Steve Holden's Blog

Jersey Boys San Diego Ticket & Dining Deal

There is a special deal for folks who are interested in attending Jersey Boys* when it comes to San Diego from Oct. 19 - Nov. 11, 2007:

San Diego Cohn Restaurants' Jersey Boys Ticket & Dining Deal!

This is a deal that I was able to get permission for the Jersey Boys Podcast to promote. This is not a paid advertisement.  It is just one fan helping others get a good deal, and see one of the best musicals I've ever seen.

In semi-related news, Frankie Valli discusses his new album "Romancing the 60's" on the Jersey Boys Podcast #049.

* Authentic, Profane,  Jersey Vocabulary is used in this production.

Wild Idea Gets Some Traction: 'Personal Movie Place'

A while back on one of my runs I had this 'wild' idea that centered around a geographical social networking site that linked movie buffs to each other by enabling them to come together and watch movies that they were very passionate about in a high-end but personal cinema environment.

One of the high-level use cases was:

Sandra goes online to mypersonalmovieplace.com and signs up to "host" her favorite movie "Blade Runner" on Friday night at 8 p.m.  Other fans of "Blade Runner" in her area would be notified and then they could reserve their spots in the 10-20 seat mini-theater.  Once some minimum is met, the room is reserved, and confirmations are sent out.

This movie establishment could have 10-20 of these mini theaters in standard footprint.  The scheduling and collaboration software would be the core glue to bring it all together.  I by no means think something like this is easy to do, the legal issues are probably enough to make most people go crazy.  But when I talk to folks about it, I always get a generally favorable response.

Well ... this idea has some traction no thanks to me.  Mark Cuban and his excellent team at Landmark Theatres is doing something similar at their $20 million multiplex in West LA near Beverly Hills.

They call their rooms - Living Rooms - where a few dozen people can watch a movie in their own personal screen room with access to bar, food, concierge services, and other treats.  The tickets per seat are $11.  There are also plans for slightly bigger rooms like for 60 people that would rent out for $1500 a show.

There is no indication that you can order up the movie of your choice, but I'm sure that is something that would be doable.

The source of the information for Mark Cuban's effort was from an article in the Union-Tribune published on July 22, 2007.

If you like this idea, please feel free to use it (it is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License).  You do have to compete with the likes of Mark Cuban.  Good luck with that.

Podcast Recommendation - Interview With New Media Author Philip Meza

Chris Gondek over at the Invisible Hand Podcast had a great interview with Philip Meza the author of the book "Coming Attractions: Hollywood, High Tech, and the Future of Entertainment" that is definitely worth a listen.

The one great thing in the podcast was that Chris let Philip outline some key recommendations that companies and organizations should be doing to excel in this new media world.

Movie Recommendation - Thank You For Smoking

I have to echo Reel Reviews Radio's recommendation for the movie Thank You For Smoking. 

Based on the podcast review, I ordered it from the library on Thursday and picked it up on Friday.  Christy and I watched it on Friday night.  It was very enjoyable and funny.

Rare Event - Music Video Recommendation

I really enjoyed this muisc video from Regina Spektor on YouTube.com.

Sounds, Effects, Etc. for Audio and Video Production

If you are looking for sounds to put into a podcast or into a video production, then here are some pointers to some that I recently found:

• Free Sound Project
• Find Sounds
• Creative Commons

Solution For Those Not Romantically Involved

It looks like Google Romance is a new endeavor by the search engine giant Google to help those who looking for better match making options.  There is a beta supposedly being talked about on Slashdot and Digg.

"Johnny Ether's Great Escape" By Changelings - Make Me Into A Movie?

I was catching up on some podcast listening today on my run, and as I was rounding the bend to come up the "hill" before the finish and my friend Dave Slusher with his Evil Genius Chroniles podcast for 03-04-06 came on.

His first song was a jem - Changelings' Johnny Ether's Great Escape.  It made the end of the run very easy.

And as I was listening I was envisioning this great "movie" segment that this song could be the foundation for.  I was thinking a kinda Sam Fisher - Splinter Cell meets Jack Bauer of 24.  And then when the song was done, Dave did the same thing in his own way.

Very cool ...

Sidetrack - Actor to DVD Ratio Kinda Interesting

We got the latest Movies Unlimited catalog in the mail yesterday.  It was interesting to me (and probably no one else?!?) how they organize DVDs available by actors, directors, and actressess.  And the shear number that some people have associated with them is definitely a tribute to their career. 

Here is a run down of some of the "leaders" from the prespective of how many DVDs were highlighted for them by the catalog (definitely not scientific, and not all exclusive to everything they have done)*:

• 57 = John Wayne
• 41 = Clint Eastwood
• 29 = Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock & Elvis Presley
• 20 = Burt Lancaster
• 19 = James "Jimmy" Stewart
• 18 = Bob Hope & Humphrey Bogart
• 17 = Mel Gibson, Gregory Peck, & Paul Newman
• 16 = Steven Spielberg
• 15 = Steve McQueen, William Holden, Henry Fonda, & Harrison Ford
• 14 = Marilyn Monroe & Katharine Hepburn
• 12 = Goldie Hawn & Bette Davis
• 11 = Audrey Hepburn
• 10 = Elizabeth Taylor & Judy Garland

* Note: I stopped listing "men" who didn't have 15 DVDs associated with them. Some were very close and included names like: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Bronson,Sean Connery, Tom Hanks, Woody Allen, Burt Reynolds, Jerry Lewis, Frank Carpa, Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise, Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Depp, Dennis Quaid, Keanu Reeves, Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Mitchum, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Stephen King, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Fred Astaire.

DIY Recording Room For Podcasting (Quicktime)

Here is the Quicktime version of the DIY recording room video I created with extra stuff I had available around the house.  Still in a work in progress but moving along better than I expected.

On the topic of QuickTime ... I captured this in iMovie then did an output for iPod Video ... this is different then the one I did with the kids painting on the kitchen table.  The details: MPEG-4 (m4v), 16.8-MBs, 128-kbps bit rate, H.264 format, 29.97 fps, and normal size of 320 x 213 pixels.

 

There is also a Windows Media format version linked to in a post with more information here.