional issues of the hand drawn cover variety.  I can’t seem to figure out which were published first, but I would guess the ones with the real cast on the cover were published first to get people interested and then they switched to the illustrated covers.  It must not have sold well if only a total of 7 issues were made.  Then again, it looks like these were published near the end of the SBTB series so the popularity of the comic book could have died out when the series went off the air.

Yes, I am a huge geek for wanting these.  The only thing I can say is I love SBTB.  It was a fantastic show.  You can find a few of the issues online at various online comic shops and ebay and they are cheap.  I guess they are not a huge collector’s item for the comic geeks out there.  That’s a shame, they don’t know what they are missing.  Anything SBTB related is pure gold.