The Residents Rock

CNN reports on the upcoming release by The Residents that takes an unusual approach to music and digital media:

It contains two blank CDs so that the five episodes, which will be released sequentially during a 10-week period, can be burned after the last one becomes available. A unique code for each package allows users to unlock the subscription at riverofcrime.com.

The package is exclusively available at Virgin Megastore locations in the brick-and-mortar world and at idealcopy.com in cyberspace. A prerecorded version of the project is planned for wider release next year.

The episodes also can be downloaded individually as they are released at all digital music stores. Each episode is priced at $1.99.

Customers purchasing the limited-edition digital subscription will also receive digital extras like ringtones and mobile wallpaper as well as materials that can be burned onto the blank CD-Rs, including alternate versions of the “River of Crime” artwork, scripts and instrumental soundtrack elements.

This is simply brilliant, although it remains to be seen whether it is a success or not.

This is a great example of how the music industry should embrace technology, offering consumers a reason not to pirate music rather than summarily criminalizing all consumers through the employment of draconian DRM. I can’t understand why RIAA and MPAA don’t get that they are alienating their best customers, who I believe will pay a reasonable price for a desirable product given the opportunity.

Miami Vice Trailers

Cynical-C Blog reports on trailers for the upcoming Miami Vice theatrical remake:

The trailer for the Miami Vice movie with a horrendous rap song.

The trailer for the Miami Vice movie remixed with the original theme song.

And the trailer for the Miami Vice movie remixed with Phil Collins [In The Air Tonight].

I agree that the Phil Collins remix is the best one, but I’m not so sure about the actual movie. Let’s hope that Michael Mann doesn’t ruin it…

Two New Moons Confirmed Orbiting Pluto

Pluto and moonsABC News reports that two recently-discovered moons orbiting Pluto have been named Nix and Hydra:

The Hubble Space Telescope spotted the two satellites more than twice as far away as Charon and many times fainter.

The names, with roots in Greek mythology, were selected in part because their first letters, “N” and “H,” were a tribute to the New Horizons spacecraft, Stern said Wednesday.

Pretty cool…

Futurama Returning To Comedy Central

Echoing the triumphant return of the Family Guy after record-breaking DVD sales, Comedy Central has signed up for a minimum of 13 new episodes of Futurama, airing the new shows sometime in 2008. The most recent rumors were initially started on The Late Late Show when Katey Sagal (the voice of Leela) revealed the show’s return. Since then, the story has been confirmed by John Dimaggio (the voice of Bender) and Billy West (the voice of Fry; scroll down the post by billywest).

I’m quite happy to hear this, as the show was never treated well while on Fox, constantly getting preempted or outright interrupted by football. I wasn’t the biggest fan at first, but the show really grew on me, right around the time it got cancelled, of course. Woo hoo!

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Picasa Web

GoogleGoogle Blog reports on Picasa Web, a new beta version of Picasa, the excellent free photo management software acquired and improved by Google. The new version allows you to seamlessly upload photos from Picasa to personal web albums hosted by Google. Initially, you are allowed 250MB of space, with the option to upgrade to 6GB for $25 a year. One of my favorite new features is the ability to easily geocode photos via a direct link to Google Earth, which then collects all of your geocoded pictures in a group in Google Earth. More details about the release are available at the Picasa Web: Learn More page.

I’m not sure that I’ll necessarily take advantage of the web album feature, as I’m pretty happy with my personal gallery the way it is. However, I’ll be trying this out to see if it’s worth it. The fact that it will probably be integrated better into Google products and searches could mean more visibility for my photos, which is always a good thing. 🙂

I believe that this beta test is by invitation only, but it’s possible that I can invite you to download the application (I haven’t verified this for sure). Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll attempt to send you an invitation, although it might just be an invitation to view my public galleries, which are of the decidedly mundane feline variety at the moment (a running joke at flickr is that there are way too many pictures of people’s cats). 😉