My new favorite song

It's cheesy. It's for 12-year olds. But it's a fun song with a great hook and I like it.

Heard it first during the closing credits of "Night at the Museum" (surprisingly funny film!)

I present you with Keke Palmer's "Tonight" (Yup, the same hardcore speller from Akeelah and the Bee - also worth the rent)

Might be the best deal site yet!!

I just StumbleUponed Dealdump.com, which is an ingenious idea that simply RSSs the sites I have in my sidebar. Laziness rules!

Tough times for Tweeter (TWTR)

As per the recent stock dive and articles like this one from the Fool, Tweeter's home audio and video business is having some major problems. Both sales and profits are way down, as they are continually getting their heads bashed in by not only Best Buy and Circuit, but Target, Walmart, Amazon, and many others.

So, why don't people want to spend extra cash on a fancier TV? Simple - who the heck can tell the difference? The big retailers stock TVs at may price points , so there is very little reason for consumers to head to a specialty consumer electronics retailer, when their Best Buy has all they need. Yes, you'll find actual assistance at Tweeter (rather than some drone who can only answer questions by reading the box), but the amount of online info affords everyone almost equal levels of reviews and comparisons. Thus, once they arrive at the store, all they need to do is ask, "Do you have the Samsung 46" DLP?", "How much is it?", and "Do you accept Diner's Club?" Easy.

Same goes for the audio end of things. My dad's worked for a series of top-end manufacturers of speakers and electronics, so I've been accustomed to some serious firepower. But, most people haven't. In addition, decent to semi-high quality electronics and speakers have proliferated throughout the chains. Can you tell the difference between a $2,000 Marantz receiver and a $500 Onkyo. Does the $800 Polk Audio home theater system sound good to you? Great! Sold!
To make matters worse, our MP3 culture of using iPods with this garbage further decreases consumer's desire for good quality audio.

Tweeter's future is grim. It's sad that a 35-year old can't maintain its reputation with the current generation of iTuners and Bose-heads.

What will this summer's threequels bring?

Allmovie has a great piece about the varying plot options directors can take for the third film in their series. It makes a whole lot of sense and includes such classics as Christmas Vacation, Goldmember, and Die Hard with Sam Jackson.

From reading previews and what not, the only two films this summer that are actually completing a trilogy (a la the Star Wars prequels) is Pirates 3 and Bourne 3. Otherwise, they were all created because the first and second made a crapload of money and the studios believe the third will do the same. Thus far, both Spiderman and Shrek have kicked some serious financial ass. And I'll be standing in line for Ocean's and Rush Hour, which should both have no problem duplicating their prior film's monetary achievements.

Shrek 3 = King

I actually wans't a huge fan of the first one. I thought the fairy tale theme was cute, but the jokes iffy and Donkey annoying. The sequel was much better (particularly the Cops riff and American Idol sequence on the DVD).

We caught an advance screening of "the Third" Wednesday and were pleasantly pleased with the result. JT actually did a reasonably good job with the voice of Arthur ("Artie") and the use of Pythonite Eric Idle as Merlin was great. There were also some great set pieces, including Artie's school, the ass-kicking ladies, and the bar where the villians hang out. Actually, the whole film was funnier than the other two, and caters even more so towards adults. Ignore Yahoo! Movies B- critics score. It's a quick 90 minutes that's well worth your time.

Also, I caught "Children of Men" last night. I didn't really get what the big deal was. The plot was kind of lame - a special lady magically emerges and she needs to get through the bad guys so she can reach her necessary mecca. It's been done before (Fifth Element, some other stuff I can't think of). Visually, the animated signs and what not reminded me of "Minority Report". I did like the the last half hour of shootouts and apocalyptic bleakness, which was shot with no music and worked well with the theme. But, overall, it was unsatisfying.

Do you regularly receive stuipid questions?

Use this perfect response.

Nicely done, Engadget!!!

These guys killed $4 billion off Apple's market cap after a fake email about the iPhone's release.

Craziness!!

Uh..I own Apple stock

F-ckin assholes

You learn alot between DTX and Central Sq

I was sitting on the Red at the end of the car. Two young ladies were standing next to me. They couldn't have been there more than seven or eight minutes before I got off the train.

• Liz - Unattractive 24-year old. Has a MA in Public Policy from Harvard. Uses "like" six times per sentence. Married to Tom. The two of them will be attending Tom's brother's college graduation this weekend. Tom's brother is 27. He worked for a number of years and also went to Honduras, which was his reason for a delayed bachelor's degree.
  
  
• Tall Girl - Also 24 and thought Liz was older, due to her marriage and graduate degree. Finished college in 3.5 years. Has an older brother who took Tommy Boy time to complete his degree. Liz was worried about the cost of this, but Tall Girl reassured her that it was U. of Wisconsin, so the public tuition was doable.
  

Hopefully, I'll tune in tomorrow for more details.

Tracy Morgan = Crappy Stand-up

Now, I've seen some very funny dudes at Comedy Connection downtown. Therefore I was psyched to see SNL-alum and present "30 Rock" cast member Mr. Tracy Morgan. You know you love Brian Fellows as much as I do.

But his stand-up is gross, perverted and, most importantly, mostly unfunny.

Granted his page on Comedy Connection prefaced my ticket purchase by saying that the content of the show was sexually explicit and vulgar, but it was not only this, but very repetitious and not very clever. Not to be too graphic but he went into a diatribe about what guys sole interest in the opposite sex (fellatio) and decided to repeat this about 16 times. Ugh. About two thirds of the way through, he started on Michael Jackson and kids, which wasn't bad, but the first chunk put a very sour taste in my mouth. The opening act a local guy) was significantly better. Both my GF and co-worker agreed with this assessment. Skip it the next time he hits town.

As for future events, I'm set to see John Williams return to conduct the Boston Pops in a few weeks. Hell yeah!!

Culkin's twin sister

Don't mess with an 11-year old and her shotgun. Maybe the next Home Alone won't be straight to video.

I dig Digg's craziness

As most have heard, Digg has had a wild 24 hours. Some nerd found the code needed to crack the HD-DVD encryption, so once someone creates the appropriate software, geeks will be able to copy HD-DVDs very easily. Originally, the story was pulled, as it promoted piracy. But, then, Mr. Rose decided to throw his middle finger at the legal process and allow the story (and anything else) to stand. It's now the most Dugg story ever.

Should it be pulled? Nah. There was a huge todo when the original DVD encryption was cracked and DVD copying software was made available. But, DVD X Copy, about the only retail software to arrive on store shelves, has gone the way of the dodo as did its company, 321 Studios. And there are a few other options out there, like DVD Shrink and AnyDVD. So, someone was bound to crack the code and the the software will ultimately be released. Who wouldn't want to archive 30GB on one disc, be it a blockbuster film or some MP3s? Why should we have to wait?