After embracing photography as a hobby, you don’t watch TV the same way again. When I watch America’s Next Top Model now, I pay more attention to the mechanics of the photo shoot. What kinds of cameras are the photographers using? What lighting systems? What lenses? Ring flashes, soft boxes, umbrellas, snoots, barn doors, rim lighting, strobes, strip lights, etc. etc. The problem with that is that the show doesn’t concentrate on it at all, so you’re left trying to spot these things very quickly out of the corner of your eye in the corner of the frame during quick cuts. It’s bizarre, but fun.

Watching American Idol was interesting this week, as all of the video packages with the contestants featured video clips from their photo shoots. Did you get a little dizzy on the upshots of the contestants crouching on a piece of glass while the photographer took their pictures from below? I bet the assistants used a lot of Windex that day. Even more interesting: In the interview segments, the camera sometimes cut away to an odd angle giving you the notion that you were eavesdropping on the interview process. Once or twice, you could see that the contestants were holding white reflectors in their laps during the interviews to help break up the harsh shadows and light their faces from below. Pretty nifty.

You could also see the paparazzi taking shots of the contestants on the red carpet at some event. There’s a nice assortment of white Canon L lenses in there, some ring flashes, Gary Fong light spheres, etc. Some of those lenses looked honking huge, given how close the photographers were standing. It must have been some bright glass, probably f/2 throughout a 70-200mm or something.

I’m jealous of them all.

You asked, now I’ll start answering. More answers next week, I promise.

ShyGuy wants to know:

“Why has the hidden politics section been left to languish?”

The VandS Politics site is still there, though I think often of just deleting it so I’m never tempted to write in it again. Truth is, I’m not a very political creature these days. Whereas I used to follow it very closely on a daily basis, I eventually burned out on it, discovered tech and comic podcasting, and grew disenchanted with the whole thing.

I see stories here and there that I’d love to post up there, but I don’t want to get into fights these days. Life’s too short to waste my time on that. And while the current cult of personality surrounding Barack Obama and the renewed fad of environmentalism would provide plenty of material for the blog (really, I could turn it into the Global Warming Scare Story of the Day blog), I just can’t be bothered. I don’t follow everything closely enough right now to get into any sort of debates. Most of my readership, I know, disagrees with me. It’s just all so counter-productive.

So it sits there. Someday, maybe I’ll wipe the database clean and save Google a few milliseconds in webcrawling time.
John F. is up next:

“How did you weather the TV writer’s strike? Did you get caught up on a lot of shows you wanted to see or did you find yourself watching other shows that aired during that time?”

I didn’t need to survive the writer’s strike, as it turns out. The only impact it had on me was the loss of ‘24.’ Nothing else changed. The real impact will hit me in a couple of weeks when LOST ends its season so early. Otherwise, everything else I watch these days carried on, business as usual. Sadly, the truth is that most of what I watch anymore is reality TV with the wife. After that, I tend to play video games, watch video podcasts, and work on the web, whether it’s this blog, Pipeline, the podcast, or just news gathering and web surfing.

I’d like to say that I got something new and different done while filling those lost hours that I couldn’t watch network television, but that would be a lie. The wife and I finished off Season Three of VERONICA MARS, so I suppose that counts for something. I’m just not sure that the Writer’s Strike came at anything else’s expense, you know? Just when it would have started affecting me, the strike ended.

Phil Foxx dips into British hilarity for a moment:

“Thanks to your Google Reader feed, I saw the ./ story about H2G2 being 30 years old. Which versions of the story have you experienced in any way (read, watched, heard), and which is your favorite?”

I’ve seen the TV show, read the books, and heard a couple excerpts from the radio shows. I’d love to listen to the whole radio series someday, as I know Adams liked those particularly well.

My favorite remains the books. I’m a word purist that way, I guess. I love the cheeky British humor. I love the silliness, but also the wit and creativity.

I also have the recent movie on DVD. I’ve been avoiding it, but I suppose I’ll catch up on it someday.

Thanks, one and all, for your questions.

Please post your questions for future installments of this segment in the comments below. We’ll have more questions to answer soon!

Did you know that today is Pi Day? Happy 3.14, everyone!

Slashdot | BattleBots & ESPN Strike TV Deal

a new deal has recently been struck with ESPN to return combat robots to the living room. Episodes will be broadcast as a series on ESPNU and ESPN2 after filmed at the competition in June 2008.

The Battle Boys home page has been Slashdotted as I write this. By the time you read this, hopefully, you’ll be able to get to it.

I, for one, welcome the return of our Robot Overlords. I miss the old Comedy Central show.

Update: It’s been pushed back to the fall. And wedge robots will not be allowed.

Oh, boy. Another HORTON HEARS A WHO ad. I guess the opening for every other week’s results show will be a movie promotion, eh?

Jim Carrey is there, in full elephant regalia. Curiously, the camera angle is showing the teleprompter behind Jim. This exchange is scripted, of course. Except Carrey doesn’t stick to the script at all. He has the vague outline and goes off on tangents of his own. To his credit, Ryan does the same.

Next week’s theme week - Lennon/McCartney again. Poor David Archuleta. On the bright side, it gives me another shot to be right about my Beatles/iTunes prediction!

First, a musical montage of those songs. I wonder if Archuleta will get a solo in this one, given how little of it he knows. Michael Johns is the harmony guy, there to back up the girls. Ooh, Johns can’t dance in line with the rest of them. Hernandez can dance just fine, not shockingly. Chikezie sounds good. Johns is now shaking sweat when he shakes his head.

They really need to STOP cutting to Carrey in the audience.

I’m trying to figure out if it’s the arrangements or dropped lyrics, but there are times when people aren’t singing that they look like they’re supposed to be. Odd.

Carly’s husband is keeping to the shadows in the crowd. Given his tattoo coverage, that’s likely a good thing.

Onto the results:

Jason is safe, so my prediction is already at least 1/3rd wrong. Syesha IS in the bottom three, so now I’m wrong on 2 of 3 counts. She looks in shock as she starts her song. Ohmigod. She wouldn’t shut up. She made sure to sing an extra couple of unnecessary notes long after the band stopped playing. She had to stretch out “her moment” just a couple seconds longer, didn’t she?

“The Distance” is this week’s Ford music video. I’m competely out of touch. I have no idea what that song was.

Now, we see the contestants at the Horton Hears A Who premiere. And they say the movie title often. I’m surprised their schedule includes time to go see a movie. Maybe they were just there for the orange carpet?

Ryan is teasing the fact that they’ll be taking live phone call questions during the show. I’m calling it now - that will not end well, no matter how well they’ve prepped the caller to stick to a script.

Back to the results: Kristy is asking for her microphone. She’s not dumb. But, then, she already said she thought she was going home last week. She is in the bottom three. And she’s apologizing to Simon with a smile already that he’s going to have to hear the song again. If they can just tone down the banjo, then the song will have a chance. Michael Johns and Jason Castro start doing a jig at the side of the stage. Didn’t last long. Ryan clapped along to the song for a change, though.

Simon still hates it.

Still no Apple commercial tonight. They usually have one by the end of the second commercial break.

Oh, thank goodness. They’re not taking live phone calls. They’re going with questions from the ‘net. Ryan has an unnecessary prop computer to sell the concept.

No, it IS a phone call. But the 12 year old girl is sticking to the script very well.

Second caller is a wannabe singer. Typical. Simon tells the caller to get another job. I LOVE IT. This might be OK after all.

The problem with this segment is that the caller’s question is on the screen already. There’s no need for the voice. They could just have Ryan repeat the question and save the amateur hour bit.

It’s time for Katharine McPhee, who didn’t change her name after her nuptuals. She’s singing “Something.” She sounds great. The right person won that season. (Really, my mind turned to mush last night after typing for an hour.  Just ignore that line.)  She’s still got the power, and can handle the softer parts just fine. She did shop at the same costume shop as Carly Smithson, obviously. The front row had an interesting view, I’m sure.

Jim Carrey is still hanging around.

Archuleta should be kicked off the show for the double popped collar. That look was ugly two years ago when it first reared its head. It’s 2008. There’s no excuse anymore, not even his youth.

The last person in the bottom three is — David Hernandez. Ramiele is safe and I’m completely wrong on the bottom three this week.

I’m fast forwarding through this song. I can’t listen to him talking about dancing again. It’s too creepy.

David has a girl on each arm. Again, creepy.

Paula just said she’s never seen a “more stronger bottom three.” Putting aside grammatical issues, I guess she forgot about that Three Divas week a few years back when Jennifer Hudson went home.

Syesha is safe.

29 million votes can’t be wrong. Kristy is safe. David is gone. The country voters came through as I predicted yesterday. The Dancer is gone. Whew. He had a good voice, but a REALLY bad week. REALLY REALLY bad. I am sad that the first person to do a Jim Steinman song is out already.

Whoops, in the middle of the “journey” video, they cut to a live shot of the darkened theater with the Idol signs the only thing aglow. Ruben has a predictably boring song to play us out.

It just now dawns on me that for the first time in many many years, I didn’t predict the order in which these top 12 will go out this season. Crap. Too late now.

De Blieck Out!

Rolling Stone : Smoking Section: Jakob Dylan, Pharrell Williams, Eddie Vedder

While his Wallflowers have been on hiatus, Dylan spent 2007 visiting Rick Rubin’s studio, where he laid down minimalist acoustic tracks that deal with the darkness of these times — “Evil Is Alive and Well” and “All Day and All Night” — and more contented tunes like “Something Good This Way Comes.”

While I wasn’t a huge fan of their last album, I generally like The Wallflowers.  They’ve mixed up their sound a bit with each album, produce memorable tracks, and do solid work.  Sadly, I think everyone thinks of them as “one hit wonders” after “One Headlight” and moved on.  Frustrating.

I hope this upcoming solo album for Dylan works out, and will be downloadable at Amazon.com, where I’ve redeemed enough Pepsi bottle caps to earn almost a complete free album. =)

It’s a new stage that looks like it came straight over from Europe. It reminds me a lot of the European Idol stages I’ve seen videos of on YouTube.

New opening graphics — looks like a congressional meeting in the Star Wars universe.

And Ryan is reading off the teleprompter, which is sadly just to the right of the camera. It’s very distracting to see Ryan looking off to the side of me instead of at me.

Syesha Mercado - “Got To Get You Into My Life” - I like the little jazz riffs. The quiet opening is weak, but the power notes mid-way through the song are going to sell it. Overall, a little weak. Not memorable.

Chikezie - “She’s A Woman” - This one will be remembered. I never would have pictured him singing a song like this, nor inspiring Ryan into the madness of prancing in circles around the stage before exchanging barbs with Simon or breathlessly trying to read the phone number.

In any case, I was a bit worried in the prepackaged piece when Chikezie said he was “putting my own funk on it,” but it works. It was a bit weird to see him running across the stage like that, but you can’t deny the entertainment value.

And Paula is trying to do a “high risk, high reward” metaphor tonight that just isn’t working, no matter how many times she tries to drag it kicking and screaming towards her.

As Simon said, “You looked like you were completely drunk.” Now THAT is rock and roll.

Ramiele Mulabay - “In My Life” - Pleasant vocals. Very pretty. But boring. It’s a great sample of her vocal talent, but a bad American Idol song. It won’t move anyone to vote for her.

Jason Castro - “If I Fell” - This is his schtick. It’s wearing out, though. He’s way too close to the microphone. He’s practically swallowing it with every syllable, which is audibly distracting. He avoids any long notes, pulling out of them as soon as he starts them. He’s just boring, honestly.

Hell’s Kitchen is returning on April First! Yay! This is one of the pleasant side effects of the Writer’s Strike, right up there with Winter Big Brother.

Carly Smithson - “Come Together” - HEY! Isn’t that bar in the Gas Lamp District? I think I’ve walked by it multiple times during previous San Diego Comic Cons. I’ve never eaten in it, but I know I’ve passed by it before. Wild. In any case, the song is good. She can sing. She does a weird little cutesy sexy dance thing with it, and the front row of the mosh pit must be getting an upskirt eye full.

I’m not sure this compares to Kelly Clarkson’s Round of 10 performances six seasons ago, though. It’s good, but not that kind of break through.

David Cooke - “Eleanor Rigby” - So this will be his schtick. It works. Yes, he’s creepy, but he can do this rock thing. And Simon is right: if this is a talent competition and not a popularity contest, he stands a very good chance of winning it. Sadly, we know better.

I feel guilty doing such a short writeup on such a great performance, but let’s move on.

Lots more after the break, including my Bottom Three predictions.

(more…)

As I write this, we’re only 2.5 hours away from an announcement of the Beatles on iTunes. I’m guessing it’ll be announced on a commercial at the first break. Come to think of it, tonight’s show was already taped. So I bet Seacrest didn’t make the announcement. (That would have leaked by now, unless they laid it in afterwards.)

It has to be a commercial.

Update: It’s 9:32 and we have no Beatles on iTunes yet.  I’m beginning to think it’ll be announced during the results show tomorrow.  That’s live, so there’s no need to keep things a secret during the taping of the performances.

Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Failing that — yeah, the Beatles songs ARE on the iTunes store.  They’re just sung by the IDOL contestants. . .

This is a monumentally huge week.

• August Rush

C’mon, it’s named after me — “August.” Of course it leads the pack this week!

• No Country for Old Men

Who doesn’t love the Coen Bros? I’ve only ever seen one of their movies and it really didn’t do anything for me. Eh.

• Tin Man

It’s two discs to contain the full “wonderment” of this SCI FI cheapo mini-series — because that’s the only type of show SCI FI makes. Cheapo.

• Dan In Real Life

Steve Carrell stars in a movie that, well, everyone forgot about already.

• Hitman: Unrated

Uwe Boll did NOT direct this one. Repeat, he did NOT direct this one. Doesn’t mean it’s any good, but it does mean that there’s a small chance that it won’t suck worse than your standard Hoover upright.

• Bachelor Party 2: Unrated

Remember the original Tom Hanks movie two decades ago? Yeah, they decided to remake it. I’m guessing this is a cheapo direct-to-DVD thing, but there’s a small chance it actually made its way to a poor unsuspecting populace of randy teenaged boys who didn’t know there was an original movie, despite the “2″ in the title.

• Bee Movie

Let’s see if Oprah wants to repeat her hour-long advertisement for this movie this week.  This will likely be the best-selling release of the week.

• Nancy Drew

Fairly benign kid-friendly movie. It’s like Veronica Mars, but skewed younger.

• Sam & Max: Freelance Police

The geeks out there reading this are no doubt excited now.

So what are you picking up this week? Did I miss something?

Today, Apple signed the deal with Paul McCartney (rumored to be at about $400 million) to carry the complete Beatles catalogue on iTunes.  (I presume it’s an exclusive.)

Tomorrow, American Idol’s Top 12 perform Beatles songs.

Apple is a major sponsor of American Idol.

Apple traditionally releases new products on Tuesdays.

As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, the math on this is too good NOT to be true.

So how will it work?  Will Apple announce the Beatles on iTunes tomorrow morning?  Will they wait until Tuesday night and have Ryan Seacrest announce it?  Would Steve Jobs appear on Idol via satellite to help pad out a two hour show that only needs to be 90 minutes?  Or will Apple stay quiet and product a single 30 second commercial during Idol to make it official?  (Picture a Beatles song playing for 30 seconds with a montage of pics of the Beatles from their prime, followed by a card, “Only on iTunes” followed by the Apple logo.  And cut.)

Make your predictions now!

I’m on Twitter. I post there with some frequency. Here are some recent posts, with italicized updated afterwards in some cases:

• Spent three hours hiking today. Took 200+ pictures. They all suck. Every last one of them. And my lens didn’t want to autofocus. Annoying.

• Was disappointed this week by Google’s decision to hide “Reader” in the “More” drop down box.

• The TiVo Rewards Program is ending. This might affect me if I had ever gotten any points through it.

• Went to install Leopard (finally) and realized I lost the disc. Whoops. I think I had it at work last. Maybe Monday night. . . )

• I find the Digg Reel hilarious — there’s a HD feed of blown up YouTube videos. Talk about maximizing the value of your $2000 LCD. . .

• First rule of America’s Next Top Model: If she says at the beginning that she has an unfair advantage, she’s going home.

• Tonight’s master plan: Organize comics, play Wii Zapper, watch Apple TV, accomplish nothing productive. Can’t wait! (This mission was, by the way, successful!)

• Waiting for my invitation to be on Net@Nite next. Just have to figure out my hook. . . 10 years as a comics columnist on-line?

• I don’t own an iPhone, but the SDK tools look so cool that I want to develop for it now. (Then I looked at Cocoa, screamed at the very thought of programming in C again, and gave up.)

• If I boycotted Twitterers whose politics I didn’t agree with, I’d only have to deal with two or three Tweets a day.

• It seems like half the available HD video podcasts come from Revision 3. . .

There was also some eBay drama on Friday night:

• Just placed a bid on a camera lens with 8 minutes to go in the auction. It’s a lot of money. I’m in the lead. Not sure I wanna win. :gulp:

• Surely, I’m going to get sniped on this one, right?

• 3 minutes to go. I’m still the high bidder. Hunh.

• And with one minute to go, I’ve been outbid. I’m not going to outbid the outbid. Whew.

• @Scederlund - Thanks. I really do think it’s the best auction I’ve EVER lost.

The final auction price was $10 over my maximum bid, for the record. I wasn’t going any higher, though. As it was, the eBay price on the lens was only 10% lower than brand new. Why bother with the angst for so little savings?

It’s the week all die-hard Nintendo fans have been waiting for:

There are midnight openings, tournaments at major stores, and general hullabaloo associated with this one.  Are you getting it?

I’m not.  I would like to, eventually, but Guitar Hero and a couple of other games I plan on talking about real soon have captured my interest. I don’t need to start on this one right away.  Someday, I’ll jump on the bandwagon because it does look cool.  Right now, I don’t need a big button-jamming game like this.  It will, however, give me a very good reason to use the classic controller I got for Christmas. . .

‘24′ prequel set

The producers of the Emmy-winning series are developing a two-hour “prequel” to the upcoming seventh season.The movie, designed to bridge the two-year gap between Seasons 6 and 7, is targeted to air in the fall, leading to the January return of the real-time drama.

This one made me crack up, for obvious reasons. With the kind permission of Chris Eliopoulos, I present another “Misery Loves Sherman” comic strip:

(c) 2008 Chris Eliopoulos, of course

I’ve been remiss.  I’ve let the weekly “Ask Various and Sundry” feature lapse.  I’m sorry about that.

So, the mic is open.  What do you want to talk about?  Discuss it all in the comments.  Fire your questions away and I’ll answer them in the next week.