Archives for July 2006
Castro is dead
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More on Mark Cuban’s movie challenge
Recently Mark Cuban challenged his blog’s readers to come up with a way to increase theatre attendance without spending more than the cost of a ticket. My suggestion was to not charge for admission to movies. To my way of thinking, this would guarantee butts in every seat, every night. Today Cuban responds to the suggestions made and has this to say to those of us who suggested discounts:Discounting in any of multiple incarnations wont do the trick. True, price is always an issue, but the true aggregate costs of getting the sitter, gas, ticket, popcorn, parking, etc arent impacted enough with ticket and/or concession discounts to make people say they want to go see a movie they otherwise didnt want to see. This has been shown time and time again as matinees , coupon books, frequent buyer programs, and multiple ticket package coupon books are important, but not primary drivers of getting people out of the house. These are what I call blocking and tackling promotions. EVERY theater has to do them and do them well, and most do.
I’m not sure he’s right. For one thing, the coupon books, points, and other schemes are too complicated. Not charging admission at the door, as I propose, is simple. Second, he does have a point that there are other costs to going to a movie than just the price of admission. However, I think that the ticket price is the highest single component of the cost. Getting a sitter might be higher, but I don’t think the demographic he’s trying to reach requires sitters. In the same post today he outlines his (I think brilliant) plans for two new types of theatre chains. One to show only children’s movies and stocked with movie-related merchandise for sale, the other geared at 16- to 25-year-olds. Free tickets, I think, would do the trick we these groups.
How to peel and slice a mango
Apartment Therapy: “I have this belief that there would be more mangoes eaten if they were just easier to eat. Flavor, texture and nutritionally-speaking, mangoes are far superior than, say, apples. At least in my opinion. But man are they hard to eat. Here are the two best ways to slice a mango.”One Man Charles Ross
The Woolly Mammoth Theatre is presenting the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy this weekend, which is exactly what it sounds like and looks hilarious. You can see video clips of the show here.A cursory reading of the orphan works bill
The L.A. Times publishes a letter to the editor from one Gerald W. Puschel that makes the case that, “H.R. 5439, the Orphan Works Act of 2006, gives competitors [of a copyright holder], customers and anyone else the right to use original designs for profit after only a cursory search for the rightful copyright owner.” I guess that by “cursory search” he means “performed and documented a reasonably diligent search in good faith” because that’s how the bill reads. Don’t believe the hype; the Orphan Works Act is not a get out of jail free card for infringers, and courts won’t stand for “cursory searches.”Corrupción en Miami
Very rarely do I brave the crowds to see a movie on its opening night, so it’ll tell you something that I’ve bought tickets to see Miami Vice tonight. As a fan of the television series, I’ve been looking forward to this movie for some time. Although I’ve been avoiding details of the story, I’ve gleaned enough from the reviews to know that they are widely favorable and that the movie is dark. This is welcome if unsurprising news. I wouldn’t expect anything less from director (and original show co-creator) Michael Mann, who’s also responsible for one of my favorite movies of all time, Heat. Few people seem to know that despite the glitz, pastels, and often-overwrought scripts, Miami Vice was a very dark series.The Atlantic online trots out this 2000 piece from its archives about Charles Willeford, the father of Miami crime fiction, which I plan to check out. “Miami Blues and the three subsequent novels featuring Hoke Moseley–Willeford’s first cop protagonist–present a Miami in transition, after the 1980 Mariel boatlift that hyper-accelerated the Latinization of the area’s population, but before the city was renovated and rejuvenated. Moseley’s South Beach is still decrepit and full of old people, but a new sense of danger pervades the streets–a scent of violent desperation among refugees from Latin America and opportunists from the rest of the United States.”
The House of Truth
In TMN this week: “Washington’s DuPont Circle may now be a posh address for lawyers and diplomats–and 4,000 Starbucks outlets–but it was once a bohemian hotseat for intellectuals. A look at the city’s lost house of liberal revolution.”The Movie Business Challenge
In his blog today, Mark Cuban offers a challenge: solve the problem that haunts him the most and he’ll give you a job. “Its the holy grail of the movie business. How do you get people out of the house to see your movie without spending a fortune. How can you convince 5 million people to give up their weekend and go to a theater to see a specific movie without spending 60mm dollars. … Its not unusual to spend 8, 10 , 12 dollars PER PERSON that goes to a movie in the opening weekend.” He points out that movie marketing often costs many times what a movie makes back in from its theatre run.Here’s my entry: It seems to me that the easiest way to get more people in theatre seats while spending fewer marketing dollars is to give away free movie tickets. Make going to the movies free. As long as you pay the theatre owners’ half of the admissions they’ll be fine with it. In fact, they’ll be thrilled because free movies will doubtlessly raise attendance and therefore concession sales. You just have to make sure that your later revenues from licensing and DVD sales, etc. will make up for the initial outlay. As an alternative, you could make admission to a movie free the first week it’s out and then hope positive word of mouth will drive the box office after that.
Apple to do eBooks?
I’ve previously mused on this site here and here that the iPod might just be the vessel to bring viable ebooks to the masses. Well, Engadget reports today that insiders have told them that Apple is pursuing just that. “[A]ccording to a source at a major publishing house, they were just ordered to archive all their manuscripts — every single one — and send them over to Apple’s Cupertino HQ.” Ebooks would be such an easy addition to the iTunes Music Store, and an iPod with larger screen space could easily handle ebook functionality. But as I’ve also said before, I think to really have it take off, a good ebook service will have to offer not just books, but periodicals and to the minute web content as well.Recipe: Thomas Jefferson’s Vanilla Ice Cream
The Kitchen did their best to decipher Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten recipe for vanilla ice cream and then made a batch. Looks good, but I always though T.J. was more into chocolate.Technologists object to U.S. RFID passports
CNN reports on the vulnerabilities of the RFID-equipped passports that the U.S. will begin issuing next Month. Although the story is a bit hyperbolic (as most RFID articles are wont to be), it highlights the fact that RFID only becomes a threat when individuals don’t have a choice but to carry a unique identifier keyed to them because government has mandated it. The article makes a great point: even if your identity isn’t compromised, something about the RFID signal might convey nationality. “‘It’s a great way for unfriendly elements to set up their own RFID scanning systems and pick Americans right out of a crowd … If you put an RFID scanner in a doorway or maybe a lamp-post,’ said [Bruce] Sterling, ‘you can just sit there automatically counting the passing passports.’” I hope I don’t have to explain why a big sign over you proclaiming your U.S. citizenship isn’t a great thing in many (kidnap-happy) parts of the world.HP reinvents RFID
They call their new chips Memory Spots. According to the WSJ, they “hold as much as four megabits of data, much more than bar codes or current RFID tags. Data can be stored and retrieved at speeds as fast as 10 megabits a second, compared with a few hundred kilobits a second for RFID, H-P says.” These won’t compete with RFID because RFID applications only need the chips to carry a unique identifier to be matched up to a database, and so there’s no reason to pay more for larger storage capacity.Conservative vs. libertarian shootout on Tuesday
Please come join AFF this coming Tuesday, July 18th, at 6:30 p.m. for our 10th Anniversary Roundtable, which I’ve been slaving away putting together for the past couple of weeks. It will be a debate between Jonah Goldberg of National Review and Nick Gillespie of Reason to answer the question, conservatives and libertarians: BFFs?Here’s Jonah on the corner about the event: “Nick Gillespie and I shall once and for all end all vendettas, settle all scores, close all circles, resolve all contraditions, synthesize all theses and anti-theses and generally work out for all time the conflict between libertarians and conservatives. Or, I just might drink some beers and yell at Nick for a while about how he’s an anarchist. Who knows? But for young conservatives and libertarians alike this is your moment to say ‘I was there when…’”
Details here. Please bring all your friends and colleagues. Good pitch: the $5 admission gets you all the beer and hors d’ouvres you can handle.
Fleeing the Scene
Slate has an incredibly thorough (and long) story on the eventful production of the new Miami Vice movie, including the shooting incident that ended, well, shooting in the Dominican Republic. Apparently, Jamie Foxx has gotten an attitude since he won an Oscar, requiring a private jet and demanding that Colin Farrell take a pay cut so he could get a raise. “Farrell was very well-behaved, according to crew members. ‘Yes, Colin comes to play around, but he always showed up on time and prepared,’ one says. ‘Jamie is more of a diva in the sense that he was afraid of boats, afraid of planes–there were a lot of things where he was afraid for himself. Colin will do anything.’” Michael Mann is also portrayed as a Steve-Jobs-like obsessive perfectionist. The good news is that the movie is described as very dark, which is exactly what I want from Mann.How to become an eccentric (or just look like one)
Merlin Mann, inspired by this MeFi thread, asks today what’s the goofiest affectation you’ve considered adopting, and what made you stop. I’ve always wished I could speak like William F. Buckley, Jr. What’s kept me is that it would be ridiculous. One less drastic idea is that since I have no middle name I should get one. I’m seriously considering Ford.Atlas Shrugged movie on track
News today that things are actually moving along in getting Ayn Rand’s novel to the big screen, which is big news since “everybody has been waiting breathlessly for an Atlas Shrugged movie since 1973, when word of an imminent production was first announced.” Key deets: It will be an epic trilogy a la Lord of the Rings, which makes sense if you want to do justice to the book (although maybe not if your objective is to sell movie tickets). David Kelley of the good objectivists is a consultant on the film. Also, Angelina Jolie is practically set to star as Dagny Tagart, which I think is an excellent choice, and I think Brad Pitt would make a terrific John Galt. Hat tip MR.What to Expect While Taking the Bar Exam
A very cute story on the ordeal that is the bar exam written by someone who is obviously a lawyer. “The California Bar provides a list of twenty-three approved items [you can bring into the exam], including ‘up to two pillows without cases,’ ’silent analog watches, timers and clocks not measuring larger than 4×4 inches or smaller,’ and ‘ear plugs or plastic material normally associated with the sport of swimming.’ Huh? Is there a swimming section on the California bar exam? Maybe that’s why so many people fail. Or maybe they fail because the questions are written by the same guy who wrote the ‘not measuring larger than 4×4 inches or smaller’ clause. That leaves clocks measuring… exactly 4×4 inches? I guess so. It must stem from some episode in which a test taker tried to wheel in a ‘good luck’ grandfather clock. Or something.” Hat tip Bridget. Good luck to her and all my friends who will be taking the bar later this month!FEMA unveils new text message alerts: omfg!!11 :-@
According to the AP, FEMA yesterday unveiled an upgrade to the Emergency Alert System that will eventually allow the feds to text-message every single cell phone in the country in the event of an emergency. (What would these messages say? “N.Korean Missl coming Ur way. Duck!” or “Grab Ur duct tape now”?) It looks like the $5.5 million system will initially be targeted at public safety officials, but Homeland Security Department spokesman Aaron Walker said yesterday, “Anything that can receive a text message will receive the alert. We find that the new digital system is more secure, it’s faster, and it enables us to reach a wide array of citizens and alert them to pending disasters.”Now, apart from the obvious problem of network overloading that could occur not only by sending millions of text messages at once, and, as a result, by prompting everyone in the country to call their loved ones to see if they’re OK, there is the larger question of whether text alerts are necessary at all. The original Emergency Alert System was never activated–not even on 9/11. With at least three television networks, dozens of cable news channels and radio networks, and the internet, can anyone possibly escape being alerted of an emergency? Is there any reason to believe that the networks won’t pass on instructions from the government to citizens (or even give government airtime)? What value could text messages possibly add?
John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations (which, by the way, has the biggest interest here since public TV stations are the ones getting paid to use their DTV spectrum to broadcast the messages), explains why text messages are useful: “[W]e’re hoping that your cell phone will go off saying something bad is happening, and you need to get to a TV or radio to find out what’s going on.” Exactly.
Cross-posted at TLF. You can leave and read comments there. →
Design award winners boycott White House event
Via Design Observer: “If design has an Oscar, the National Design Award is it. … Because the Awards program was originally conceived as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the First Lady serves as the honorary chair of the gala at which the winners are celebrated. She also traditionally hosts a breakfast at the White House to which all the nominees and winners are invited. That breakfast was today. This year, however, five Communication Design honorees decided to decline the invitation. They wrote a letter to Laura Bush explaining why.” Follow the link to read the letter, but it boils down to finding objectionable the Bush Administration’s use of design and language, especially in support of the war (think of the “Mission Accomplished” sign). These folks may be good designers, but they are ignorant. In the U.S. the functions of head of government and head of state are combined in one office. Perhaps it would be better if it were another way, but as long as it is a fact it makes sense to understand the distinction.~New Yorker Cartton
Published in The New Yorker today. Hat tip Core77.
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This is the personal site of Jerry Brito, a lawyer and writer in Washington, D.C. He’s an academic researcher and the creator of Unclutterer and several other blogs. More »
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