Safe As Milk

I am still giggling over this. I am simple.

[via videogum]

Also: ABC’s marketing staff needs some direction.

So, I’m watching the intro to last night’s Saturday Night Football (Ohio State at Penn State), and the MNF-esque music intro is headlined by… Perry Farrell.

Seriously? Perry Farrell? I guess nothing speaks to college football fans like an effete 150-pound man who makes stagemate Mary J. Blige look beefy and masculine.

ETA photo, just so you can see how ludicrous.

“You have Basic Service. Basic Service is for people.. (chuckles)… Basic Service is for people that don’t really watch TV.”

- A Comcast technician, explaining to me why, while I’m paying for Basic Service and a digital converter, I can’t actually get the Basic Service channels while I have that converter. In the course of the 7 minute, 10 second call, he also told me four times that I would have to upgrade to get more channels, including the ones for which I was already paying.

I hadn’t heard this yet, but buried in this item about Hayden Panettiere’s 18th birthday is a mention of Kristen Bell joining the cast of Heroes this fall.

That’s sweet news, obvs. K Bell is a fave at Chez Flynn.

[thanks for the heads up, Michelle. You guys didn't think I was a regular Perez reader, did you?]

I know it’s been a couple of weeks, but Bob Harris has an excellent theory about the finale.

It’s a lengthy read but it’s so full of cool insight that it is completely worthwhile. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of the show or just a fan of tv theories.

[thanks to The Doug (of all people) for the link]

You’ve enjoyed their stuff before

George Lucas & Seth Green Collaborate On Robot Chicken:Television

The 30-minute stop-motion animation special, directed by Green, spoofs key scenes and favorite characters from the “Star Wars” universe, including the sci-fi saga’s creator, George Lucas. It was done in collaboration with Lucasfilm, and Lucas is on board to voice the animated version of himself

Lucas, Hamill reunite for “Star Wars” spoof Television:

George Lucas and Mark Hamill will reunite for “Robot Chicken: Star Wars,” a 30-minute stop-motion animation special for Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block

Also, check out the production stills.

To the Tivo with you!

I watched most of Tiger’s back 9 today on the live stream from the main US Open site. It’s a nice little package they have there. You had the option of watching the ESPN/NBC feed, which kept track of the whole field, or they had an ESPN-only feed that just followed Tiger’s group. It was very cool.

That photo above doesn’t really sell the point, but Tiger has been doing a lot of pushups (or something). He looked like a linebacker out there today. Way bigger through the arms and shoulders than he used to. Dude is a monster.

It was fun to watch. I get zero time to watch golf at home so I’m rooting for another slow work day tomorrow so I can see him play some more.

On Sunday, May 13, The Cartoon Network’s popular Adult Swim animation showcase will premiere the long-awaited pilot of The Drinky Crow Show, based on cartoonist Tony Millionaire’s long-running Maakies comic strip. The show’s comedy is brutal, existential, and hilarious.

The opening theme is here to watch.

I’m sold.

Courtesy of Mr Eades:

Acceptable TV looks promising.

Hoo boy.

If Bob’s reasoning is right, then I may be owning a Mac in the near-future, cleverly disguised as a consumer electronics device.

Setup: computers generally use a software decoder to decode DVDs, while dedicated DVD players can be bought at Target for less than $50. So now there’s the rumor that Apple will be adding a hardware decoder to ever Mac it sells.

WHY Apple would add H.264 video-decoding hardware to its entire line of PCs comes down to supporting iTunes and any similar video distribution efforts Apple may spring on us. By going with a chip, Apple ensures the same base performance level from every machine it sells, from the lowliest Mac Mini right up to the mightiest four-core Mac Pro. Up until now it took a multi-core machine with a lot of memory to support real 1080p (HDTV) decoding, but soon you’ll be able to do that easily on a Mac Mini while leaving the main CPU to handle other chores like networking, running the graphical user interface, or perhaps integrating in real time a variety of video ad streams.

…

So what’s in it for Apple? Potentially a lot, because the chip Apple has chosen doesn’t cost $7, it costs more like $50, and it doesn’t just do hardware H.264 decoding, it does hardware H.264 ENCODING, too.

This will change everything. Soon even the lowliest Mac will be able to effortlessly record in background one or more video signals while the user runs TurboTax on the screen. Macs will become superb DVR machines with TiVo-like functionality yet smaller file sizes than any TiVo box could ever produce.

I don’t own a Mac for computing. I have my reasons and they suit me. And while I don’t own an iPod, I’m quite enamored with it. I just don’t need any MP3 player. But this… this I could get behind. Especially if I could cut off a revenue stream to Comcast. Because I hate Comcast. yes, I do. This is Ethan, by the way. We don’t yet have the “author” tag up.