I rarely get these, but this message on the Tempe DVD YouTube account this morning just proves how such services have only served to train assholes to think that all content should be free.
“Your shit belongs on youtube, not for sale at the ridiculous price of 19.99.”
He’s referring to the trailers posted there, and I guess feels that the movies should be offered for free as well. Has this guy ever heard of Bittorrent? LOL
While driving through my old stomping grounds in Springfield Township, Ohio today to meet my father for our usual mid-week lunch at our favorite Chinese place, I was aghast to see that the last of my old Ohio offices had finally been torn down.
This wasn’t just any old office — it was the one where most of the production of my first feature film, THE DEAD NEXT DOOR, was staged, circa 1986-1987. I couldn’t resist stopping to grab a quick photo of the now-empty lot on my iPhone today, similar to an old shot of the back entrance to the building from that era, which you can see side by side above — and that got some old memories coming back.
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I’ve had a number of folks randomly drop me a line wondering what became of the last work-for-hire feature that I directed, DEADLY STINGERS (which I not-so-affectionately refer to as DEADLY STINKERS). Much to my surprise, in recent weeks I’ve gotten word that the movie is actually playing on television in the United Kingdom after sitting on a shelf for nearly 7 years (?!).
As a result of it finally getting airplay, it’s all over the torrent sites now, just waiting for anyone who really wants to see it to download it. (Or, if you just want a guilt-free taste of the movie, you can check out the original promo trailer.) But remember, if you’re not in the U.K., Google is your friend.
P.S.: I have no idea who did the artwork above but I thought it was kind of cool for something thrown together for a torrent site. Kudos!
Update 12/30/09: Turns out I have to eat a little crow on part of this post: Only hours after writing this, Netflix coughed up a purchase order for TAINTLIGHT at long last, so thanks to everyone who put it in their queue it should be available to rent there shortly after the New Year. Still no word one way or another re: COCKHAMMER, though… 
Hard to believe, but in just a couple of days, 2009 will be a distant memory. Seems like only yesterday that I was writing a blog about how much 2008 sucked and how I was looking forward to what 2009 would bring. And bring it did!
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Yeah, yeah… I know I haven’t been blogging much here lately. Freelance work has been consuming most of my time when I’m not with family (or trying to claw out an existence with the DVD biz), and this month I started blogging for MacLife.com, the web portal for Mac|Life magazine.
I realize it’s not of much interest for the folks who follow my movie work, but those who know me are well aware that the Mac (and most everything Apple) has been a longtime passion of mine, so it’s quite a thrill to be getting paid to write about the stuff for a change. You can get a list of only my posts by clicking here.
Fear not, I’ll keep posting nonsense here about the movie biz, too…
Update 12/30/09: Thanks to everyone who added TAINTLIGHT to your queues, we finally received a buy on the title from Netflix yesterday so the title should be available from them shortly after the first of the year. You guys are my heroes!
So tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 17) is the street date for Tempe’s Splatter Rampage release TAINTLIGHT. It’s the latest horror parody from MULVA: ZOMBIE ASS KICKER! creator Chris Seaver, and as you can tell from the artwork above, it’s a parody of the book/film TWILIGHT
. If you buy your DVDs, it’s available now at Tempevideo.com, Amazon.com
, DeepDiscount.com and all the usual suspects.
If you choose to rent, then unfortunately your options are now quite limited. Here’s why.
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Apple surprised everyone last week by unleashing their latest 10.6 version of Mac OS X (aka Snow Leopard
) a bit early. It was expected in September, but the August 28 release date was welcomed by us “early adopters” who have gotten tired of reading about how slick it is on blogs. Show me the white cat, already!
And a slick beast it is. Of course, on the surface it’s a minor update offering very little in the way of new features… at least to casual users who might not appreciate the small nuances.
During my two weeks with the Palm Pre, the one thing I missed the most was how it notified me of new e-mail on all of my accounts via push. Any time an e-mail arrived in my inbox — regardless of which account it was — the Pre would light up and show me a short preview of the e-mail. If it was junk mail, I could avoid having to open up my mail just to be disappointed (same goes for random e-mails from friends or colleagues that aren’t time-sensitive).
On the iPhone, even with OS 3.0, there are only two options for push e-mail: MobileMe
(which I have, and use for personal e-mail) or an Exchange account. But even with those, I’m still not getting the same experience from the Pre — I still have to actually unlock the phone and go into Mail (which kills the battery faster) instead of the iPhone displaying a preview notification.
That is, until I found the PushMail app.
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OK, with all due respect to those who knew & loved this DJ AM guy when he was alive… am I alone in scratching my head and thinking, “Who the fahrvergnügen is that guy, anyway?!” And he’s just one of an increasingly-long list of “celebrities” that make me feel old every time I log onto MySpace and see their dubious list of “Celebrity Updates” such as the one I screen-snapped this morning (above).
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It goes without saying that consumers are in love with Redbox, the Coinstar-owned company who in just a few short years has built up a formidable rental kiosk business against the likes of mail-order favorite Netflix. I mean, DVD rentals for a buck a night? What’s not to like? (Unless you like indie fare like Tempe… Redbox is for the big boys only.)
Somebody explain that to the bigwigs in Hollywood. First they succeeded in mostly squashing the 99¢ iTunes new release (that’ll be $1.29 now, thankyouverymuch), and now they’re trying to put the squeeze on the $1 DVD rental.
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