Riddle Me This, Jishman

They are canceling their contract with Apple to sell their content on the iTunes Media Store. NBC, owned by General Electric, has had a history of attempting to squeeze every nickel, dime and penny out of its NBC-Universal owned content. Now, I genuinely believe they are killing the cash cow that is their product on the iTMS. Three of their largest sellers, “Heroes,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “The Office”, make a killing at the “store” and all rank in the top 10 in sales weekly, especially after they first air. Plus, Universal was the second, following Disney, to sign onto the iTMS two years ago.

However, NBC and Fox are attempting a “YouTube” killer by signing on with Hulu.com. Now, though, the timing of this is curious but further underscores NBC’s lack of understanding digital media. I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t know the specifics of any company’s deal with Apple, but, this is just crazy. Hulu will not be selling video, only showing it like YouTube does (down-streaming). Movielink, another iTunes-esque option, has been a colossal failure, with absolutely no one that I know using it, and I’m sure the sales have been infinitesimal comparatively to iTunes. And if this is just about piracy, that’s one thing - a stupid thing, but understandable. It is something else. Its about pricing and margins.

Sujal and I were talking about it earlier today. These companies do not understand digital media. They do not understand the benefits, but more importantly so rabidly protect margins that are impossible to sustain in today’s market. Bit Torrent, Handbrake and other products/services like them make the market unsustainable in the long run. Moreover, services like iTunes, et al., provide a greater secondary market for their shows than the syndicated market ever will in the long run. (Though, this is just my opinion, Sujal can put his own opinions in here, if he so chooses.)

This, along with Universal’s decision to pull its music off of iTMS, just shows that Universal - alone - doesn’t understand the realities of the digital world, and will never so long as they feel as if margins mean more than profits. Profits only come with understanding of the digital world. People who own DVRs don’t watch commercials. Moreover, they further lose those ad rate dollars. People won’t watch the program in syndication if it doesn’t exist, and won’t be able to “buy” it if it isn’t on a service they can watch when they are not connected to the internet - Hulu.com fails that way (if it works the way it is being purported). And with HDTV’s increasing, if you can’t buy a program that can be watched in HD or on a HD set, you’re not going to buy it on your computer - AppleTV solves that problem, not that I think its a good solution yet.

HBO gets it. Showtime gets it. They allow their creators to own their product, and only own it so long as it is on their channel. After that, they get no more control. Other companies are starting to get it (see Comedy Central and the South Park guys), and the secondary, syndication market is starting to fail because those channels are broadcasting original programming.

Fools. The mindsets might change in one decade….then again….maybe not.

I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife:

We have been married for eleven years now and more than that, we have been together for fifteen years. I have to say that it is absolutely amazing how time flies when you share your life without someone who was truly sent to you from heaven.

I just want to share a few thoughts with the world about the most amazing woman I have ever met:

1) She is more beautiful today than the day I met her.
2) She has a smile that can light up your life in an instant.
3) She is my best friend in the whole world.
4) She is a great mother (and although she thinks she is invisible at times), she is the reason our kids are as wonderful as they are and for that, her work will never be invisible to me. She is a beacon of light and her children admire and adore her.
5) She is a great friend to the people we know, a great daughter, and a wonderful sister to her brother.
6) She truly cares about everyone.
7) She is “Mi Angelita”

Thank you, sweetheart, for everything you have brought to my life. I just want to say “Happy Anniversary!” and “Te Amo. Te Amo mucho con todo mi corazon!”

Now, as I suppose has been made abundantly obvious in recent weeks, but I love Fantasy Football. As such this year, I decided to participate in not 1, not 2, but THREE fantasy football leagues.
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A Fantasy Football waitress

So, having now seen her in Scrubs, Saved and a few other things, I can’t say Mandy Moore is a completely objectionable actress. Honestly, in fact, her few episodes on Scrubs a few years back made me laugh harder, I think, than I had in quite some time at some sitcoms. Well, here on How I Met Your Mother (a show that everyone should be watching, and if you’re not then you are clearly wasting your time watching something else because this is one of the best shows on TV), Moore plays completely against her stereotype of being squeaky, annoyingly clean as Barney calls her, “Courtney Love from the 90s”.

That having been said, I think I’m going to establish some new rules about TV for this year.

1.) All new shows get 3 episodes and then its “Cut Day.” If I like a show, it stays on the Tivo. If I don’t, gone. No renegotiation. There are too many shows that are opposite each other these days - in fact, I am convinced TV executives sit around in a bar saying “how can we screw with people’s minds by putting all our best shows opposite each other”.
2.) No new shows replace old shows. I like Heroes, thus, Mondays 9-10 are sacred. No new show will replace it.
3.) NBC will lose in a head to head battle. If there is something I like on CBS as much as something I like on NBC, the CBS show will win. I am tired of being disappointed by programs I like being canceled by NBC so they can put on yet another episode of a game show. People ask why I watch Sports Night and West Wing repeatedly, I’ll give you a hint, its because its better than anything that was on TV that night. (I have hate in my heart for you, NBC)
4.) Cable doesn’t count. This is only network television.

So these are the rules. Feel free to mock me, but the bar of expectations is so low, I have a feeling a 2 year old can hurdle it. I expect I will be lucky if there are 2 shows that come out of this season that I remotely like as much as I like Heroes from this season, and HIMYM from the season before.

Don’t worry, I will give you more info as the prime time season gets closer.

Well, it took me a week (because I had a lot going on last week), BUT I finally packaged up a copy of the book and mailed it off to the agent this morning around 11:00 am. She should get it in two to three days.

Please keep your fingers crossed for a positive response and if you have any favors due with the big guy upstairs and if you don’t mind asking for me, I could use the help.

I’ll keep everyone posted as soon as I hear anything. In her note to me, she said it would be about four to six weeks before I hear anything; so it may take a while.

And thank you for the nice emails, comments and words of encouragement.

As many of you know, I am quite the fan of comics, and one could argue that I would have never found my love had it not been for one gargantuan collaboration between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The loquacious Stan Lee acted as the writer and plotter of the series they created, while the more humble, subdued Kirby created the artistic look and feel of the stories. Together, they created a style of comic book creation unofficially dubbed the “Marvel Method,” where the writer would plot it out, explain it to the artist. After drawing the panes, the writer then comes back to pen the words for print.

Kirby and Lee went on to create some of the most iconic characters in the world for Marvel, Spiderman, X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and possibly most notable though forgotten, Captain America both originally in the 1940s and in the 1970s as a part of the Avengers, however, up until his death, his name was very rarely mentioned with those same names. Stan Lee was largely given the credit (both at the time and until recently) and after a few years in the 1970s Kirby left Marvel for their “Distinguished Competition” in the much larger DC Comics, where he proceeded to create no less enjoyed, but certainly less famous properties and ones that still exist today 30 years later.

I really hadn’t thought much about how much he influenced the modern comic book and creations of today until I read this article in the NY Times. Kirby was Stan Lee’s sidekick in the 70s, but was no less important, only less vocal. And if you doubt me, look at where the final battle took place in last year’s breakout hit, Heroes (it was Kirby Square).

Jack Kirby - Wikipedia

Book update

So I came home today and found one of my Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes in the mail. I figured (after over 100 rejection letters) that I was in for another form letter from another literary agent that said, “thanks, but no thanks.”

Well, wasn’t I surprised when they asked me to send the manuscript!!!!

I’m not putting the cart before the horse but it’s a very good start.

I love Costco. You can get big bags of kosher chicken, lunch food, snacks, fish, all kinds of wonderful things at great price. Sometimes, especially in terms of the fish, it’s higher quality then what you get at the grocery store. What I do not like are the “Costco Morons.” Who are the Costco Morons you ask? These are the stupid people who leave their carts in the middle of the aisle, blocking the way for the rest of us, while they ponder their need for 30 cans of tuna fish. Sometimes they abandon them all together at the entrance of the aisle while they debate internally whether they really need a 5 lb box of Cheerios. Or even worse, when a group of them cluster around one of the sample stations waiting for the tyson chicken nuggets to come out of the oven. Have these people seriously never eaten a chicken nugget before??? Give me a break.

I propose there should be rules about when you can shop at Costco after work and on the weekends. First, you must present a shopping list to enter the store. Second, if you stop for more then 10 sec. in the middle of any aisle, you should get fined (like a few dollars) by an “aisle monitor.” Finally, if you abandon your cart for any reason, you will be asked to leave the store. Repeated offenses will result in revoking one’s Costco privileges.

I hate picking Tight Ends in fantasy football. Seriously, I hate it. They’re the most unreliable players in fantasy football, and the only thing that makes it worse is that not only are they unreliable, but they are by far the most forgotten players in the modern NFL offenses.

But none the less, I promised a top 10, so here it is. Its the same as the all the other positions. 1 point per 10 yards and don’t count on much from this group after number 4.
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Sujal posted this over at fatmixx. I found it very interesting, and while it wasn’t surprising that I was more left than right and liberal than authoritarian, what was surprising was the degree. I’d highly recommend people check it out, even though we don’t do politics here.

Apparently, Ryan Seacrest and a whole bunch of celebs on a Red Carpet for the Super Bowl sounds like a good idea for the Execs at Fox.

Wow, he’s not just doing the Golden Globes anymore….

I’d love to hear from Hatey Mc-Hates-You on this new development…. Hatey?!

So, as I have been saying about QBs and RBs, picking these players isn’t an exact science, but WRs are even harder. WRs come and go year in and year out. Look at where Mike Furrey, Az-Zahir Hakim and Brandon Stokley got drafted the year after their breakout seasons - and what their stats were that following year too. The top WRs remain the top WRs for a while, but once you get past the top tier, its a crap shoot. You really have to know your stuff.

I am going to change my format here, and first, give you the top 10 in list, then, the second 10 to watch out for.
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I am 62% Optimus Prime.

This one from the RMTJ news service:

Michael Vick has just been served with a 63 billion dollar lawsuit alleging his dog ring was actually a front and the money was used to buy missiles for Al-Qaeda.

No, I’m not kidding. How can I go on without laughing?