Funk Babblings

The Olympic opening ceremonies were almost two weeks ago now. Normally I ignore the Olympics as much as possible, but thanks to chronarchy and 35,000 previewers, I was aware that the opening ceremonies should be impressive. So when I got tired of packing for Pennsic, I flipped on the TV to take a look.

It looked pretty cool, but I was somewhat disappointed by it for three reasons:
- This thing demanded a wide screen to get a decent view of things
- In the wider shots, all the details were lost
- Worst of all, the commentators kept babbling over the music, ruining the whole effect

So why do I bring this up now? Well, yesterday I came across this AP story about HDTV watchers being annoyed by the HDTV version of the Olympic broadcast. They had two big complaints about opening night; one was that their broadcast started late, apparently ignoring the fact that the whole thing is broadcast on tape-delay anyway, since evening in Greece is morning here.

But the complaint that got my attention was that the HDTV broadcast wasn't narrated by Bob Costas and Katie Couric. This makes people feel like they're being treated like "throwaways"? It makes me want to go buy an HDTV, solving all three problems I had with the broadcast I saw!

Of course, somehow the FCC thinks we'll all be watching HDTV by May 2006 anyway.

Update: Almost missed this gem from the story. "Gerbrandt said he's seen only one advertisement on NBC's HDTV coverage - from a maker of a high definition TV set." Great picture, no commentators, and almost no commercials? Where do I sign up?

I never watched Farscape enough to make total sense of it or be a loyal fan, but I've watched it about as much as I've watched Star Trek: The Next Generation (i.e. if it's on when I randomly happen to be looking for something to watch), so I'm somewhat familiar with it without knowing all the plot twists and turns.

Slashdot tells us that there will be a four-hour Farscape miniseries on Sci-Fi Channel starting Oct 17, and that a trailer is now online.

But the best bit I got out of the Slashdot post came from the comments: Farscape meets the Muppet Show

Hey cool, my friend Jeff got a story about his run for Congress in the latest Cleveland Scene!

Jeff got hardly any quotes in there though; looks like they mostly talked to his communications director and other staff.
My favorite lines:

"The vast majority of the people don't even use the internet or pay attention to it." - Ralph Regula, Jeff's 32-year incumbent opponent (and a client of my new employer)

"Someone pointed out: Ohio's close to Canada." - Carl Manaster, a new member of Jeff's campaign, when asked what happens if neither Jeff nor John Kerry wins