Entertainment

Welcome to the TEAM!

Rohit — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 04:02:00 GMT

This wins the Team Command award, for best comment ever. 'nuff said.

# re: There are worse things than being an asshole. Just ask Kobe Bryant. 10/12/2004 12:13 AM Reality

This bitch is scum of the earth. If Kobe did rape her then she is just letting him get away with it. If he did it and does it again then it is all her fault, because she choes to get paid. If the trial was too stressful her lawsuit is going to make her want to kill herself again. Everything that wouldn't not have been admitted in original court is now fair game. Everybody she slept with, the other DNA in her undies, the bragging about the sex, and more will all come out in the lawsuit.
If he didnt do it then she is still scum of the earth, for doing her part to destroy race relations in America. Also for trying to destroy a man and his family.
To Hell Katie Faber that horrible horrible slut bitch cunt whore.
God Bless Americe

Jack and Bobby on the WB

Rohit — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 05:27:00 GMT

This is unbelievable. I am watching this new WB series called “Jack and Bobby”, and apparently these two guys named Jack and Bobby are being raised by a single mother to be president. This is typical of the way that our society has fallen apart. The Kennedy's without Joe! Raised by a single mother! (They might as well have called this Roger and Bill. One will turn out to be a lousy, vain, manipulative man who is unable to control his desires-and the other will just be a loser drug addict) Also it looks like when one of these kids becomes president in the future, his VP is, of course, a woman!

So, now we have a series about how the “best president of this century” will be raised by a single mom, and have a female vice president. Yeah, I seem to remember how useless Jack and Bobby Kennedy's dad was when it came to raising them... what was his name? I cant even remember it. Joe? was that it? I guess that guy had nothing to do with raising up one of the most influential families in the 20th century. Must have been all RoseMarie ( I actually don't remember what her name was).

Well if this atrocity of a television show makes it, I don't know what to say. I just hope none of the kids raised on this shit actually becomes president. Hey, maybe that's a good reason to change the constitution to allow foreign born people to become president. This current generation and probably all after it will be too screwed up to rule the most powerful nation on earth-we need to import people who haven't been bathed in this shit: self-esteem, equality of results, affirmative action, and celebration of mediocrity that permeates the garbage that we call education and culture.

Atkins is everywhere....

Rohit — Sun, 13 Jun 2004 01:45:00 GMT

I'm watching Ebert and Roeper right now. That fat f*ck Ebert must have lost 50 lbs since the last time I saw this. I bet it's Atkins or South Beach.

Why do they even do these polls?

Rohit — Fri, 02 Apr 2004 23:39:00 GMT

“Go ahead Kyle, prove Mel Gibson wrong”- Eric Cartman.

Always trust your instincts.

Rohit — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:33:00 GMT

This is a painful post for me. On Monday and on Tuesday I was prepared to buy a whole bunch of Disney stock (DIS). Of course I never got around to it, finally my internet crapped out yesterday at 1 pm, and I didn't even manage to buy any after-hours. And of course today Comcast(CMCSA) launches a hostile bid for Disney today sending the stock soaring. Now that the easy money has been made in this trade (the easy money that I stupidly passed up) its time to take a look at what a combined Disney/Comcast would look like. On the face of it, this deal would combine the country's largest cable operator, one of the Big Three networks, the country's most popular cable channel, ESPN, and the Disney studio all under one roof. I am going to assume that all of this would never, ever, ever, pass regulatory muster and that if nothing else, ABC would have to be spun off or divested somehow.

The last time something this ambitious was tried we ended up with the train wreck that is now AOL/Time Warner. Supposedly they would combine the distribution might and the content power of both companies and take over the information superhighway. The Comcast/Disney deal looks similar to me. A vast distribution network of cable and ABC would be available to distribute ESPN, Disney movies, Miramax movies, and the large cable channels that Comcast has interests in through its stake in Liberty Media (Starz, Discovery Channel, etc.). This deal would create the type of cable and programming behemoth that John Malone (former Chairman of TCI, current Chairman of Liberty Media and called by Al Gore the “Darth Vader” of media) only dreamt of.

The power of the combined entity in the media space would be incredible and this is why I dont think they will be able to keep all of the assets if the deal goes through. Disney and ESPN are already in a huge spat with various cable operators, notably Cox Cable, over the price of distributing the most popular cable channel on earth. With this deal, guaranteed distribution through Comcast would give ESPN even more leverage to stick price increases on smaller cable operators who lack their own content. Current FCC chair Michael Powell has been heavily pro-consolidation in the media space, but I think that the FTC would end up being involved in something like this, and of course the more regulatory lawyers that get involved...

Corporate strategic mergers are all about synergy, and like I've been saying this one has the potential to create some potent synergies. But there is also a strong drawback to combining distribution with content production. Its very similar to the problem faced by Sony. As Japan's leading company Sony had a great business making Walkmen, Boomboxes, TVs and all other kinds of consumer gear. Then they decided that as long as they were making the media devices, they may as well produce the media that people watch on them and Sony proceeded to buy up entertainment assets in the US. Now as a company they have a huge problem as the hardware and content (or “software”) sides of the business collide. Sony Music, home of Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Pearl Jam, and tons of other artists, obviously doesnt want Sony to make MP3 players, boomboxes, and other equipment that can play burned CD's, file-shared MP3's or anything else like that-but Sony Electronics knows that those products won't sell as well as ones that can play pirated music. So in effect, you have the various divisions of Sony cannibalizing sales from each other. Definitely not synergistic.

Comcast/Disney could have the same problem. As the biggest cable operator in the country, Comcast is also one of the bigger ISPs-they provide cable internet on those really expensive fiber optic cables that got laid down during the bubble. Comcast's cable customers (and I am one so I should know) are demanding the best service, with the fastest speeds and they don't want what they are downloading on those ultra-fast broadband connections to be monitored; especially if they are downloading something that happens to be a Disney studios film product! So this aligns the content side of Comcast/Disney against the cable and distribution side. Furthermore, this is not a monopoly market for a company that is used to having a monopoly-in most parts of the country there is plenty of competition for broadband internet service- the Regional Bell Operating Companies (Baby Bells or RBOC's) like SBC and Verizon (companies that also know a little about monopolies) are in the DSL business and they are spending more and more of their gigantic cash flows on upgrading their broadband capabilities (just look at the earnings numbers of companies like Nortel, Juniper, and JDS Uniphase to find where some of that massive capital spending is going to). And these guys don't have content studios that their customer's are stealing from.

Despite the bursting of the 90's “convergence” bubble we really are close to having just one wire (or radio signal) that transmits information into and out of our homes. And Comcast was well on its way to being the guys who owned that wire. The Behemoth Media and Cable Company playbook is pretty simple, just look at what Malone and TCI tried to do in the 90's, before the Gore and Clinton team came to power (Malone made the wrong bet on which politicians to buy). 1. Control the wire. 2. Own what comes over the wire. 3. Raise prices on both advertisers and cable customers. As Malone's financial backers and allies in those days, the Roberts family that controls Comcast saw this playbook as it was being written, and now it looks like they are trying their own hand at it. The Disney play looks like step two- but I don't know how they will deal with the conflicts between the interests of the content and distribution businesses in the face of competition from DSL operators and (soon I hope) Wi-Fi data networks.

So how can you make money from this? I would say hold on to your Disney stock-I think Comcast is going higher from here- I might even buy some Comcast at these levels. I haven't yet decided if this bodes well for Liberty Media (L) or the rest of the cable industry (especially the perennial takeover candidate Charter Communications, and the soon to be out of bankruptcy Adelphia) but this deal if it goes through will certainly do something there.

As far as the details of the deal, Comcast is offering 0.78 shares of their common, non-voting, stock for each share of Disney that is outstanding. This is a hostile deal-I assume Mike Eisner and the whole Disney Board will be fired if it goes through. Recently fired Disney Board member and largest individual shareholder Roy Disney has been leading a shareholder rebellion against the board and although he hasn't said anything about it yet on his website; I bet Comcast contacted him before this announcement and I am sure he will throw his support behind the deal. So it will be interesting to see what types of takeover defenses Eisner and the Board will look for-I dont really see a “white knight” acquirer out there. Hopefully they don't have any dirty shareholder unfriendly poison pills available to them (like the out-of-control board and CEO of PeopleSoft). the 10% premium that Comcast is looking to pay is pretty cheap-but Disney has been mismanaged by Eisner and I dont see too many competitors out there for a $68 Billion dollar deal. It all boils to down whether Eisner was able to put some obscene poison pills in at Disney-and all of that hasn't shaken out yet.

Fear the audio!!!

Rohit — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 06:22:00 GMT

Impromptu Game Review: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, A+

For those of us waiting for the XBox to live up to its potential-it's here. This game uses the same engine from The Collective that was used in the Buffy game. Indy uses his whip to cross chasms and to beat up on a variety of bad guys: Ivory poachers, Nazis and Chinese Gangsters. The cinema scenes are solid, and if the story for Indy 4 is as good as this one then I will be pleasantly surprised.

The best feature about Indy, besides the amazing scenery and fluid gameplay is the game design. The designers have set the learning curve well; you get to leap pits full of water before you start leaping ones full of lava. Unlike some games with big blockbuster attached [cough, Star Wars, cough] this game does not appear to have been thrown together with little thought as to a coherent storyline or playability, instead it flows through various cities just like the movies do.

As for "Indy Canon" issues, I think he probably kills a few too many people. At various times I feel like I'm in Medal of Honor as I gun down Nazi after Nazi; but aside from that I think the game is very true to the spirit of the films.

In summary, this is a great game that totally shows off the Xbox's capabilities and demonstrates what a game designer can do when they put an honest effort into making a challenging game.

This is one of the games that I have been waiting for and I wasn't disappointed, look forward to reviews of Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Knights of the Old Republic appearing in this space.

Buffy-The Animated Series

Rohit — Thu, 13 Feb 2003 17:39:00 GMT

Check out this link, sample frames from a proposed Buffy Animated Series, http://www.ericwight.com/portfolio/buffy001.html

Walken!!

Rohit — Wed, 12 Feb 2003 05:20:00 GMT

Kyle, I have to disagree, anyone who caught this winter's masterpiece Catch Me If You Can knows that despite having played the angel of death Walken can dance up a storm, and any guy who can dance like that can't just can't be pure evil. P.S. look for his dancing in almost every movie he does.

The Shield

Rohit — Wed, 12 Feb 2003 05:16:00 GMT

Yet another TV post. I apologize for the narrow scope of the posts, but I am a staunch defender of TV in general. I'll elaborate on that at a later date.

Anyway, what can you say about The Shield? I mean there has never been a show quite like this. I mean the characters, the writing, the plotlines-let's just say the Sopranos has nothing on this. Add in the violence, nudity, and swearing and you have the best TV show ever.

There are the little things like how there are hardly any commercial breaks, and there are the big things like the flawless acting which allows the viewer to step right in and actually care about the characters.

I was never a fan of NYPD Blue, which I guess could be called the inspiration for the show-in the same way that you can call cave paintings the inspiration for the Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The basic idea is there, graphic cop show, but the similarities end there. The Shield has more emotional impact than any other show, the violence is like the violence in the Godfather, never stock, never forgettable. When Mackey took out his inner demons on Armadillo's face I could almost smell the burning flesh, and the brutality felt like a punch in the gut.

I am sure that this post will be repeated every Tuesday at 11, right after the show. I hope it will even approach the quality of the show. P.S. check out season 1 on DVD, it's pricey but so worth it.

Joe Millionaire-and those bastards at Fox

Rohit — Tue, 11 Feb 2003 04:31:00 GMT

Well let's just say I planned to have something to comment on, but instead, thanks to the assholes at Fox I have just spent an hour watching a damn, dirty, clip show.

In the course of watching this clip show I was bombarded by ads for the 300th ep of the Simpsons. Has any show died a harder death than this?? I remember when Seinfeld decided to end his show he said he knew the end was near when they wrote an "Incredible Shrinking Kramer" ep, I'm pretty sure the Simpsons has not only made that ep but had the "Incredible Shrinking Homer" get fucked in the ass by a panda. That was really the moment I knew the magic was gone. Homer got reamed by a giant panda.

For the longest time, certainly as long as I can remember, there was no show as good as the Simpsons. Fox tried to kill by sending it up against Cosby, Fox moved it from Sunday to Thursday and back to Sunday again but it just got better and better. The end was not quick and clean, but gradual. I think it caught us all by surprise, I remember thinking sometime around the winter of 99 that I all the Simpsons so far had been really weird and not all that good; I made this comment to one of my friends and he agreed. From then on it has been a downward slide. In terms of quality the Simpsons is now the meaningless filler between King of the Hill and Malcolm; almost like a once great Hakeem Olajuwon stumbling around the court trying to pull one good Dreak Shake and getting rejected by some no-name Fayetteville bound rookie. Anyway, I love the old seasons of the show, and the DVDs are great-I really love season 2, check it out on Amazon.