The Substantially Similar Weblog

Movie trailers linked from IMDB now apparently require you to watch an unrelated advertisement before the trailer starts.

And here I thought movie trailers were advertisements…

One feature I’d like to see at Netflix: a “standing order” for films that match particular criteria. For example, I would be happy to have Netflix automatically add any Pedro Almodóvar film to my queue as soon as it enters the Netflix universe (Volver looks interesting). I also wouldn’t mind any film rated four stars by Roger Ebert to be dropped into the queue. You could even ask Netflix to add anything that its collaborative filters give a top rating based on your past preferences. Then you would just sit back and be surprised at what arrives for you.

Rather than “opt-in,” the system would become “opt-out” — similar to those discount CD clubs that were popular in the 1980’s, where you had to tell them if you didn’t want the pick of the month. (I built the bulk of my CD collection in that era by taking advantage of the occasional “3 for the price 1” deals.) The difference here is that you are actually likely to want the pick of the month.

A related feature would be “add all” matching a certain criteria with a single action — for example, all Hitchcock films.

This is pretty much how I select films anyway. Knowing that a film is directed by Robert Bresson or Akira Kurosawa (two of my favorite directors) tells me a lot more than a plot synopsis. I’d actually rather know nothing about the film itself in advance.

Via Jesse, this strangely beautiful commercial for some sort of beverage I’ve never heard of. Featuring fruit.

Update: apparently I’m out of touch with the zeitgeist. The fruit video is apparently a somewhat authorized parody of this Sony Bravia ad. In fact, I didn’t even know what a Sony Bravia was until now.

Update 2: I guess I’m really behind the times. Wikipedia has known all about this Tango ad business since at least June 14, 2006.

Now there’s some effective advertising.

The Philadelphia Orchestra just announced the launch of an online store, where they are selling tracks directly from their own website. Following in the tentative steps of MySpace, eMusic, and Yahoo!, the Orchestra is selling unencumbered (i.e., DRM-free) MP3’s. Even better, for a slightly higher price, you can download content in the higher quality (lossless) FLAC format.

Performances currently seemed to be priced at approximately $5 for the MP3 version and $6 for the FLAC version. This seems just about right to me.

As an added bonus, they’re offering Beethoven’s Fifth in C minor for free.

I’d love to see more of the industry move in this direction, particularly for longer-tail type cultural content like classical and world music. These recent developments are certainly a good start. It will be interesting to see if the iTunes Store eventually is forced to respond to these pressures.

Great Tom Waits album that had slipped my memory: Real Gone. Actually, add to that every other Tom Waits album. I can’t think of many artists 35 years into their careers who are still pushing their edge.

Check out my brother Jonah’s band, Green Mountain Moonshine. They have the least annoying Myspace page I’ve ever seen. And the music is really pretty good.

I can’t believe I’m almost thirty years old and only just now saw William Shatner’s rendition of Rocket Man (discovered via Wikipedia, indirectly via this excellent episode of This American Life and the “one-day band’s” cover of Rocketman). If you’re almost thirty and you haven’t seen it yet, do it now! In fact, even if you’re over thirty, see it. (If you’re under thirty, you probably aren’t quite ready.)

Once you are up to date on this valuable artifact of cultural history, you can experience the postmodern repackaging as performed by Stewie from the Family Guy.

Addendum: I am also surprised to learn just now that Ray Bradbury (whose work inspired Rocket Man) has never driven a car or used a computer.

Anyone who enjoyed Fight Club should read the entire five parts of My Crowd, Or, Phase 5: A report from the inventor of the flash mob from this month’s Harper’s Magazine, which, fortunately, is online unlike much of Harper’s content.

This was one of the most enjoyable and relevant pieces I’ve read in Harper’s in quite a while. I was beginning to think that Harper’s was, as a friend characterized it, “for people who don’t read blogs,” but this piece proves the magazine can still be relevant.

Dave Douglas’ new album, Keystone, can be purchased as a CD (includes a DVD as well, free shipping), MP3 (entire album, cheaper than the CD), or MP3 (individual tracks). Douglas has started his own web-based label, Greenleaf Music. I’d like to see the MP3 album, which is now $10, even more cheaper than the CD, which is $15, but this model makes a lot more sense to me than the DRM-encumbered iTunes Music Store, where you end up paying as much or more for an album than a CD version of the same thing.

Douglas also has some sheet music on his site which is interesting.

This quote from the About Greenleaf page is right on:

And how will Greenleafs business approach differ? “We endeavor to be as innovative in our marketing plans as the artists are in their music,” says Friedman. “We plan to re-evaluate current approaches to everything from package design to marketing, promotion and sales strategies and look at every marketing expense in light of its potential resonance with each individual project. We will count on web marketing as a means of artist development and as our artists will be on tour, utilize the live performances to sell records and create sales bases. We also believe that what interests listeners is not just the recorded product, but the artists themselves. As such we are interested in making available sheet music, artist commentary, discussion and more.”

I expect we will look back on these sort of efforts and wonder why it wasn’t obvious to everyone at the time that this is the way the music industry would end up.

Best quote from Roger Ebert’s response to a reader’s defense of ‘Doom’: “I am a believer in the value-added concept of filmmaking…”