Posts from — February 2008

USA Today featured a new article on the Atlantis shuttle, which is currently docked at the International Space station. It got me wondering what sort of camcorders they use up in space.

NASA’s website doesn’t post very many details of the tools and technology they use over time, but I did find their initial HDTV camcorder plans from 2001. I also read that various space experiments are monitored with miniDV camcorders that are quite similar to ones used by consumers. And just last year NASA asked the public to submit videos of the Aurigid meteor shower

I never thought to look at camcorders from a scientific perspective before, and usually focus on the entertainment side. But now it makes total sense that NASA uses camcorders everyday in their work. The development of camcorder technology doesn’t just make better movies, but also helps scientist record events and experiments more accurately.

I understand that the Grammy’s awards make strange choices, but Herbie Hancock beating Amy Winehouse and Kanye really takes the cake. I had no idea he was even nominated! This harkens back to 2001 when they gave album of the year to Steely f-ing Dan instead of Radiohead, Beck, or Eminem. But like they say, award shows are hard to predict and don’t really mean all that much.

Despite losing Album of the year to Mr. Hancock, Kanye managed to win quite a few awards. There’s no way can he be a sore loser this time. He won Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Duo Performance for “Southside”, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album. And his performance with Daft Punk was pretty good, especially the camera close-ups of Daft Punk inside the pyramid. If I was running the show, I would have shown just a tad more of those funky robots since it was their US television debut.

After reading up on Sunday’s show, it turns out that this year’s show was the biggest one yet. They used 19 high definition cameras for the taping alone! And I’m sure filming Amy Winehouse via satellite cost a pretty penny. But seeing how she won five awards, I guess it was worth it. My favorite part of the show was seeing her win Record of the year. She seemed genuinely touched.

“A year from now, the 11 percent of American households that still get their TV over the airwaves will have their screens go black, unless they upgrade. Analog TV will be dead, as of Feb 17, 2009, and we will be living in an all-digital world” (source: CNBC).

Do people really still use rabbit ears?

I know at my parents house, when they decided to boycott the outrageous cable prices of time warner, they had to buy a tv tuner adapter that worked much like a cable box to get anything worthwhile. Of course, after about a year, they gave in and got cable tv again.

When did television become so expensive to watch? I swear, it would prove to be more cost effective to buy a dvd camcorder and make you’re own entertainment, which was the idea behind this blog actually.

And for the record, I totally started this blog before I heard about Michel Gondry’s movie, Be Kind, Rewind, with Jack Black and Mos Def where they have to remake their own version of popular movies for a video store.

Trailer Check:

According to Mr. Eisner, the writer’s strike is over. Apparently, the deal has been inked, all the WGA has to do is have the members sign off on it. Can it be true? I certainly hope so since even Time magazine has been printing rumors that the end is nigh.

I do love those video parodies on the strike and am sorta sad to see them go. But I’d much rather see quality television shows again instead of all this reality tv crap. Come to think of it, since they technically still have time on their hands where are the video responses from the writer’s? They obviously have access to the latest camcorders, so where’s their personal response? Also, isn’t it kinda suspicious that the producers get to break the story of the strike being over before the WGA has even signed anything. But seeing how it’s the producers who own parts of the mainstream media, guess it makes sense.

Son of Rambow tells the story of two boys growing up in eighties London who idolize Rambo. They are so inspired by Stallone’s character that they decide to film their own little homage called ‘Son of Rambow’.

During the trailer, I kept wondering how two kids that young managed to get a vhs camcorder to play with back in the day. Seriously, didn’t they cost like over $1000 bucks back then? Since the story looks cute, I guess I’ll just overlook that small detail.

Thanks to Pajiba for brightening my day with this trailer.