In Lessig’s chapter on piracy he speaks of the changing nature of copy-right law saying,

“Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets the groundwork for a richly creative society, but remains subservient to the value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight of the value.

I think that what this is saying is that we usually view intellectual property as a a free source from which other creative thought and direction can be born. Now, paranoia in large part due to piracy, has made us so paranoid about the actual intellectual property that we stop accepting the value in creativity that is birthed from another individuals intellectual property.

I read an article in the newspaper about shopping traffic on Black Friday. Except this wasn’t normal traffic, it was internet traffic. Websites like Walmart.com which were offering after Turkey day deals, were hit a record number of times on this day. Many of the websites couldn’t sustain the heavy traffic and experienced delays and site down time.
I think that this goes to show the degree of comfort that American’s have with internet shopping is going up. On the day after thanksgiving “the biggest shopping day of the year” so to speak, people are turning to the internet rather than the big stores with their big lines and big messes. This shows that people are now willing to use the internet to avoid the hassle of shopping at actual stores. Right now this occurs on a day when stores are horrid, but I am sure in the future this is going to be more and more popular for everyday use. As for the websites that were facing difficulties with that type of load, I have confidence they will figure out the glitches and not have such problems in the future when they anticipate peak demand. I am sure in this season right before Christmas we are going to see a drastic rise in the use of internet shopping.

I heard that their has been controversy over the Brooklyn Style Pizza commercial by Dominos. People from Brooklyn find the stereotypes of heavily accented Brooklyners to be offensive and over the top. I heard that the mayor spoke out against the commercial, but couldn’t actually find anything on this over the net. Here is the link to the commercial:
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/11/08/nothing_is_sacr.php
On Dominos website they talk about the pizza advertising campaign by saying, “We found that Brooklyners like to eat their pizza differently. They like floppy, large slices, and they fold them into almost a sandwich. Brooklyn has such a big personality. It’s a little different than the Manhattan-style personality. We’re really having a lot of fun with the culture.”

I saw a story on the news yesterday about an amusement park in Mexico near the border which offers simulated border crossings at night. Tourists come from all over Mexico mainly, as the tour is given in Spanish, and embark on a 4 hour long simulation of would a illegal border crossing. This includes such highlights as hiding out in river beds to avoid actors playing border patrol who are chasing after you. People who don’t keep up with the group even get “arrested” if they are caught. In the end, the members of the group who make it are blindfolded and loaded into the back of pickup trucks and driven to a cliff that overlooks a large part of Mexico. The simulation ends with an educational note about the dangers of border crossings and a pro Mexico stance.

Right before I sat down to write this I watched an episode of sex and the city. I just found myself wanted to start writing Carrie style. Something like beginning my bolg with some kind of cliché metaphor, oh Carrie you have taught me so much.
So, I have been thinking that this year Christmas came even earlier than usual in terms of store displays and commercials ect. I think Starbucks busted out the x-mas stuff right around the end of Halloween. This leaves me feeling sorry for thanksgiving. It is being super out shadowed, the poor less consumer driven holiday. I went to the village a few days before thanksgiving because I went to a friends house for the Thanks and wanted to get a gift. Christmas Christmas everywhere. No turkey gifts at all! Even at the candy store there was x-mas candies everywhere and only a small shelf for the thanks. And this is only in the village, anti-cooperate central. I am sure at target it is a Christian winter wonderland.

I just watched the you tube video of Michael Richards (Kramer) from last Friday in LA. He is really quite out of control. I somehow don’t really feel like this is going to end his comedy routine though. These comedians seemed to be easily forgiven because of the nature of their profession. Clearly he comes off as being exceptionally racist here, but he also seems to be pushing the limits of what comedy routines often do. That is, taking a specific group and making them the butt of a joke.
This particular rant doesn’t have the soft humor and sarcasm of racial jokes. It is Michael, losing control fully exercising his racist demons. The content however could be near to the same, said in a different manner, and taken with a laugh. This made me think about the boundary that comedians play on. I think that some people blogged about this in relation to Borat. (By the way my friends Grandma went to see this not knowing what it was and said to my friend, I quote, “I guess that is really what it is like in their country”.) Perhaps the Kazaki’s do have reason for concern. The Grandma’s of the world are all going to pass judgment.

There is a show on CNBC right now called Game On. It is all about how video games have evolved from their early form to the games of today. I shall share with you the wisdom that CNBC has passed on to me. Video games were first developed on computers. However, at the time, With the cost of computers you would have to play a game @ 25 cents a pop, 400,000 times to even pay for the cost of the computers. It was finally realized that televisions were the right space in which to launch the idea of on-screen gaming. The creators of the games went to companies like RCA, trying to get their product launched. It was Magnavox that finally picked up the idea. Their first product failed however, largely due to poor advertising.

I read an article today about soda. It said that kids today are consuming soda at an alarming rate. Duh duh duh. No, but really it is a problem. The article said that kids, “drink twice as much soda as milk, a reverse of figures noted 20 years ago”, and that “the average soda consumption among teenage males between ages 13 and 18 who drink soda is three or more cans a day, and 10% drink seven or more cans a day. Of 13- to 18-year-old girls who drink the beverages, the average intake is more than two cans a day, and 10% of those teenagers drink more than five cans a day.” It then goes on to talk about the implications for sugar intake on diabetes and obesity and how schools are implementing programs to try reduce these rates.

I decided to do more research into the launch of Playstation 3. Conclusion, it is a little insane. My boyfriend is included in this madness though, so I suppose I can’t judge too harshly. He has been outside of Target since last night, the Playstation doesn’t come out until Fri morning. (don’t get me started on what I think about that)

So here is the plan. Go to Target today, line up, buy a Playstation then sell it on E-bay to pay for my grad school. Anyone want to join? But then I heard that people did this with the Xbox 360 and there wasn’t enough of a demand for them to really inflate the prices on e-bay. I guess they had struggled to get their release date out before the Playstation and Nintendo and because of this there was some glitches. Seems like there is going to be major high-powered, high-tech game system saturation to me.

In response to the last screenwriting blog.

I have always felt that screenwriters don’t get enough credit for the work they put into a film. It has always seemed unjust to me that film they are portrayed as having a minimal role in the creation of the film. I am definitely the type of person that will judge a movie based off the screen play. I will hate a movie because of poorly crafted dialogue, just as I will a song with bad lyrics.
This could easily be a contested statement, but I feel like outside of film studies analysis, the movies that really capture people are those with original plot line, characters and dialogue. While original screenplays are heavily tweaked by the time of finished product, the creative vehicle behind the whole thing is still the screenplay. Movies like the Royal Tenenbaums where there is something genius in the construction of the characters are more about screen play to me than direction. Although that is probably a poor example because the direction in that movie is pretty wondrous. But then, in that example, Wes Anderson was the Writer/director/ creative vision instigator. I think that is true of many quality films. They are the babies of the director who see them through from concept to creation. Plus this is how most people begin their film careers. In lowly basements composing their master pieces to be shot on home movie cameras. I think when I was younger and envisioned a future in film this is what I really imagined. I used to say I wanted to be a screenwriter, but I didn’t ever imagine that meant giving my creative process to some director to butcher until I didn’t recognize it anymore. I just can’t understand how those screenwriters handle it.