Sunday, August 16, 2009

Beatles & Bobbleheads

In anticipation of the release of the remastered albums next month, I've been listening to The Beatles a lot lately. I've also been readinga lot of facts & opinions about the different versions that are going to be available: Stereo versions available separately for every album, a stereo box set, and a mono box set.

The 10 albums from Please Please Me to the "White Album" were originally released in mono, while the final 3 albums, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be were originally released in stereo.

The only way to get all the newly remastered CDs in the same versions as they were originally released is apparently to buy the mono box set plus the individual stereo versions of the final 3 CDs.

The incomplete mono box set that contains the 10 mono albums and the 2-disc Mono Masters sells for $230, which works out to a ridiculous $19.17 per CD. Plus, you still have to buy the individual Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be CDs, as well as the individual version of Past Masters, since Mono Masters doesn't have The Ballad Of John And Yoko, Old Brown Shoe, or Let It Be. This works out to over $280 to get all the albums and songs in the versions that they were originally released.

In contrast, with the stereo box set, you get the complete 15 CDs as well as a DVD with 13- mini-documentaries for a much more reasonable $180. This works out to a mere $12 per CD.

The stereo mixes of the first 10 albums were made as an afterthought since back then stereo, while an immature technology, was nonetheless a hot gimmick. Besides not being the versions of the albums that The Beatles themselves were most concerned about, some of the stereo versions of songs have the vocals on only one channel, which is awkward, if not unpleasant, to listen to. It's ridiculous that the stereo versions are what were used back when the first version of The Beatles CDs were released, and it's even worse that they're repeating this mistake with these new releases.

I think it would be much better if rather than individual stereo releases, a complete stereo box set, and an incomplete mono box set, instead all the individually available albums were the same as they were originally released. Also, there should only be 1 box set, which has all the albums as they were originally released, the first 10 in mono, the final 3 in stereo, and Past Masters with all the songs as they were originally released.

If they want to release a box set with the stereo versions of the first 10 albums, that would be fine. Instead of the main version, it would be a curiosity like The Capitol Albums box sets that were released a few years back.

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NBC is going crazy releasing bobbleheads. It started (I think) a few years ago with a Dwight bobblehead like the one seen in season 2 from The Office. Then after that a talking one of Michael Scott was released, which had no direct connection to The Office. Now they're releasing 14 more of all the main characters from the Office, which like the Michael one have no connection to the show. At the NBC store they also have non-Office related bobbleheads, including ones of the main character from the shows Monk, Psych, Heroes, ones for their show hosts Keith Olbermann, Jim Cramer, and Howie Mandel, and last but not least, The Dude.

What's funny is that originally on The Office, before Angela gave Dwight the bobblehead of himself, Dwight had various bobbleheads on his desk to show what a loser he was.

Despite being a big fan of The Office, these new bobbleheads don't appeal to me. The possible exception is the Kelly one, since I think it would go nice with the Dwight bobblehead I have.

But I'm sure there are lots of fans who these will appeal to, so I guess it's good NBC is making these. It'll be interesting to see in a year or two how far NBC has gone with this, and if they've released bobbleheads for all their shows.

The main thing that irks me about the bobbleheads is how they're being sold. There are 14 new bobbleheads and they're releasing 1 a week, for the discounted price of $15 plus $6.75 or more for shipping, a discount from the regular $19 plus shipping. I don't know why they're selling them like this. I think it would be much better if they released them all at once. Maybe they're trying to trick people into not realizing how much it'll be to buy them all, kind of like those president coin boards they sell on TV, where you get the board and the first and last coin for $10 or so, but then the rest of the coins are a few dollars each plus shipping, so if you want to complete the board you're going to have to spend a few hundred dollars. $19 plus shipping for each bobblehead doesn't seem too bad - but it adds up. To get all 14 of the new bobbleheads, even at the discounted price, it's over $300 to get them all shipped.

Even considering this complete price turn-off, I think it would have been better if in addition to releasing all the new bobbleheads individually, they released all the bobbleheads, both the 14 new as well as the 2 older ones, in some kind of deluxe complete set. The set would have a small discount (maybe 10-20%) to buying them all individually, plus big shipping savings. More importantly, to push sales the box set would have a bobblehead that isn't available individually. My first choice would be Mose. Or possibly a special version of the Dwight Bobblehead, such as one that's (fake) gold plated, or Dwight in one of his various costumes, like his karate gi from season 2, or of when he dressed up as Jim in season 3, or one of the 2 Halloween costumes we've seen him in, either the Sith costume from season 2, or even better, his Joker costume from season 5. The extra item doesn't even have to be a bobblehead, it could be something else, such as the Princess Unicorn doll from season 5. I never understood why, after coming up with such a hilarious idea, all they did with it outside of the show was making a mock website and selling a couple babydoll women's shirts. Did they not manufacture and sell the doll out of fear of getting sued by Mattel? I'm pretty sure if the Princess Unicorn doll was made available exclusively with the bobblehead complete set, it would sell out right away, just like the "real" Princess Unicorn dolls.

Friday, August 14, 2009

TV

Posted on Twitter yesterday:



My first thought was not how much I'd miss a show I loved watching these last few years, but rather that this was justice for Lennon & co. firing - by email - Wendi McLendon-Covey, Carlos Alazraqui, and Mary Birdsong. If it was a creative decision to get rid of those three then what a horrible decision. More often than not the new officers were not only not funny, but also managed to make the funny stuff the others were doing less funny. If it was budgetary, they should have kept them and just made fewer episodes. While the first 5 seasons and the movie were great, season 6 was just OK. It had some funny moments, but not nearly as many as the previous seasons.

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I've been planning on watching the new season of Mad Men when it came back, although I didn't know exactly when that was going to be. Then the other night while browsing the latest issue from my $1 Rolling Stone subscription, when I got to the very last page I saw this:



Awesome. So I set my VCR to tape it in case I forget about it.

Then last night I saw an ad for a new Greg Giraldo stand-up special premiering at the same time. It seems like Giraldo's on Comedy Central pretty often, although usually it's for roasts, which I have no interest in. Almost all of my favorite stand-up comedians are now either dead or doing other things, so this is pretty can't miss. I checked the listings and Mad Men airs twice back to back so I think I'll watch the Giraldo special and then the Mad Men premiere.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Northern Attack's 2009 Summer Writing Contest - Wrap-Up

I just cast my last votes for this year's contest, and I ended up voting for

2 people 6 times
2 people 3 times
2 people 2 times
5 people 1 time

Reading the other people's entries was definitely my favorite part of the contest this year. Even though a lot fewer people entered this year than in the previous 3 years, there were still a lot of awesome entries.

Trimming my entries down to meet the maximum word-limit was definitely my least favorite part. I don't remember having a lot of trouble with that in previous years, but this time it was brutal.

Of my entries for the previous 4 years contests, I think my entries last year were the best I've done. My entries this year's were probably better than my entries the first two years, though.

Reviewing my entries for things I'd change, I'm happy enough with my entries for the first 2 weeks. I think my entry for the 3rd week sucks, but I don't know what I'd do differently. My entry for week 4 is probably my 2nd favorite of my entries this year. The thing I debated the most about was whether to have Michael mention that he'd been working on a hilarious AIDS joke in his letter. I guess I'm glad I left that out, though.

The poetry and song parody prompts are usually my least favorite to write for (although also some of my favorite to read the other entries for, so it's all good). With that in mind, for week 5 I took full advantage (i.e., unabashedly abused) of the no word limit thing in writing dialogue around the song parody like others did. There's one thing I wanted to include but didn't for no good reason. Instead of this:

Michael: How we doing, Pam, anything happening down there? ...Puuuush!

It would instead have been this:

Michael: How we doing, Pam, anything happening down there?

Dwight: That's what she...

Michael: (Interrupting.) Don't you dare, Dwight, that is completely inappropriate. This is a sacred occasion!

For week 6, I like my entry, but there are a few things I would change. The forgotten question mark at the end of the title in the first line, obviously. Also, even though the word limit was 300, I think my entry would have been better at 250 or even 200 words. A title I thought of the day after submitting my entry was "Do The Dwight Thing." I'm not sure if that's awesome or awful. Also, I should have had the National Geographic magazines been German. Apparently there it's just "National Geographic Deutschland," but I still wish I'd called them "Nationalen Geografisch."

For week 7, the word limit was only 250, and I really wish it had been 300. Cutting to 250 wasn't too time consuming, but the big cut I made was probably my favorite thing from any of my entries. Here's what my entry would have been if the word limit had been 300 words (new part is bold):

Jim is talking to Michael in his office. Dwight is eavesdropping from his desk, but with the door closed he only hears a few words.

Jim: Corporate... rewriting reports... pissing contest... Charles... time...

Jim returns to his desk.

Dwight: Jim, can I talk to you, privately. (Dwight motions with his head to the stairwell.)

Stairwell

Dwight: If the future of this company depends on, as you so crudely put it, a pissing contest, then I should handle it.

Jim: What... why?

Dwight: (He looks around to make sure they're alone.) Because I'm an Ultimate Urinating Championship hall of famer.

Jim: Sure you are.

Dwight: (Dwight opens his suit coat and peels back the liner to reveal over a dozen medals. He points to the top left.) Distance. (Bottom left) Duration. (Top right) Accuracy. (Bottom right) Artistry.

Jim: But don't you have chronic kidney stones? And what about that time your pee was green?

Dwight: That is the price I pay for flying too close to the sun in my quest to unleash the maximum potential of my species.


Jim: Wow...

Dwight (TH): Of course I'm proud of my success in the UUC. But if my underlings here knew just how dominant I am outside of the office, they wouldn't be able to handle it, and they'd end up like Tom.

Later that day.

Dwight returns to his desk holding a big glass of beet cider and notices Pam has several gold yogurt lids hanging around her neck.

Dwight: What are those? (Dwight looks at Jim, then back to Pam.) What league did you win those in? American or international rules? Were the judges certified?

Pam: Not now, Dwight, I'm training. (Pam sips some water.)

Dwight grunts, then chugs his glass, spilling beet cider all over himself.

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My entry for week 8 is my favorite of my entries this year. The one thing I didn't like was the robe and wizard hat bit near the end. I just couldn't resist referencing that meme. Even though I think that's something Michael would do, it should have been Michael having some prop(s) for a trick and saying "Who wants to see some magic?".

For week 9, I didn't decide on the idea I went with until Sunday morning. Before then I had been planning on writing about a horrible prank Dwight was going to pull on Jim. I definitely like the idea I went with a lot better, but as I wrote before, I really blew it with the part at the prison.

Northern Attack's 2009 Summer Writing Contest - Week 9

The prompt for week #9: "It's going to take a long time . . . And then it's perfect."

And my entry:

The elevator doors open. Pam, holding Vincent, and Jim walk out.

Jim: I don't know, he just said it was important. Maybe he perfected cold fusion.

Pam: Or maybe he has a new ringtone.

Jim opens the main office door. They take a few steps then stop when they see Dwight, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, putting jumpsuits on everybody's desks. Jim and Pam look at each other.

Michael: Vincent! You're getting so big!

Pam: What is all this?

Michael: It's been 1 month since Ryan's probation was revoked, so we're all gonna go visit him at the prison today.

Jim: Why the jumpsuits?

Michael: To show our solidarity with Ryan. (Michael raises his fist.) Oh, and don't worry, I didn't forget about Vincent. (Michael walks to Pam's desk and picks up an infant sized orange jumpsuit along with a tiny bandana).

Pam: Ok. We'll see you at home. Be careful.

Jim: Alright, bye you two.

Andy: Later Little Tuna!
___________________________

Later, at the prison.

Michael: Ryan!

Ryan: Holy [bleep].

Michael runs over and hugs Ryan.

Ryan just stands there for a moment, then turns around, walks to a guard, and leaves the visiting area.

Jim: Hey, guard! Don't forget this one. (Jim points to Dwight.)

Dwight: Haha, very funny, Jim.

A guard grabs Dwight's arm and leads him away.

Dwight: No, you don't understand. We're just visiting.

Dwight (TH): (Sporting a shaved head.) I do not want to talk about prison. (He gets up and walks to his desk.)

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I like the first part well enough, but not the end with what Ryan does or Dwight's talking head. I've hated trimming 50 or more words from most of my entries this year, and rather than try and write something interesting for Ryan I took the easy way out to avoid that. I think I should have made Dwight's TH end positively for him, like maybe him landing the prison as an account or something.