Spoiler Alert?!

Maybe it is a sign of me getting older but I am no longer wanting to know everything about a movie or a show before it comes out. With the advent of the internet, digital photos, and the rest it is now all too easy to sneak pictures or script shots off the set. I enjoy the surprise, the mystery, the secret, the unknown of a new movie or show.

Why will you drop $7 to $15 or more to see a movie that you know all the plot points and probably have seen a good chunk of the footage from a spoiler website? What is left to enjoy?  If you spend the entire time waiting for that one scene that you know is coming how much can you truly enjoy the movie?

I guess I'm tired of avoiding so many articles because of the dreaded "Spoiler Alert" that seems to fill so many articles. At least they are courteous enough to put in there. I know it is big business to leak this to the masses, and if there wasn't a market for it then it wouldn't be so rampant. Hell, I've avoided reading the sample chapters that Martin has posted for the next A Song of Fire and Ice novel.

It is a lot easier since I don't have cable. I am not bombarded with commercials or TMZ style shows that blurt out some breaking news.  I also keep my headphones on at work so I miss a lot of the chatter from my fellow geeks who do keep in the know.

Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic when I heard there will be new Star Wars movies. I am also thrilled that JJ Abrams is going to be helming at least first one because of his sense of secrecy.  He's kept a lot of the new Trek movie close to his vest. Some stills were released, characters, but even the trailers have left you wondering just what the hell is going on. I have also purposely ignored articles that leak script ideas.  I want to go into this fresh, not knowing much, and with as few preconceived notions as I can.

Some things have been revealed.   A lot of the original cast will be back if the reports are correct.  They are known commodities, Luke, Leah, Han. My hope is that they are now in positions of authority and that they are there to hand the reins to a new group of younger smugglers, Jedi, and heroes. I plan to remain as ignorant as I can about it until I see the Star Wars logo and hopefully John Williams Fanfare blaring.

I have nothing against the masses who do want every spoiler that comes out.  I just ask that you don't blurt them out and if you post about them warn those of us who still want a little magic when we go to the movies.

Cable TV - one of the biggest scams of the 21st Century

When cable first began you could see movies that had been in the theater now in the comfort of your own home. Movies you wanted to see but could not were made available to you. You could watch local and national shows.  The world of entertainment, news, education opened up. And it was good.

Fast forward to 2012 and the model for cable is now an archaic formula to squeeze as much money out of as it can.  We have moved from several dozen stations to in some cases hundreds of stations. HBO has six or seven different stations of its own. You can watch things in most major languages. If you are a sports fanatic then you never have to leave your house because you can watch it all. What is wrong with this?  Well the high pricing structure and lack of a la cart is what killed it for me.

When I had the full cable package from U-verse I spent the vast majority of my time sitting in my comfortable recliner and flipping stations. Well to be more accurate I flipped through the programming guide looking for something to watch.  While the DVR was great I more often than not skipped whole swaths of programming and ended up watching Big Bang Theory reruns.

I ignored the political crap. I ignored the news crap. I ignored the foreign language crap. I ignored the sports crap. That left me with the networks, cable stations such as TNT and USA, and the premium.  And I spent more time searching for something to watch that we finally decided to drop the premium stations. This meant that I would lose out on Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and others.  Sure I missed out but I can always get them through Netflix once it comes out on disk.

So now I only have the network and cable stations. Once again I spent the majority of the time flipping stations. I would try to find something new to watch but again ended up watching Sheldon and crew try to make senses of American popular culture. So, in the end we dropped our cable all together.

In its stead we subscribe to Netflix and Hulu plus.  I can get the vast majority of the network shows on Hulu, a lot of old content through Netflix, and if it is on neither of them I can typically view them through the station website.

The point of this rant – it is the 21^st century and you’d think that the content providers would go ahead and make deals to get more people to view their content.  If I don’t have HBO I have to visit a friend’s house or risk attempting to download illegally the latest episode of Game of Thrones.  HBO has an online portal but you have to have cable to view it.

The value of cable had dropped dramatically in the age of the internet. More people are dropping cable in favor of streaming sources.  I would pay $5-$10 a month to access HBO through the internet, maybe more.  Instead I’m trapped in packages that I don’t want, don’t need, and will never use.  I can pay $2 an episode through Amazon or iTunes, but again I’m getting taken to the cleaners to keep up on the shows I like.

Cable companies are shaking in their boots as more and more people cut the cord. You now have the internet, online gaming, video games, streaming video to entertain yourself with. No longer are people locked to their TV set unless the big game is on.  Why should I pay a premium for 80% stations I will never watch?  In my news feeds I can check mark the things I want to view and ignore those that I don’t. Why isn’t there a cable package like this? Money, pure and simple.

The cable companies have too much time, too much money, and too many resources in the current system. Most of the executives are trying to grasp at a bygone era as the modern age passes them by . So many stations would disappear if they were not bundled in with anything.  All those artsy stations or those catering to a small demographic would have to come up with major advertising revenue or shudder themselves.  Supply and demand baby.

My entertainment dollars are very precious and I am very careful how I spend them.  In this economy you have to be. I am hopeful that the old business model for cable goes the way of the long distance calls and local calling plans. I suspect we’ll have peace in the Middle East and something actually pass through Congress with bipartisan support before it happens. /endrant

Lazy People

One of the things that has been bugging me when I go to the grocery store are lazy people.  You know the ones who push their cart to their vehicle, unload, and then leave the cart there. It's not like the cart corrals are miles away. This morning I saw two or three carts sitting in empty parking spots maybe ten to fifteen feet from the freaking corral. If you are in such a hurry that you can't push the cart and put it away then maybe you should learn time management.

Just this morning I watched two different people push their carts away from their now grocery laden vehicle and just walk away.  I half wanted to walk over and push the cart into their bumper.  I made eye contact with one of them and they just looked away as if being an asshole is a normal part of nature.  How sad is it that these lazy fucks are teaching the same behavior to their vile spawn. Talking to them makes no difference. They’ll come up with some lame-ass excuse. Bah.

These are the same lazy jackasses that just throw their used cigarette butts out the window or pitch their garbage onto the street instead of disposing of them properly.  I will be the first person to admit that I am not an eco-nut but goddam, come on people!  From an aesthetic point of view who likes to walk around and look down at an empty McDonald’s wrapper or the filter of a cigarette?