Vermyndax vermyndax

Recently, my mother moved in with us because she has needs that require her to be attended. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to make her comfortable in the home. Part of that comfort entails setting up a TV for her to watch her shows. We’re an all-streaming home now, as I finally pulled the plug on DirecTV about a month ago. My mother is a die-hard DirecTV fan because she’s used to it.

Now, I have to ask her to get used to the way we watch shows in this house and it’s been painful.

I have a number of technical options available for my setup. I’d like some advice on the best approach to achieve OTA HDR 4k TV… primarily for local channels. I just canceled my DirecTV because I couldn’t justify $100 a month. I didn’t use it enough. But I need your advice.

The Starbucks cup.

If you’re paying attention to the Internet in any form or fashion, you know what Starbucks cup I’m referring to. It’s that Starbucks cup that snuck into a Game Of Thrones episode (S8, E4). There’s no need to rehash what really happened. That was just a silly mistake.

What’s interesting to me is how the industry responded. HBO actually removed the Starbucks cup within a day or two - and replaced the file on its streaming service with a corrected version of the episode. It didn’t take long for HBO to acknowledge the mistake and then repair it… “doing it live,” so to speak.

…and I think this sets an interesting precedent. I’ll call it DevOps for Film - or more specifically, FilmOps.

Stephen King… I used to love you. Your legends themselves were the stuff of legend. Not a single week went by without someone bringing up Danny boy, the little Gage that got hit by a truck and dragged down the street… the murderous supernatural car that ran people down just because… the girl wearing pig’s blood at the prom… and, one of my beloved favorites, the nurse that likes to crack ankles with sledgehammers… and we all learned what rabies REALLY does to a massive domesticated pet. Your source material is pretty much all the same, but with just enough schtick to keep us coming back. It was much of the same characters, much of the same town, much of the same dialog full of dialects…. but we still loved it.

Producers loved you because they mined your source material for decades. Sometimes they twisted it to fit their own agenda or make it “audience-friendly” (cough cough… who in their right mind thinks horror is audience-friendly? That’s the whole fucking point… it’s NOT).

You even tried your own hand at directing. I remember being aghast at your choice to include AC/DC as the soundtrack to Maximum Overdrive. I think you enjoyed it, but frankly, AC/DC doesn’t scare me. I marveled at your strange choices to augment your horror with unintentional slapstick. You knew you weren’t that awesome at directing and you pulled out. That’s fine. Let others collaborate with you and make it better.

My point is… you have had decades upon decades to build a massive fan base and production credibility. You could do almost anything you wanted and the sheep will follow. There isn’t a bookshelf in the country that doesn’t bear your name, and yes I’m talking about every individual household that owns a book.

You spent the time to create and write a phenomenal series of books that I have yet to finish… and may never finish (but that’s ok), and successfully blend science fiction, fantasy and horror into one single twisted modern masterpiece that people place in such high regard as Tolkien.

The time came for you to put together The Dark Tower. Now was the perfect time for you to cash in your accrued credibility and satisfy your fan base. Now was the time to seal your fate in the annals of pop culture. We heard the movie was coming out. We heard Idris Elba and Matthew McCoughnaheygirlwhatchauptoo were cast. There were debates. There were rages. There were wadded panties. But we all held our breath.

The trailer came out. We exhaled slightly. The trailer did wonders for your anticipation, just as a trailer should do.

We all opened our mouths and waited.

You walked up, unzipped your pants, and pissed in them.

95 minutes. Out of a series of x books and two gifted actors with fantastic star power, you gave us 95 fucking minutes.

Somehow, you let the director… the producers… the studio… someone… decide… that this sprawling horror fantasy with blood, sex and gore… should be distilled to PG-13.

In the age of Game of Thrones… Westworld… Lost… and countless other serial dramas that have overtaken our lives (THANK GOD GOODBYE REALITY SHOWS)… you… the creator of this massive, proud work… YOU… let them do this to us.

YOU, kind sir, are solely responsible for this reprehensible decision.

I don’t give a fuck if you think the studios did it. I don’t fucking care if you think the director was going to make the right choices. You did this. You should have stayed involved with your work closely enough to make sure the RIGHT DECISIONS WERE MADE.

THEY WEREN’T MADE, STEPHEN. THE RIGHT DECISIONS WERE NOT MADE.

You cashed out decades of good will and fan base on 95 minutes and a PG-13 rating that was created so a horned helmet wearing priest could pull the heart out of a sacrificial victim. You let them pick a rating that explicitly allows the use of one occurrence of the f-word.

FOR THE DARK TOWER.

I will never be able to register my malcontent over this. The least I can do is avoid giving you my ticket money. I’ll do my best to wait and see if it comes up on HBO or something that I can use my existing subscription to see. Or, maybe I’ll pirate it. But I’m sure I’ll even waste the my valuable time to download it.

The real horror story here is how a single man, full of arrogance and pride, singlehandedly murdered an entire fan base in the span of 95 minutes.

I’m so disappointed.

Idiot.

Dear men… haven’t we always had these moments?

Holy jumped up mad cow disease. You people will not let surprises remain surprises. We have to find a way to deal with spoilers in the age of the Internet. I will get there, give me some time.

Apparently I have to get off the Internet until I can see Star Trek Into Darkness. Sigh.

This is why we can’t have nice things. 🙁

HBO Inks Exclusive, 10-Year Deal With Universal To Keep Content Out Of Netflix’s Hands | TechCrunch

This morning on the way in to work, I was listening to the MacBreak Weekly episode 283 entitled, “Author, Author.”

I had always suspected Leo Laporte was smoking crack. Now there is no doubt. I don’t know if I can ever listen to him again. Maybe if I take a little break I will be able to circle back around to it.

In other news, I declared podcast bankruptcy and erased about 7gb of podcasts I will not have time to consume.