Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

The expectation many had that the next-generation HD format would take off once the format war was over is pretty much a forgotten dream at this point. Sales of Blu-Ray haven’t experienced the massive jump people expected once wait-and-see consumers saw that HD-DVD was well and truly dead.

Consumers are balking at the $300-plus cost of most Blu-ray players especially because only limited movie titles are available in the format.

“People aren’t going to pay three times as much for a platform that’s only half-baked,” said Steve Wilson, a consumer electronics analyst with ABI Research.

The problem with both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, of course, was largely the library. Perhaps it’s only obvious to me, but when you’re touting the superiority of the platform as a prestige format, you might want to consider releasing Citizen Kane – a movie with a long history that most people would display proudly in their collection, and something more likely to be cherished by someone who just dropped $399 on a player – instead of, say, Ultraviolet – a movie whose design concept can best be described as “blurry, obviously fake, and designed above all to not be viewed in HD.”

This in turn feeds the price question. Why should people pay a prestige price for a player where the majority of titles are movies that people just flat don’t care about seeing in HD – many of which are $20+ on the new format when they’re already in the bargain bins on the old? I just purchased Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 on DVD for $5.99 each – movies I care about having in my collection (well, Alien 3 more for completeness’ sake). With the already high quality of DVD picture and sound, spending $25.99 for each of them on Blu-Ray would just feel wrong.

Of course, Blu-Ray could get an extra push from indie producers. More and more indie directors shooting on HD would mean an influx of content – some of which would be kept inexpensive to draw in new audiences, and which would help sell the new format to off-the-wall and indie film fans. Of course, it could provide this extra push – if Blu-Ray didn’t seem determined to exclude these producers from the new market.

Where are the POD solutions for Blu-Ray at this point? No, I’m seriously asking – where are they? CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon, is still negotiating a deal to allow them to offer POD Blu-Ray. Kunaki? Lulu? Who knows? Neither one even mentions it. Why not?

It may have something to do with the $3,000-a-person entry fee the industry is imposing, otherwise known as the AACS DRM scheme. It appears that there’s been a real problem playing Blu-Ray discs that don’t include AACS, so everybody who wants to publish to the medium has to purchase an AACS license, and every title must include AACS – regardless of the wishes of the publisher and/or the artist.

Creative Commons-licensed material? Who cares? You’d better slap some copy protection on it.

Want to release a public domain film to Blu-Ray to help preserve our film history (or make a quick buck off of an HD release of The Last Man on Earth)? Sure. As long as that public domain film is one you’re willing to pay $3,000 to copy protect.

And forget about a sales system like EZTakes, that provides its DVD images DRM-free – but with the purchaser’s e-mail address embedded in the burnt copy.

Forget, too, about the share-friendly independent spirit that provokes legal statements like this one (found on my newest DVD, available soon, plug plug).

Low- and Micro-budget filmmakers will find themselves blocked out of the new next-generation disc market for as long as AACS is an expensive necessity and the artists are blocked out of making their own decisions as to how their content should be treated. The result? Well, unless the major studios wise up on their releasing schedule, a homogenized blend of movies nobody cares about seeing in High Definition, and a marketplace completely priced out of the range of the regular consumer.

After all, there’s one further aspect I’ve barely even touched on that is just as blocked by this current model – one could argue that DVD’s would never have become the consumer mainstay they are today if not for the bins of $1 DVD’s at the front of every major retail chain today…

I liked what I saw of Portal. It was goofy and fun and really cool once I got my hands on a controller.

Everything I heard about Mass Effect told me that it was a game I would want to play if I ever got the chance.

And, of course, BioShock looks really cool, too.

Oo! Let’s not forget GTA IV.

But what it finally took to get me to put an Xbox on my wishlist was to see this preview:

We hear a lot about innovation in graphics, innovation in hardware, and the occasional peep about (gasp!) innovations in gameplay. But sometimes it takes an innovation in user experience, too. I remember the first time I ever turned on my PS2 to play God of War—and within minutes was pulling off the most badass moves I had ever done in a videogame. The boss of the prologue level is the Hydra, fer cryin’ out loud.

When a game can make your experience thrilling to watch – and even more thrilling to know that you executed it, even if all you did was press a button or two – then you have an innovation in gamer experience. And the parkour action in this preview has me dying to take the game for a spin.

What is surely to be one of the most heavily-hit Flickr sets of all times has just gone up – a side-by-side comparison of landmarks from New York City and its digital cousin, Liberty City. It shows an incredible eye for detail and an astounding amount of work done on world building.

Too bad they didn’t spend that much effort on walking down the street.

For the record, with neither a PS3 or an XBox, I’m out of the loop on the GTA IV goodness. I’m sure if I had the controller in hand, I’d be loving it. That doesn’t mean the physics that let you knock over streetlights while Sonny Bono-ing yourself on saplings aren’t fundamentally broken, however.

And now, your dose of Yahtzee from The Escapist. Yahtzee takes on Army of Two. (some language not safe for work) He does a fairly good job after a rough start of avoiding the gay jokes – but that’s probably because he has plenty of cruddy game design to discuss.

April 1, 2008 – ONLINE—Folksinger C. Glen Williams has released a new single from his upcoming album, Ephemera Now – For the Future! as a free download from his blog, the ArtMachine.

“Ephemera is a folk album for the next decade,” says Williams. “It’s a set of traditional and original songs that deals directly with the ephemeral. That which is now but won’t be, and that which once was but is no more.”

The free track, “This Song,” uses traditional themes both lyrically and musically. “It’s a common theme of childhood,” says Williams. “A tribute, if you will, to that time of life when we had no desire other than to run, to play, to have fun, and to annoy our parents.”

The singer/songwriter – whose song “Wasted All This Time” recently appeared in the short film “Infected,” from Ian Donnelly and iDsD Productions – may have gotten a little bit carried away in the composition of the song, he reveals.

“The radio edit of the track will probably be the version that appears on the album,” he says. “As much as it pained me to cut even a single note of the song, the original composition is over an hour long. There just wouldn’t be room on the album for anything else if I included it.”

Lovers of great folk music, however, will be glad to know that the full version of the composition is available at the ArtMachine, along with the 3-minute radio edit, both as free downloads.

UPDATE: Due to overwhelming demand, the track is also available on a low-priced CD Single.

P.S. Happy April Fool’s Day, everybody…

I have a friend who has a violent reaction any time somebody makes the simple statement that the Civil War was fought over slavery. And when I write, “a violent reaction,” I don’t mean raising his voice, I don’t mean eyes bulging – I mean jumping up and down, clenching of fists, and screaming. His reaction usually consists of this statement repeated frequently and loudly: “Saying the Civil War was about slavery is stupid! It wasn’t about slavery! It was about states’ rights!”

Well, yes. And the right being argued in particular was the right to own slaves. So what’s your point?

As a matter of fact, the Civil War is a perfect example of how those who claim states’ rights the loudest are usually the fastest to take them away. A violent conflict in Kansas was the result of Southern states sponsoring “border ruffians” to cross into the predominantly-abolitionist Kansas territory and steal the elections, ensuring Kansas would enter the union as a slave state. In a territory with only 2,900 registered voters – not all of whom voted – over 6,000 votes were cast in the election, the vast majority coming from people who were not legal residents and whose pilgrimage had been sponsored by the pro-slavery South.

At the height of the conflict, conservative President James Buchanan urged ratification of the Lecompton Constitution, which would have made Kansas a slave state against the wishes of the majority of its citizens. Congress, however, voted down statehood and called for another election. Through it all, it should be noted, the “states’ rights” champions of the South who would later go on to justify secession from the union as a revolt against an unfair federal system that restricted their self-governance were the same people who sponsored the efforts to subvert the will of the Kansas territory residents.

In the modern day, we see the so-called “states’ rights” conservatives declaring that medical marijuana bills – though popular in the states and popular with the voters – do not, in fact, legalize medical marijuana, because it’s still a crime under federal law. Which doesn’t sound much like states’ rights to me. Then again, this is the same group of conservatives that paints pictures of “jack-booted thugs” kicking down doors to rifle through your dirty laundry, but feels that the medical treatment of Terry Schiavo is too important to be left in the hands of her own husband.

Or, more recently, that states have no rights to protect their own citizens when they fly on national airlines.

Under the New York law, the only of its kind in the country, airlines could be fined up to $1,000 per passenger if they failed to supply water, fresh air, electric power and working restrooms during lengthy delays. A federal judge in Albany upheld the law in December, only to be reversed on Tuesday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The appellate judges agreed with the Air Transport Association of America, an airline industry group, that New York’s law was pre-empted by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 and hindered the Federal Aviation Administration’s ability to maintain uniform standards for air travel.

In other words – the rights of the corporations that own the planes supercede the rights of the people, or the states’ attempts to protect those rights. But those corporations contributed roughly $25,000 directly to George W. Bush in the 2004 election through their corporate PACs, not to mention the money that was slipped to the President by airline executives through donations to other funds and PACs. In the 2008 election cycle, the airline corporate PACs have contributed over $522,000 to both Democratic and Republican politicians, with $193,500 of that coming from the American Airlines Political Action Committee alone. (figures from campaignmoney.com)

People standing in line for canceled flights have been interviewed on the news, and by and large they’re angry because “I’m not getting out of here tonight.” But, honestly, they should be angry – and we should be angry – on a much larger scale. The abuse of customers by the airlines is on a systemic level, and now we learn that the airlines aren’t even taking measures to ensure the basic safety of the people who fly with them. The air transit system in America is broken at its very foundation, and the problem starts with the exploitation of the very people who purchase the product. And, to top it all off, we now learn that the states have rights – but not when those rights involve protecting the environment, civil liberties, access to health care, or consumers.

The saga of “It’s a Small World” is continuing over at Re-Imagineering. There, you’ll find a point-by-point breakdown of why rehabbing the ride to be just like the rest of Disney’s park is a bad idea. And, lest there be any confusion over what the Blair family would want for Mary Blair’s legacy, there’s a letter from Kevin Blair on behalf of the family. The whole thing is worth a read – but just to give you a taste:

My Mother and I have always had a strong sense of patriotism for America and I DO support a tribute to America. Disneyland has several venues, which are perfect places for this tribute including “Main Street USA” or “New Orleans Square”; unfortunately the “It’s a Small World” ride is NOT one of them. Once again this will marginalize the children of the world theme and bastardize my Mother’s original art. Furthermore ripping out a rainforest (Imaginary or otherwise) and replacing it with misplaced patriotism is a public relations blunder so big you could run a Monorail through it.

As a former WED employee I am saddened to realize the degradation of the company’s talent and focus and the subsequent decline at the Disneyland Park itself. I cannot believe someone from WDI was paid to come up with such an idiotic plan as this.

Over at Re-Imagineering, it’s a world of tears, indeed. Disney is apparently preparing to rehab the Small World ride.

I’m going to give people a moment to get the snickers out of their system. Usually, any mention of “small world” in my circle of friends prompts a chorus of people proudly proclaiming, “You know the people who wrote that song apologized for having released it?”

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the thing – the Disneyland Small World ride is pretty much as it was when it premiered at the World’s Fair. It has been closed to be furnished with deeper boat flumes to handle the modern era’s “heavier boatloads.” While that technical issue was being cleared up, however, some people apparently got the idea that it was time to wipe out the last vestiges of Mary Blair’s legacy.

Unfortunately W.D.I. has taken ill advantage of the downtime by staking out areas throughout the attraction to place a selection of smiling Disney characters to spice up the proceedings. Imagine a grinning Stitch in Hawaii, a demure Belle in Paris, a Peter Pan in London.

Beyond the crass commercialization of a long-cherished work of art (yeah, I called an amusement park ride a work of art – I went there) which is par for the course when it comes to Disney, they’ve decided to make one other big change.

And in one of the most egregious and downright disgusting decisions in Disney theme park history, the gorgeous New Guinea rainforest scene, replete with some of Mary Blair’s most whimsical character creations (a crocodile with an umbrella, colorful birds hatching from eggs) and her drummer children with Tiki Masks on the opposite shore will be replaced with a Hooray for U.S.A sequence.

Hooray for the U.S.A.

Hm.

Let me explain a little something about the Small World ride for the people who might have come in late.

Mary Blair specifically designed the Small World ride that American audiences would see without a representation of America. Famously, the only mention of America in the ride is a cowboy and Indian at the very end of the ride. You travel all over the world, but you never see America.

Why?

Because you’re an American audience, and the ride is about the world. Mary Blair wanted American audiences to step away from self-congratulation for a moment and consider the rest of the world. What it meant to truly understand other lands and people.

Slapping a “Hooray for the U.S.A.” segment right in the middle of the ride given its original concept is more than just an annoying commercial decision – it’s a giant finger flipped in the direction of, well, everybody. It’s contrary to the message of the original.

And don’t get me started about the significance of destroying the rainforest segment to do that.

Divine Caroline reports that Pepsi is dipping its toe into the natural products market in the UK. The product is Pepsi RAW, and the ad campaigns – of course – feature naked people. What else would you expect from a product called “raw”?

Best of all: no high fructose corn syrup! HFCS has been plaguing sodas for decades. It’s time American soda makers stop using this cheap, highly available, and terribly unhealthy sugar source.

In America, you can find cane sugar in some of the sodas released by smaller, indie companies like Jones. I’m not a big Pepsi fan, but I’m happy to see them at least dabbling in returning to using cane sugar in their sodas. The more I learn about HFCS, the more I’m convinced that it’s not really something that anybody should ingest. And definitely not in the quantities Pepsi and Coca-Cola say you should.

Much like Thudfactor, I already thought we were doing this everywhere, too.

The program takes treated sewer water, runs it through the same reverse osmosis process that bottled water companies use to purify their artesian (or tap) water, and then injects it into a deep aquifer that provides water for Orange County. The idea is to recycle as much of the water as possible and, in the process, reduce the water needs of a very arid and highly populated region of the country, southern California.

The article says that many people are “squicking out” about the fact that their water supply may contain water that came from someone’s toilet, but – as they also point out – pretty much all water came from someone or something’s toilet at some point in history. Heck, it’s only relatively recently that we’ve managed to find ways to ensure that water is safe to drink. Prior to that, people depended on the anti-microbial properties of alcohol in weak wine and beer to get safe hydration. Well, that is to say, they depended on it without realizing what “anti-microbial” meant. Let alone “microbe.”

Just like land, they’re not makin’ any more of water. The more we can process and reclaim it, the better off we’re all going to be.