Yesterday I ran across Joss Whedon’s (creator and writer of television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Angel” & “Firefly”) Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (starring Neil Patrick Harris) and I have to say that it is funny in an odd way…that’s to say if you like The Tick, Mystery Men or anything Tim Burton this should be right up your alley.

Here’s the schedule:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom.

Be sure to check it out before its gone.  But of course, a DVD release is planned and you can purchase it via iTunes (if their servers are working).

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I haven’t bought or listened to a Nine Inch Nails album/CD since high school, but I do think it’s cool that they’re going Creative Commons with Ghosts I-IV and The Slip.  And guess what?  People are still buying the CDs too.

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I’m not a big fan of award shows in general since I’m not into watching the rich-and-famous sipping champagne in fancy clothing while slapping each other on the rears and high-fiving each other on their “accomplishments” for the year…but more importantly I’m not sure where they come up with the nominees and how they select the winners AND why there seem to be so many of these things. And which of the awards is “better” to receive?

But even the one hour, non-star-laced presentation this evening could not capture my attention as they lost me when they kept talking about shows and movies I’d never even heard of (apparently this is because I have no idea what’s on the “pay” cable channels).

Anyway, here’s the list of Golden Globe winners for this year. If it were up to me Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Pushing Daisies would have swept the awards, but at least Sweeney won a few. And of the short animation list, Ratatouille was the best of the bunch (even though I did like The Simpsons Movie).

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My jaw dropped when I read this…

In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the (Recording Industry Association of America) maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The RIAA has clearly crossed over into the territory of alienating any music fans that they may have left.   Some poor guy is sitting at home backing up his K-Fed and Britney “blockbusters”, that he bought, and you’re going to sue him?  You have got to be kidding me! If I’m going to get sued for “ripping” CD’s that I bought to put on my computer and MP3 players, you can be guaranteed that I will not buy another RIAA backed album and will stick with the indies who live with the rest of us in the real world and realize that’s how we listen to music these days.

What’s next?  Suing people for putting a CD in their computer to listen to it from the disc, just because it technically could be copied?

And I’m not even going to waste my breath pointing out how many ways this is just plain wrong and what sort of behavior this will encourge.  Anyone with a grain of common sense can figure that one out on their own.

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CompUSA is going out of business and it looks like stores will begin closing early next year. While I like CompUSA and it’s sad to see it go, the one in Indy just isn’t convenient for me to go to and shopping online or heading down the street to Best Buy is much easier (and often cheaper).

Related to the closing, I wonder how this will affect Chuck if NBC brings it back after the Writers Guild of America Strike is over.  (From what I’ve heard, parts of Chuck are shot inside of a CompUSA store outfitted to mock Best Buy.  Circuit City might be an option as long as their financial situation has gotten better.)

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We’ve been reporting about the television show Jericho on the Trolley Dodgers Podcast and on Episode #38 we threw out the idea that after the brief 7 episode season 2 runs in mid-season 2007-2008, Jericho should then go into online only episodes for the rest of the storyline. From the sound of things it’s probably not too likely that the show will return to CBS beyond those 7 episodes (though they are officially still leaving the door open). With the way that the Internet is changing everything, why not give it a shot?  I’d check it out, especially if they had a decent downloadable version that I could watch full screen, or better yet, on my TV.

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Just a few days after his lawsuit settlement with Kanye West, Evel Knievel is dead. It’s a good thing that he wasn’t a rapper and that he was in bad health. Not good in the sense that it is good news (come on, the guy was an American icon, of course it’s a loss), but good in the sense that I’m not tempted to speculate some funny business.

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For anyone interested in updates on the Writers Guild of America’s strike, and possibly the status of your favorite television shows, TVWeek is keeping an updated news list, complete with links.

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While I admittedly don’t have the time to catch it very often, Scott Adams’ The Dilbert Blog always seems to be good for a laugh.  If you’re a fan of Dilbert and Mr. Adams’ humor, you’ve got to check this out.

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May everyone rest easier now…

Evel Knievel and Kanye West have worked it out.  The 69-year-old iconic motorcycle daredevil said he and West met at his Clearwater condo recently. They settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel’s trademarked image in a popular West music video.

[link]

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