This Day Doesnt Exist.

Forget what happened today, this day doesn't exist. it hasn't existed for the past 3 years, and wont exist for the next 3 years, so what right does it have existing this year!

Most Tedious Award Show

And the Oscar goes to…well, the Oscars. Yes, Sunday evening the Oscars took home the award for most tedious award show and show to feature the most films no ones ever heard off. There’s a reason I don’t like to watch the Oscars, and the thing is I forget it every year, hoping that it will be a good one, that something generally good would happen, and that I would be entertained. But it never does. Not even John Stewart can save it. Every year we, the audience, face the same awkward ceremony, that is, the biggest load of self-appreciative crap out there. I don’t care if Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for La Vie en Rose, I’ve never heard of her before, and for that matter the film. Despite the fact that the content and awardees are unfamiliar, the procession of the show really brings it to a whole new level of dreariness. There’s nothing exciting planned (just award, awkward speech, pathetic joke, commercial and repeat). This is one thing that the Grammys have really stepped up to the plate on, providing something other than the monotony of award after award. So there it is, note to self: I don’t care if John Stewart is hosting, avoid the Oscars.

BBC 2.0

Last December the BBC introduced a beta of what would be its redesign of its homepage, after 2 months and some slight tweaks the template debuted this morning…to very mixed reviews. Looking at the first blog on the BBC Internet blog debuting the new design there are some pretty key words in the responses, ‘awful’, ‘childish’, ‘disappointed’, ‘under-utilization of space’, ‘chunky’. As a web designer (in training), I have some thoughts I would like to say, some along the lines of those reviews but some highest approval. The customization, which I believe the BBCrew were going for is brilliant, I spent first thing this morning moving all the boxes around and adjusting the lengths (moving the weather and blogs to the bottom, getting rid of children and TV, adding economy, switching news from the left to the right), it really is a job well done and its really an impressive system. I have two criticisms and 1 complaint, the 2 criticisms are that it might be a little spacey, and along with that, that its only for a 1020 screen (I understand that screens are now at this size, but for those that do have small screens will have problems, msn deals with this very well, having two sizes). My criticism is that there is no global navigation. To me global navigation is one of the biggest things about a site, something that you can get familiar with and will reduce the stress of navigating a site (particularly like the BBC). Other than that it looks really attractive, really usable and a good indicator of what makes the BBC. Here's to looking forward to the layout across all of the BBC.

A+ A Cappella

A cappella, its part choreography, part comedy, and most importantly the creation of music with just the voice. Here at the University of Hartford its one of the more forefront accomplishments of both students in the Hartt School and even students not within it. Yesterday was the regional ICCA competition, encompassing a cappella groups from New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut including L’Shir from Hartford. The acts were varied including an enthusiastic and almost-soulful 3 songs from NYU’s N’Harmonics, an all guys group, the Fordham Ramblers, which like most guys groups substituted a little bit of talent for comedy, and an all girls group, the Wheaton whims, that almost echoed barbershop, and a three song medley of sorts from Hartford’s L’shir. The top two teams to advance to the next round, exactly like last year, were N’Harmonics and L’shir. I love a cappella when it’s done right, and these two teams really showed the judges what it’s all about. Congratulations to the two of them, and good luck to L’shir in the next round.

Twofer: Where’s our social life gone?

Facebook’s been down for about 13 hours now. Not Facebook as a whole, but the Hartford chapter (hartford.facebook.com), whether that’s a problem on Facebooks end or on the campus’ internet I don’t know, what I do know, and have come to realize is how much I click on that bookmark. It’s only when something’s gone that you miss it, right; well I couldn’t be truer than with Facebook. I have two obsessions on the web, that’s checking my email and checking Facebook and I’m sure it’s true with many other college students around the world. To have instant connection to every person you are personally connected with is an immense thing, a power that has evolved the way we communicate as a campus-society and a world society. By not having this connection its throwing the balance of the universe up in the air, and it’s a slightly disconcerting feeling. Where’s our social life gone?

Twofer: Uncommoon

Facebook’s been down for about 13 hours now. Not Facebook as a whole, but the Hartford chapter (hartford.facebook.com), whether that’s a problem on Facebooks end or on the campus’ internet I don’t know, what I do know, and have come to realize is how much I click on that bookmark. It’s only when something’s gone that you miss it, right; well I couldn’t be truer than with Facebook. I have two obsessions on the web, that’s checking my email and checking Facebook and I’m sure it’s true with many other college students around the world. To have instant connection to every person you are personally connected with is an immense thing, a power that has evolved the way we communicate as a campus-society and a world society. By not having this connection its throwing the balance of the universe up in the air, and it’s a slightly disconcerting feeling. Where’s our social life gone?

Hit finally makes sense

A quick Flash bloHG now, regarding a small revelation I made just the other day. If you’re a flash developer or have used flash in passing you might have noticed that in the Button-Symbol editing mode there are 4 special key-frames: Up, Over, Down, Hit. Now I got Up, Over and Down when I first came round to flash, easy right? But I had always assumed that Hit, was just the frame shown when the button is Hit. Of course I had doubts about my theory as I never actually saw the Hit frame shown. My error wasn’t helped by the fact that I never bothered to look up exactly what hit did, in fact a simple Google search would have suffice. My revelation was that Hit has nothing to do with what’s being shown; it’s the area that’s clickable (that makes the button click). Take a look at this quickie, the button is the rectangle with text on it, but the clickable area is actually hidden where the light purple is.

So there you go, as someone said “you learn something new everyday”, and as the Chuckle Brothers would say, “silly me!”

Premier League Intrique

For those that are fans of football around the world, you may have read about certain plans in which the English premier league would be extended and games played overseas. In the past handful of days various positions of support and disagreement have been presented by FA members, FIFA chiefs and club bosses alike. Under the new league the regular season would be extended by a 39^th game, which would be played over seas. It would also be stipulated that top-level clubs would not play each other in these games. The result would be increases awareness of football and increased revenue. Today the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has poo-pooed the idea, and the FA has come out with disagreement saying it could hurt England’s chances of hosting the 2018 world cup. I have to say I agree with those in disagreement, it would seriously distort the premier league we understand, that makes sense. I’m not against teams playing more overseas, I’ve seen my team, Manchester United, twice when they came to the USA, but doing so in a regular season would place an undetermined strain on the players. Consider international games presently, the week around them there is no regular season games, this, partially to the strain of travelling. One can also consider how the teams would play abroad; such matches would undoubtedly take on a friendly-like status, with teams playing for their fans rather than the league. Don’t misunderstand me I’m for promoting awareness of a great game and great league (more friendly’s), but not at the cost of harming and skewing what is already established.

The Return of the TV

After 3 long months, the WGA has secured a deal and has returned to work! Now, since the beginning of the strike I’ve supported the writers, as a user (and to an extent, creator) of digital content I could understand the writers discomfort at being ‘gypped’ out of their rightful money. Now I see two sides to the return of the writers, a good side and a bad side. Starting with the good side, it means a return for some of my favorite shows like Lost (5 to 6 new episodes), the Office and 30 Rock (also 5 to 6 new episodes), House (with 4 to 6 new episodes), not to mention one of the best new shows this year the Big Bang Theory (with up to 9 new episodes!). Then there’s also the good point that we wont have to suffer a completely reality line-up in the fall. The bad side of the writers return is the probable return to mediocrity of Conan (who I think has been the funniest I’ve ever seen during his return during the writers strike). In addition one of my most anticipated shows, 24, will not be returning, perhaps until January 2009! That, along with Heroes which also will have a long wait to return in the fall 08. Finally pilot season has fallen to scraps, meaning little or no new shows this fall, although that might not be all bad and might mean more thought out and generally better shows in Spring or Fall 09. Ultimately, though, the ‘props’ goes to the writers for fighting for what they believe in, for their sacrifices. Now get back to work!

(episode numbers and show return dates courtesy TVGuide.com)

Music’s Biggest Night

For the past 50 years the music industry has gathered together to honor the greatest achievements in music in the past year. This year they not only honored current artists but honored those that have contributed to music in the past. With some pretty chillingly spectacularly and amazing performances, this years Grammys looked back over the past 50 years and recognized the people that have made music what it is today—pairing past stars with current. More than before the ceremony focused on the performances rather than the awards, and while some were a little sloppy, there were some great examples of why these artists win Grammys. Here are some of the best moments (I was going to do ‘awards’, but msn beat me to it…):
Beatles Tribute: While the Cirque du Soliel portion didn’t really work on the Grammy stage (I still want to see Love though), the performance of Let it Be following it was one of two times I got chills up my spine. Very powerful, and I will definitely be seeing across the universe very soon.
Kanye West: firstly the tron-like Stronger was impressive. The white slated glasses we’ve come to associate with Graduation and electric jacket, backed with red-fringed DJ’s and blue-fringe violins. That song was then followed by the second goosebumply moment Kanye’s song dedicated to his mama. With Kanye’s emotional voice singing supplemented with a segment of strings it was a truly powerful moment
Orchestra: my favorite thing about the Grammys (and whenever and wherever they do it) is mixing orchestra pieces into current and pop songs like Kanye did in his song to his mama, and how Foo Fighters did in the Pretender.
Jazz: bringing special recognition to a music form that might have been forgotten, most prominently honoring Herbie Hancock as Album of the year but also in the performance of George Girshwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli: awesome. Great tribute for an amazing singer.
Kanye West: making the second appearance on this list for telling the music to stop. And it did, indeed he does run the Grammys and it is his house.
It was a great show with lots of great moments and awards going to mostly the musicians that deserved it, I thought.
Oh, and if you didn’t get it ALL of last night, shop at target and buy a Malibu.

Superbowl Shokers

That, my friends, was an intense and amazing game. In the end the New York Giants turned out the winners, denying the New England Patriots and even the pitiful selection of commercials. Yes, the underdogs have done it; they’ve made it the rematch of dreams and a super bowl worth watching. For this season at least, the patriots will not be the undisputed champions and they don’t have the perfect season (rather 18 wins and 1 Giant loss). That was the most shocking part to the superbowl, the second big shocker was that the ads (overall) SUCKED! Everyone knows that if you don’t watch the superbowl for the football then you watch it for the ads. Companies spend millions on these things and its one of the few television events where every commercial is broadcast in 16:9 HD. There were a lot of ‘good’ ads, but no ‘great’ ones, some even prompting a ‘you-bought-30-seconds-of-air-time-for-this’ responses. Avoiding the terribly ads here are the best as I viewed it:

Diet Pepsi Max- What is love (featuring Chris Kattan, music made famous from the SNL ‘night at the Roxbury’ sketch, and more celebrities nodding off before getting a burst of energy)

Bridgestone– Scream (simply for the one shot of the grasshopper screaming)

FedEx- Carrier Pigeons (how else would you deliver packaging?)

E*TRADE- Baby Buys Stock (so check it, click. I just bought stock.)

But the best was definitively:
Coca-Cola- It's Your Coke, Charlie Brown (an epic battle between Stewie and Underdog for a bottle of coke in the)

Perfection?

Superbowl Sunday looms over our heads again. For whatever reason you watch it (the football, the teams, or the commercials) it’s a game that has everyone talking. The New England Patriots (18 and 0, looking for 19) and the New York Giants (undefeated on the road…if you forget that Dallas game…) will bring their top game (for the first 3 quarters anyway, eli) in a rematch of epic dimensions. So maybe I’m inflating this game a little more than its worth; it’s a regional game, both teams in the northeast, one bulldog of a team and the second an underdog, one record setting quarterback/receiver combo, another just reaching his adulthood of football. On the other hand, it’s a game that everyone can enjoy for most of the same reasons; some love the underdog (and the giants are very much the underdog in this contest) and others love to see history (even if it is the patriots…). Looking back to their last matchup together, it was a tight game, both teams not holding anything back, for a game that meant nothing in the playoff standings, with the final score coming with a 3 point difference in favor of the Patriots. Now with everything to play for, heres to hoping it’s a game that lives up the expectations, to see two top class teams give it their all to be named champions.

Oh if your wondering who I’m supporting: ill have to give it to the Giants, like I said people have a tendency to root for the underdog, and I’m one of those people.

And the score: Giants 34 Patriots 38. Just because I support the giants doesn’t necessarily mean their going to win…