- Recycling Mania: It’s ripping through Hollywood like Axl Rose through an all-you-can-eat buffet on a cruise ship and the disease is spreading from the film industry to the small screen. Even though a shameless and ridiculous attempt to revive the Charlie’s Angels franchise crashed and burned after less than a month on ABC earlier this TV season, you cannot quench the entertainment industry’s passion for “new” ideas that involve no real creative work or originality. Up next of the list of shows to turn into failed retreads is apparently “In Living Color,” which according to multiple reports is being revived by Fox. Keenen Ivory Wayans, the original producer of the show, clearly has nothing better to do and no great offers for his un-funny brand of comedy elsewhere and so he will reportedly serve as the revamped program’s host and executive producer. To kick-start the process, Fox has allegedly ordered two half-hour primetime specials that will air midseason. The network hopes this will spark renewed interest in the show and lay the groundwork for a full return. The original “In Living Color” aired from 1990 to 1994 and produced a long list of overrated, overhyped and under-talented “stars” who have gone on to torment the world with spectacularly bad movies, music and television shows. There’s actor Damon Wayans, comedians/actors Jim Carrey and Jamie Fox and “Fly Girl” dancer Jennifer Lopez, currently getting after it as a spokesperson for cheap compact cars. Damon Wayans currently has his own show now as a co-star of “Happy Endings,” so odds are that he won't be available for the return of “Living Color” - until “Happy Endings” is canceled later this season, of course. In its day, “In Living Color” was in some ways black America’s alternative to “Saturday Night Live,” giving audiences new characters like Homey the Clown and a different comedic perspective. Way to stay original, Hollywood…………
- This is very literally getting old quickly. Dammit America, why are we wasting our time flying into a rage over everything that goes up on a billboard that we drive by once or twice a day, at most? Halloween imagery, non-clever alcohol-related puns on tired ad campaigns for dairy products……and of course, fictitious quotes from important historical figures. Credit a group of atheists from Costa Mesa, Calif. for that last entry on the list. The group, called Backyard Skeptics, includes atheists among its other disagreeable members and its behind a billboard located near Newport Boulevard that purportedly quotes Thomas Jefferson saying, "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology." The quote is a damning and controversial one to be sure, but there is a problem with it. Seems that there is no evidence the president ever said it. The Jefferson Library has no written record or other account of Jefferson ever making the remark. When those behind the billboard were confronted with this challenge, they backpedaled like a scared little girl running away from a fight because she doesn’t want to get her Hello Kitty t-shirt dirty. "I realized after the billboard was put up that it was a misquotation. There is no historical documentation of that," said Bruce Gleason, the head of Backyard Skeptics. "The billboard hurts us, because there are other religious people who have said, 'Look at those atheists, they're misquoting Jefferson.' Well I take it upon myself to say, yes I made a mistake." You made a mistake……or did you? Seems that a billboard is in theory designed to grab attention for a group, company or cause and this billboard has done exactly that. Atheists aren't a group that has to concern itself much with whether its public perception is positive or negative because religious people will always dislike them and the small segment of the world that agrees with their view will support them. No one is coming off their point of view based on a billboard. Backyard Skeptics is getting exactly what it wanted from this billboard and then trying to pretend to do the noble thing and admit its mistake. I’m guessing those behind the billboard knew the quote was bogus from the start. But Gleason still believes Jefferson would have no issue with the billboard if he were still alive. "Jefferson wouldn't be upset if he saw the billboard. He'd probably say, 'Yea, I kind of agree with that,' because all the other quotations that he's had are in the same vein," Gleason postulated. Whatever you need to tell yourself, B…………
- Ummm…..maybe Apple should have done some more research and development on the tweener iPhone model it is currently hawking to coax more dollars out of its rabid followers in between the release of the iPhone 4 and much-anticipated iPhone 5. Battery life for the stopgap iPhone 4S has been disturbingly short for those who threw away money for it and tech experts and lovers have been kicking around theories about why this is occurring. So far, the leading theory in the clubouse is that a flaw in Apple's location services system in its new iOS 5 software is the cause of rapid battery drain for owners of the iPhone 4S. Many users have found that the "Setting Time Zone" element of the Systems Services within the broader Location Services product runs on their iPhone 4S even when there is no chance that the user would have moved to a different location or time zone. An icon beside the setting shows whether it has been used within the past day and the presence of that icon indicates that it is running repeatedly to access the phone's location even when there is no apparent reason to do so. Location services can be a huge drain on any smartphone's battery because they use a combination of the Wi-Fi network name plus mobile mast data and GPS sensor input, to calculate the phone's position. One example of the date used in these services is mobile mast data, which is typically calculated by comparing the strength of signals from the three nearest phone masts and triangulating against them. When the calculation is made too often, it severely drains battery power. Somehow, iOS 5′s release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly. Switching it off seems like a logical fix, but that means the iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when a person travels. When weighed against miniscule battery life, this seems like a relatively fair trade. Message boards are lighting up with theories and ideas on the problem an at some point, Apple will have to address the issue with an official fix. Or users can just wait for the iPhone 5 and hope that it doesn’t have the same struggles…………
- Aaaaaaand never mind that nonsense about saving the 2011-12 NBA season and perhaps even playing a full 82-game schedule. Less than 24 hours after a second straight day of prolonged negotiations wrapped and both sides in the dispute hinted at the possibility that the entire season could be salvaged if a deal were reached by the start of next week, NBA commissioner David Stern canceled the rest of the November games Friday, saying there will not be a full NBA season "under any circumstances." In other words, allow the multi-billion-dollar pissing match to continue. As has been the case throughout the lockout, the latest round of negotiations broke down when both sides refused to budge on how to split the league's revenues. Owners want players to accept a 50-50 split and players continue to insist that is too much of a decline from the 57 percent they were receiving under the previous collective bargaining agreement. Following 15 hours of talks Wednesday and another full day of them Thursday, many in and around the situation expressed hope for a deal soon. Stern dealt those hopes a blow Friday and didn’t seem to offer any shred of hope as he did so. "We held out that joint hope together, but in light of the breakdown of talks, there will not be a full NBA season under any circumstances," he said. "It's not practical, possible or prudent to have a full season now.” Stern went on to reiterate his warnings that the proposals might now get even harsher as the league tries to make up the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be lost as the lockout continues. "We're going to have to recalculate how bad the damage is," Stern said. "The next offer will reflect the extraordinary losses that are piling up now." The words were a marked departure from comments just one day prior, when Stern had said he would consider it a failure if the sides didn't reach a deal in the next few days. Failure appears beyond inevitable if players refuse to accept less than they 52.5 percent of basketball-related income they stipulated in their most recent proposal. Right now, the two sides are about $100 million apart annually and union leader Billy Hunter sounds even less optimistic about the state of the talks than Stern. “Derek (Fisher) and I made it clear that we could not take the 50-50 deal to our membership. Not with all the concessions that we granted," Hunter said, alluding to players’ association president Derek Fisher of the Lakers. "We said we got to have some dollars." All of the back and forth obscured optimistic comments by NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver, who said there was essentially a "tentative agreement" on most system issues outside of BRI. Just not enough of an agreement to save any basketball before December…………
- Flying to, from or in France any time soon? If not, why not? France is an amazing place and you should absolutely visit it. But if you’re going, you may find your travel plans affected by an ongoing strike by Air France flight attendants. The strike began this weekend during an extended school holiday and at the start of a long weekend in France. Its stated purpose is to oppose protest against cuts to cabin crews. So far, the strike has not had a drastic impact on air travel in France and is affecting mostly short- and medium-haul flights out of French airports. Ten long-haul flights were also canceled Saturday and the airline announced it has canceled about 20 percent of its flights because of the strike. The scene at Paris' main airport, Charles de Gaulle, was largely normal throughout the day Saturday and most passengers on canceled flights were rebooked on other airlines, according to Air France. There were more problems at Paris' Orly airport, where about 200 passengers were waiting to be rebooked. The striking workers picked a four-day weekend to start their walkout and that’s a good start, but they can still do more. As evidence by the Occupy _____________ (fill in the blank with the name of your desired kook-tastic cause or target of rage) have shown, every uprising or revolt needs a catchy (or ripped-off) moniker. Name your strike, brand it and turn it into a global movement because the world is in a pissed-off frame of mind and willing to jump on board the bandwagon of just about any cause centered around sticking it to The Man. Even if they have no affiliation to the cause or incentive to stand behind it, people want to rage against the machine. Give them that opportunity and this could go next level…………
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