meta-roj

this story [new york times, included below] tells us about the adventures of hollywood studios trying, desperately, to give away their movies.

the irony, of course, is that they’re under the gun to give these movies away in a hurry to get in under the new mpaa rules about giving movies away.

so, even in movies, even the studios realize that they have to give it away somewhere, or nobody will ever pay for it. hmm.
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pianist

was heard today in 1953

… and remains one of the best examples of government doing unpopular, but important things.

sometimes, we do get a little better than we deserve. sometimes.

a couple days apart, but still close enough for me to make the connection….

it’s turtles all the way down, but it’s only 80 in manhattan.

(and they’re moving to Tewksbury)

professor lessig has the story. sure, it’s just one little word in the title. how much difference could that make?

why hasn’t anyone done “imdb for music videos” yet?

or rather, why hasn’t anyone done it in such a way that it’s findable and usable?

the pair is in the middle of a 42-date tour, and just reported results for the first 14 dates. so rather than wait for the final answers, i thought i’d play with some numbers for a bit.

12 of the 14 reported dates were “sellouts” (this may not mean what you think it means, but that’s ok). reported gross is $22.4 million with attendance of 209,679.

$22.4 million/14 = $1.6 million per show.
209,679/14 = 14,977 people per show.

$1.6 million * 42 = $67.2 million for the tour.
14,977 * 42 = 629,034 people for the tour.

a quick flashback to the revenue of top music acts shows that this projection puts simon and garfunkel right in the neighborhood of sir paul mccartney, and way above the next-runner-up rolling stones.

there’s the new plateau for tours: $60+ million. that’s a lot of ramen.

anything less and you’re just not serious.

save a child’s heart – providing the best care to some that have the least.

i really should do these more often.

bill cosby, fatherhood, 1986

Michael Jackson loves all his fans, but he has a special feeling for the ones who eat broccoli.

this story may be under-reported, or it may be completely irrelevant in the universe.

google’s fighting to keep trademark police out of adwords. they recently lost a case in france on a similar issue. my gut tells me this could be a big deal, but i just don’t know.