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Spring, Sprung

14 Apr

Tsk, I haven’t posted for about a couple of months. Bad blogger, me. Sometimes I like to take a bit of a break. There hasn’t been much to report anyway; at least, not much for public consumption. I’m still working, still drawing comics when I’m not working, commuting from Saint John to Kingston (where I am now), and so on. I feel like I am slowly coming out of the usual winter funk, thanks to getting more creative stuff done, starting up with running again, making some new friends. The only thing I would like to do more of is maybe catch up on some video gaming and reading. Oh, and meditating. I’ve been really slack about that. I’ll figure it out.

On the bright side, I have been able to get a better handle on finances, partly due to a new app I’ve been using called You Need a Budget (YNAB). I still need to do some training to take full advantage of it but I liked it well enough during the trial period to pay for a full license.

Still enjoying the Apple TV and Hulu Plus; most recent favourite is Kroll Show starring Nick Kroll. Netflix has also added a pile of great cartoons, including Adventure Time, Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, Justice League Unlimited, Venture Brothers, etc. It makes for a pretty hip Saturday morning.

I was sorry to hear about the passing of Roger Ebert recently. Discovering his and Gene Siskel’s show on PBS in my early teens led me to think about films more deeply than I had up until then. He regretted the entrenchment of the superficial, “thumbs up” review systems that publicists were so happy to put on posters; it was in his print reviews that I was pointed to other critics like Pauline Kael and encouraged to start thinking more critically myself. In more recent years, his blog often featured well-considered and unashamedly liberal examinations on issues pertaining to life in America. I’ll miss him.

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The New Cable

11 Feb

There used to be an expression that flew around in the early days of the internet, especially when it came to file sharing: “information wants to be free.” This is, of course, a stupid thing to say for many reasons, not least of which that it’s a personification; information doesn’t “want” anything. It is not sentient. It simply exists.

What those people really meant is that information should be more accessible, more transparent, and more affordable. After years of being charged $20 or more for ten songs or a movie on a plastic disc, people have embraced the opportunity to download a copy (even if it is not a top-quality one) for nearly nothing. Not surprisingly, those who own the content have fought this tooth and nail, be it the record industry, film studios, publishers; and now we find ourselves in a middle ground where we can obtain much of the entertainment we want sort-of-illegally for free (I use the qualifier because file sharing is legal in some countries, decriminalized in others, illegal in still others); or we can sort-of-buy it legally for a dollar or two (again, I qualify because we don’t so much buy the content as license it, trusting that it will be there in the cloud for us when we want it).

I used to pay about $70 for high speed internet service and another $50 or so for basic cable. Had I sprung for digital cable with movie channels and such, it would have been more like $100. Here in Canada, the television media are controlled by a few large companies regulated by a body called the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC. The CRTC is supposed to regulate these businesses on behalf of the Canadian public, but more often they seem to make decisions that benefit the protectionist interests of those companies, who depend on the income generated by providing Canadian clones of popular American or British series and channels.

There are those who would argue that this system feeds a lot of money into the Canadian entertainment industry, helping to keep all those struggling actors and film crews working, and I’m sure that is true. It is a license condition of those copycat channels that a certain percentage of their programming be Canadian in origin. I don’t want a single precious hair on any single precious Canadian artist’s head to be curled by what I’m about to say.

You see, it occurs to me now that while information may not want to be free, it may very well want to be region-free. It is completely idiotic, for example, that you can buy a DVD in Australia and not be able to play it in America. It makes sense that DVDs may have different formats that reflect the video standards of their home nations – NTSC vs. PAL and what have you. But if you want to import a cool new kung fu movie from Japan, it probably won’t play on your Canadian system. And why not? Not for any technological reason, but because some giant Canadian company hasn’t licensed the content to sell it to us yet.

It is the 21st century. Why are we allowing Rogers, Bell, or Shaw to take a cut of something that they did not make themselves? Why do they get to slap together packages and bundles that ensure a cable subscriber will have dozens of channels they do not want for the sake of getting the few that they do?

This is pretty much why so many of us are “cutting the cord”; cancelling cable entirely and downloading torrents or streaming video through the websites of those copycat networks. But, if some of my friends and I are any indication, the torrenting free-for-all is slowly migrating to content services like Netflix, which- gasp- recommends programs based on what you like, rather than whatever bundles the network wants you to take. Netflix has even started to acquire the rights to new original programming, most famously the cult favourite Arrested Development.

In the ongoing search for more options, some of us have gone a step further and subscribed to a VPN service that allows us to circumvent regional restrictions; which is a fancy way of saying that for $5 a month, I can watch the American version of Netflix instead of the Canadian. And yes, the American one has a lot more options. Do I care that some big corporation that holds the American license for a program is getting a few cents that some other big corporation that holds the Canadian license is not? No. I truly do not give a shit. Netflix is still getting $8 a month from me, and they are able to report and track what I am watching to the people that make the royalties.

This has taken on a new dimension with the recent addition of an Apple TV to my setup, because once the Apple TV has been configured with that same VPN service, hey presto! An app for Hulu Plus appears on the menu. Hulu Plus is sort of like Netflix, except it’s only available in the US and concentrates more on TV, including shows that are currently running. It is also ad-supported. Since it is US-only, it is a little trickier for a Canadian to sign up for it, but it does seem to work (for now anyway) and for another $8 a month, I now have access to new shows from NBC, ABC and Fox, as well as a lot of other smaller networks; plus an assortment of movies, most notably the Criterion Collection, which would be worth the price of admission alone.

So, $8 for Netflix, plus $5 for the VPN, plus $8 for Hulu Plus, and whatever portion of the internet bill I would be paying equals a new kind of cable- digital and tailored to my preferences and devices – for less than the cost of basic cable from a giant Canadian corporation. And since I am paying for those services, the creative folks should be getting royalties somewhere – more than they were getting when I was only torrenting, anyway.

Do you see what is happening, CRTC? Rogers, Bell, and Shaw? You are obsolete. Concentrate on what we now need in this country: reliable high speed internet and related services at a reasonable price. Stop trying to be movie moguls; you suck at it.

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Apple TV

6 Feb

I have been telling my son Jack for a while now that I would give him my Playstation 3; he uses it far more than I to play games, and ever since I moved to a smaller place I found I was really only using it for Netflix once in a while, and using the iPad more often to stream video or whatever else. Besides, Nicole has a PS3 that I can use up in Kingston if I feel like playing my few games for it.

So after doing some research, I picked up an Apple TV and am pretty impressed with it so far. It is easy to set up and accesses services like Netflix as well as whatever media I have on my MacBook. If you are like me and have replaced cable with watching torrents of TV shows, you have probably noticed that you are more likely to find torrents of shows in an iOS-friendly format than .avi files, so this has turned out to be good timing for that as well. (If you’re going to use iTunes to share your torrents, you may want to uncheck the “copy files to iTunes library” option in iTunes preferences to prevent your hard drive filling up; and check out the “Automatically add to iTunes” folder on your hard drive as a potential destination for downloads).

There is a cool function called AirPlay that allows you to mirror whatever is on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac on the TV; useful for presentations, other video formats, etc. Apple TV is compatible with the Unblock-US VPN service, so you can access the US version of Netflix and other services like Hulu Plus. You can also stream digital radio and podcasts like on other devices.

Apple TV is essentially the kind of digital hub that a lot of people use an old computer for, optimized to interact with other Apple devices. The only drawback I have encountered with it so far is that the remote is small and light and potentially easy to lose. Fortunately, if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can use the Remote app instead.

A new Apple TV costs $110; refurbished older models sell on the apple store for about $90. For some reason, people try to sell “jailbroken” older models that allow you to play other media formats and they are asking well over $200. I can’t imagine how that could be worth the price. But if you are like me and already have a bunch of other Apple devices for it to interact with, Apple TV is a bargain.

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I’d Still Be Writing 2012 on My Cheques if I Still Wrote Cheques

14 Jan

…which is just a roundabout way of saying that I haven’t quite adjusted to the new year yet. The end of 2012 was a mad dash of holiday visiting and times with Nicole and Jack, then moving in to my new digs on Duke street, then getting back to work, part of which involved sorting out a new laptop and extracting work-related stuff from my Mac. Not to mention trying to get ahead of schedule on the webcomic, which is going reasonably well.

That said, the new year is treating me pretty well. I’m quite comfortable in my Duke street room, was able to squeeze a surprising amount of the stuff that I prefer to keep in it, and took the opportunity to get rid of some unnecessary junk at value village. My typical day involves sitting at my desk or on the bed and tapping away at the keyboard or scratching away on the Wacom while going through various series on Netflix. It’s like being in a kind of productive hibernation.

I should get off my ass and get back to running and meditating. One thing at a time, I suppose. At least I have been getting some reading done, most notably some books I got for Xmas: Corpse on the Imjin by Harvey Kurtzman, Came the Dawn by Wally Wood, The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Catellucci and Nate Powell, and The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. Coming up are Pete Townshend’s autobiography and volumes 3 and 4 of the new volumes of Love and Rockets.

I’m heading up to Kingston this weekend, with a quick stop in Toronto on the way, to visit Nicole for a couple of weeks. I also need to book tickets for the second annual trip back up with Jack on the train for his March break. It’s a 24 hour trip; good thing he likes the train!

I’m hoping to find a Jot Touch pressure sensitive stylus while in Toronto to see how it works with Sketchbook Pro on the iPad. SBPro is a pretty impressive drawing app and I could easily see myself using it for general sketching and roughs for comics, once I have a stylus that allows for more precision than the cheap pinky-sized thing I have now. I’ll post some results once there is something to post.

For now, back to drawing. Hope your new year is going well.

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Twelve Days of Netflix 12: A Golden Christmas

24 Dec

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Netflix sent to me: A Golden Christmas, starring Andrea Roth and Nicholas Brendon as Jessica and Michael, who met as 9-year-olds one summer and fell in puppy love, only to part ways and not see each other before each marrying someone else, having a child, divorcing, and deciding to move back to that small town of their childhood. Jessica and Michael were introduced by a golden retriever who Michael followed into the woods to where Jessica was playing; Michael adopted the dog afterward. More importantly, they seem to have never told each other their names.

Jessica, who knows that her parents have wanted to sell the family home for some time, thinks it would be a good idea to surprise them at Christmas with the news that she is going to buy it and live there with her son. Unfortunately, they have already found a buyer in Michael, who is trying to sell his own house nearby and move in with his daughter and golden retriever. Jessica pleads with Michael to let her have the house, because it is so important to her suddenly as she remembers her idyllic childhood summer, but she does not go so far as to explain that her fond memory is of a boy she met and his golden retriever. If she did, it would have been a very quick movie.

Instead, Jessica schemes to cheat Michael out of the house one way or another, going so far as to thwart the sale of his own house to some interested buyers, which is quite a dick move. Meanwhile Michael is led by his dog to the old childhood meeting place in the woods where he and Jessica buried an old tin lunchbox as a time capsule. Both the lunchbox and the dog are remarkably well preserved considering that they should be at least 25 years old. When Jessica sees the lunchbox she puts two and two together, more or less, and tries to make it up to Michael.

The film slowly draws to a close on Christmas as Michael celebrates the sale of his house and reconciles with Jessica. The magic golden retriever has puppies and leaves them immediately in the care of Michael and Jessica’s children, running off into the woods like The Littlest Hobo, having finally accomplished her mission and left behind what can only be her magical do-gooding spawn. And indeed, there is a Golden Christmas 2 on Netflix, which apparently stars Jessica’s parents after they move to Florida, helping another estranged couple rediscover love through the healing properties of dogs.

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Twelve Days of Netflix 11: Dear Santa

23 Dec

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Netflix sent to me: Amy Acker in a film directed by Jason Priestley that has one wildly inappropriate moment after another. Dear Santa is the story of spoiled rich girl Crystal, who is threatened with being cut off by her parents if she does not find some direction in life. As she admires some new shoes in a shop window, a nearby mailman drops a child’s letter to Santa, which is carried on the wind by fate itself and smacks against the shop window.

Crystal reads the letter, a plea from a child called Olivia (Emma Duke), who misses her late mother and wants her dad Derek (David Haydn-Jones) to be happy again. Rather than do the sensible thing and drop the letter straight back in the mail, Crystal makes the first of many terrible, inappropriate decisions and drives to the child’s home. She then follows Derek to his workplace, a soup kitchen that is short of funds, and volunteers in order to get to know him. She quickly befriends the chef of the soup kitchen – a man so stereotypically gay that he wears pink chef’s whites – and confides in him. Again, rather than do the sensible thing and tell Crystal to leave Derek the hell alone, the chef gives her the lowdown on his boss.

There is an obstacle in Crystal’s way: Jillian, an old school girlfriend of Derek’s who intends to regain his affections and, as she puts it, get the ring on her finger. Derek doesn’t seem to be into her that much, but as he explains to Crystal in one of the most horrifying scenes, Olivia does need a mother, and his own happiness has to take a backseat. The rivalry between Crystal and Jillian leads to several cringeworthy conversations and conflicts, culminating in Jillian finding Olivia’s letter in Crystal’s purse and revealing the truth to Derek.

Everyone involved in Dear Santa deserves a lump of coal in their stockings. Even by the low standards of holiday movies, it’s pretty terrible.

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Twelve Days of Netflix 10: Christmas With a Capital C

22 Dec

On the tenth day of Christmas, Netflix sent to me: a surprisingly thoughtful film about the true meaning of Christianity, instead of the usual platitudes about the true meaning of Christmas. I was hesitant to watch this because it was made by a Christian film company, and my experience with Christian-backed films is that they tend to be more concerned about proselytizing than telling a story; but the script for Christmas With a Capital C is not about preaching to the converted.

Which is not to say it is not intended for a Christian audience; it clearly is. It is the tale of Dan, a prideful mayor (Ted McGinley) who resents the sudden intrusion of an old school rival (Daniel Baldwin) who returns to his small Alaskan town complaining about the presence of a nativity scene on the grounds of the town hall. This leads to some hard feelings, especially on the part of Dan’s brother, who has little patience for non-Christians in America.

Fortunately, the film gives equal time to Christians at different points on the spectrum, most notably a minister who observes at one point that the nativity scene shouldn’t be what is important; it’s just wood, and the mayor shouldn’t make an idol of it or of traditions. The mayor’s own wife says that maybe Christians should be less concerned about their rights – especially ones that don’t exist, like imposing one’s religion on a civic venue – and more concerned about doing good for others.

I have to say, I am so used to negative media portrayals of Christians, thanks to politicians and self-appointed representatives trying to further their own agenda in the name of Christ, that watching a film like this is a real breath of fresh air. I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, and there are some clunky moments, but I was pretty impressed with Christmas With a Capital C. I hope that a lot of Christians and their opponents take the time to watch and think about it.

An additional note worth mentioning: the film is inspired by and takes its name from a song by a Christian music act called Go Fish. The song is much more strident about the issue and could even be seen as a rallying cry for the “War on Christmas” people. The movie is NOT like the song, which unfortunately is played over the credits and is pretty terrible.

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Twelve Days of Netflix 9: Santa Baby 2 – Christmas Maybe

21 Dec

On the ninth day of Christmas, Netflix sent to me: the sequel to a movie I’ve never seen, starring Jenny McCarthy (!) as the daughter of Santa Claus (!!). Mary Class (pronounced Claus) is a high-powered businesswoman in New York as the film opens; her husband Luke (Dean McDermott) is a postal worker who breeds and trains sled dogs. On the verge of closing a big deal with Colin Nottingham (Kris Holden-Reid), Mary is called home to the North Pole shortly before Christmas because her father Chris (Paul Sorvino – !!!) has decided to retire.

Santa Claus has essentially abandoned his job, leaving it in the care of a production manager called Teri (Kelli Stables) who has a hidden agenda. Mary tries to run the place at first, but the elves take their cues from Teri, at one point organizing and striking for better “wages”, which amounts to cookies with sprinkles on both sides instead of one. Concerned that her business deal is in jeapordy, Mary washes her hands of it and leaves Luke at the North Pole with his dogs. Meanwhile, the conniving Teri moves to not only usurp Santa’s job, but to tempt Luke; which isn’t hard, because he’s not very bright.

In the end, of course, the status quo is restored and nepotism triumphs over Germanic efficiency. Which, I suppose, is the story of Christmas in a nutshell.

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Twelve Days of Netflix 8: Christmas Town

20 Dec

On the eighth day of Christmas, Netflix sent to me: “a very special Christmas episode of The Twilight Zone,” which is how Liza McCann (Nicole DeBoer) describes it when she is called out of the blue to visit her estranged father in the small town of Hollyville. She brings her young son Mason, who is excited to see his grandfather and to spend time in a place that not only appears to be crazy about Christmas, but may be the base of operations for Santa Claus himself.

While Mason runs around spying on elves and the local mechanic fixing a certain sleigh, Liza tries to figure out what has happened to her type-A father who used to think that Christmas was a waste of time. The owner of the local diner where her father works, Kevin (Patrick Muldoon), tries to explain the local perspective.

This movie is like watching a holiday episode of Gilmore Girls from a parallel universe, where Rory is a largely unsupervised boy. It spends a lot of time and energy explaining how Santa’s workshop could really work in logistical terms in the modern age; as the snooping Mason discovers, it is a rather depressing Ikea-like warehouse with painted concrete hallways and a locker room where Santa gets changed. It’s an odd choice for a film that is about a parent rediscovering the magic of Christmas.

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Twelve Days of Netflix 7: Snow Globe

19 Dec

On the seventh day of Christmas, Netflix sent to me: another ABC Family Christmas movie starring Christina Milian. Needless to say, after the trauma of Christmas Cupid I was reluctant to press play on this one. This time she plays Angie, a streetwise New York deli clerk whose family doesn’t respect her space; you can tell she’s from New York by her Ratzo Rizzo accent.

Her family’s lack of boundaries are impressive, and catalogued in the span of a few minutes of film time: her parents own the building she lives in; they barge in to her apartment all the time to watch TV or make family dinners; her pregnant sister wants to trade apartments; and her parents have screened tenants so that a creepy new guy is her neighbour. Creepy neighbour (who also played a creepy forensics guy on Dexter this season) is opening a new bar when Angie’s parents aren’t inviting him to dinner.

Understandably annoyed, Angie is in the mood to escape her family; she gets her wish when a mysterious package containing a snow globe arrives. It’s a magical snow globe that, when shaken, transports her to the idyllic little town inside. Assuming she is dreaming, she plays along and introduces herself to the innocent village folk, then returns to her real life; only to return the following night, and again, and again so often that her family starts to complain about never seeing her. For her part, Angie adjusts to being magically transported to Pleasantville: Christmas Edition surprisingly quickly.

At least, she does until a guy from the snow globe follows her into New York and hijinks ensue. Compared to the last thing I saw Milian in, Snow Globe is an adequate holiday movie about a young woman who needs an escape, only to wind up in pretty much the position her parents wanted her in. If there are any feminist media studies academics out there looking for thesis topics, you might want to start here.

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