Category Archives: Television

Joost Invite?

April 8, 2007 – 8:59 pm

I talked about Joost in a previous post. I lamented the fact that I had not been offered a beta invite. Today, apparently, was my day. They expanded their beta test and I received my invite. It’s akin to pay-per-view tv via the Internet, except you don’t have to pay for it. The quality’s better than I expected. The content selection is still limited, but there are a few channels of worthwhile viewing (National Geographic Channel and Comedy Central, IMO). I haven’t delved into too much yet, but you can chat with other viewers while you’re all watching the same show. There are other net-centric features like that built into the software as well. ~~If you’d like an invite, leave a comment. I’m not sure how many I have to give out, so first commented, first served.~~ Once again, reading too quickly has caused me to err. There’s an "Invite a Friend" option within Joost, but there’s also a small line with "Number of Invites to Give: 0." My apologies! But if and when I get invites to send, send them I will.

[Do you need a house marker?]

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Television

Joost: IPTV Comes Alive?

April 2, 2007 – 9:06 pm

From the makers of Skype, Joost is an internet television platform that uses an interesting technique to deliver realtime video to its viewers. It’s streaming television meets a P2P network…sort of. There’s more to it than that, but most people aren’t bothered by the details. Joost lets you watch tv when you want to, as well as adding a few internet only features like searching and chatting during shows. Their intro video is fun. It’s still in beta (and I’m still trying to get an invite), but I think it’ll be open to all fairly soon. It’ll be interesting to see if it takes off, and also if major content providers provide major content. You can see what’s on right now, but it looks like a random assortment of shows or small networks for now.

[business cards - you need 'em, these people can make 'em].

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Television

This American Life

March 27, 2007 – 10:31 pm

In some respects I consider myself an early adopter, or at least an early finder. I’m constantly reading tech blogs that keep me up to date on the newest gadget that the world could really do without, but seems so, well, cool. In other ways, I feel like I’m late to the party. Take Tivo. It began in ’98 or ’99, but we didn’t see the light until 2004. Then again, I found the Pioneer Tivo DVD Recorder right when it came out, and it’s, well, really cool.

Onward. I started listening to NPR recently, mainly in the mornings. Then I heard about this show, This American Life, and how it began as an NPR radio only show and was moving to TV on Showtime. Alas, I don’t have Showtime, but, hallelujah, they’re streaming the show online for free. I watched the premiere episode last week. It’s brilliant. It’s brilliant if you like true, unique stories told with fairly stunning visuals. I especially appreciated "The Best Gig Ever," which featured the Improv Everywhere group, which, if you haven’t heard of them, you should seriously check out their website. (I forgot about this one: "Even Better Than the Real Thing" – they staged a fake U2 concert on top of a building).

So. I was late to the intellectual party that is NPR. I was, however, right on time for a great show. Go watch it.

P.S. A day after I wrote this post, I found this interview. I must be psychic, because the article starts talking about Ira Glass being a late bloomer, as well as those "lab-rats" who had never heard of the radio show, but found the radio show through the TV show.

[Brought to you by van rack, for when you need a rack for your multiple vans]

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Movies Television

The Unreliable Protagonist

March 18, 2007 – 10:36 am

It’s become de rigueur for television shows, movies, and books to feature unreliable protagonists or narrators, the people who tell you the story, but for whatever reason you know you can’t quite trust their interpretation of the events. One of the earliest and most blatant cinematic portrayals of this is the classic film Rashomon, where the same story is told from three very different perspectives. The stories are not the same, but they’re all true. In the end, the viewer is left to decide what actually happened. This was groundbreaking for its time (1950), but the latter half of the 20th Century exploited this plot device so much, in my opinion, that viewers seldom believe what they see. We’ve lost trust in the narrator. With more than half of the movies or shows I watch, I have to suspend my disbelief every time a new character is introduced (LOST, anyone?), anytime a good guy turns bad or vice-versa (Jericho), or anytime I’m told one thing and shown another (I am Jack’s smirking revenge).

Is this indicative of the culture at large? Of course it is. Television either tells us what to believe or shows us what we already believe about ourselves. Either way, it’s a mobius strip. Our culture has lost trust in its own narrative. Cynical is the word. Are we being told the truth or just what we want to hear? Can we decipher reality for ourselves or does a talking box or a talking head need to do it for us? Where are the people that say what they mean without false pretense?

I’m tired of disbelieving.

[Ironically enough, this has been brought to you by rosaries, beads on a string that help some to believe in a Reliable Narrator.]

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