Okay, censorship questions have been in the news as everyone freaks out over Don Imus. Yes, his "nappy headed hos" comment was offensive, racist, and dumb--not even Imus is disagreeing with that. Yes, he's built a career and been very successful with that shtick. And yes, rappers use that sort of language all the time. I don't really care what happens to him (although I suspect he'll be hired somewhere--possibly satellite radio--pretty quickly). I understand those who think he shouldn't be fired, and I understand those who think he should have been fired long ago. Whatever.
What I do want to talk about is something I actually watch--"Futurama" on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim". A couple of nights ago, both episodes featured Professor Farnsworth saying the phrase, "sweet zombie Jesus!" Except both times, it was edited into "sweet zombie [silence]". WTF!? People, I've always thought society is too sensitive, but now in less than 8 years we've become so thin-skinned that something that used to be acceptable on network TV (Fox, specifically), is now too offensive to be said on cable! With all due respect, FUCK THAT! Fuck that over and over again, in whatever hole you can find/make, with all sorts of foreign objects, until it fucking bleeds to death!
Seriously, this isn't so much a matter of the specifics of this edit. I just hear and think about censorship and societal norms so much, and I don't have much of a sense of whether our skin has gotten thinner or thicker. Sometimes I think we're allowed to speak more openly now about some subjects, and sometimes I think just the opposite. I certainly don't think this one incident is conclusive, but it's interesting to see such a specific, clear cut example on the thin-skinned side.
end rant.
Showing posts with label other stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label other stuff. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Jason calls out a pervert from Aruba
Check out the search term this guy used to find me (click for bigger):
Turns out as of this morning I'm the number 4 MSN search result for 'animal sex movies blogspot', thanks to reviewing "Your Mommy Kills Animals" and "Forgiving the Franklins" in the same day. You dirty, dirty Aruban! In other news, since reviews "S&Man", I've been getting a few searches for snuff films, all from the UK.
Turns out as of this morning I'm the number 4 MSN search result for 'animal sex movies blogspot', thanks to reviewing "Your Mommy Kills Animals" and "Forgiving the Franklins" in the same day. You dirty, dirty Aruban! In other news, since reviews "S&Man", I've been getting a few searches for snuff films, all from the UK.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Jason comments on the MPAA changing its rating policies
Interesting article on IMDb today about the MPAA changing its rating policy. What I found most interesting is that (unless IMDb is misquoting him) the head of the MPAA actually credited the documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" with influencing their decision. I would normally expect them to say that this is something they've been considering for a while, and they reached this decision independently (like McDonald's coincidentally ending the super-size option after the film "Super Size Me" came out). Especially since the grievances aired in the movie have been around for a while. Was the MPAA so isolated that they didn't know there were complaints until this movie came out? More likely, Jack Valenti was just stubborn (his fight with Trey Parker and Matt Stone over "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" is pretty legendary). Seems like this Dan Glickman guy (former Congressman from Kansas and Secretary of Agriculture under Clinton) is more reasonable.
As for the actually changes, I've no strong opinion. I like the idea of a filmmaker being able to cite scenes from other movies in the appeal process. And it sounds like he might break the R rating into essentially soft-R and hard-R. That'll be interesting to see if that happens and how it shakes out (the last big shakeup, introducing the PG-13 rating, is widely seen as causing more movies that would've been made PG previously to add a little "spice" to make them PG-13, and it had very little effect on R movies).
More importantly, this would all be academic if the rating system weren't such a gatekeeper to distribution. Technically the ratings hold no legal weight and are designed to be just a guide for parents. And if you consider it from the point of view of the government telling them "regulate your own content to protect children or we'll do it for you", the system isn't that bad. Problem is, there are a lot of compelling movies that are NC-17 or unrated, and unless you live in a major metropolitan area, you'll never get to see them (at least not on the big screen). So I accept the idea that a rating system is probably needed, even useful. I welcome tweaks to the rating system, but overall it'll still be subjective. And there will be many movies I want to see that are not appropriate for children. So I don't see the issue as a rating problem as much as a distribution problem.
Any ideas out there about how to fix the distribution system so compelling, provocative, mature movies can be seen by whoever wants to see them? Just saying that theaters need to be brave and show these movies unrated (which is completely legal) is unreasonable. They still need to make money, so it's an economic issue.
As for the actually changes, I've no strong opinion. I like the idea of a filmmaker being able to cite scenes from other movies in the appeal process. And it sounds like he might break the R rating into essentially soft-R and hard-R. That'll be interesting to see if that happens and how it shakes out (the last big shakeup, introducing the PG-13 rating, is widely seen as causing more movies that would've been made PG previously to add a little "spice" to make them PG-13, and it had very little effect on R movies).
More importantly, this would all be academic if the rating system weren't such a gatekeeper to distribution. Technically the ratings hold no legal weight and are designed to be just a guide for parents. And if you consider it from the point of view of the government telling them "regulate your own content to protect children or we'll do it for you", the system isn't that bad. Problem is, there are a lot of compelling movies that are NC-17 or unrated, and unless you live in a major metropolitan area, you'll never get to see them (at least not on the big screen). So I accept the idea that a rating system is probably needed, even useful. I welcome tweaks to the rating system, but overall it'll still be subjective. And there will be many movies I want to see that are not appropriate for children. So I don't see the issue as a rating problem as much as a distribution problem.
Any ideas out there about how to fix the distribution system so compelling, provocative, mature movies can be seen by whoever wants to see them? Just saying that theaters need to be brave and show these movies unrated (which is completely legal) is unreasonable. They still need to make money, so it's an economic issue.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jason has some comments on code free DVD players
So recently Baceman007, aka The Minister of Common Sense, posted some comments in regard to code free DVD players. Some of the links he pointed out were:
http://www.dvdexploder.com/dvdcodes.htm, http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php.
First, let me say that I've never used these sites and I have no knowledge of their effectiveness and/or legality, and I would never knowingly encourage you to do anything illegal. Baceman007 also made a similar disclaimer in his comments. I'd also add that some years ago I looked around for DVD region code hacks and found a number of them, many of which actually involved physically jumpering out/replacing components. So I'd only recommend this if you plan to trash your player if you fail.
Furthermore, often hacking the region code is only half the battle. For most foreign DVD's, you also have to convert PAL format to NTSC to play on an American TV.
Personally, for my time and money (especially if you need a new player anyway), I'd rather just There are any number of online stores that'll sell you one if you just search google for "code free dvd player". One I've used before and have never had a problem with is http://www.world-import.com/dvd.htm. I'm not guaranteeing it's the best or cheapest or anything, just that I've used it before and it worked for me.
Finally, as for the greedy studios who imposed this system--I don't know a lot about the worldwide movie distribution business, but it seems to me that the studios have less to lose from import DVDs than do individual theater owners. Perhaps more money is made on theatrical release than DVD, but more and more I hear that that's not the case. If the studio get the $$ from a DVD sale, whether it's sold in America or in Europe, I don't see how the studio loses all that much (note that I'm talking about import of legitimate studio DVDs, not piracy--that's a different issue). Sure, import DVD sales could cannibalize theater box office, but I think that's already happening for many movies. I personally know several people who'll purposely miss several movies because they'd rather rent them on Netflix than spen $10 to see them on the big screen. People who go to the movies nowadays are people who care about the big screen experience--not just big special effects but the experience of sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and having a shared experience. I'm not saying studios aren't greedy or that they aren't the driving force behind enforcing region codes. I'm just saying that the system protects more than just the studio interests. Primarily, it protects local distributors and theater owners, and consequently it protects theater patrons. Sure, it can be frustrating to wait for a much-hyped movie to come out in your country, but if you care that much for a few bucks the system can be circumvented anyway. In fact, my only real complaint about the system is that it's a joke--it's so easy to circumvent that why implement it in the first place? Just release movies more or less simultaneously worldwide (perhaps some smaller movies won't have enough prints), and release on DVD after it's played everywhere theatrically.
Really, I think the current system is actually a fairly comfortable balance (well, maybe not that comfortable). The people who want to see foreign movies that might never make it to the US can see them if they look hard enough and spend a few extra bucks on a code free DVD player (again, I'm not talking about piracy, that's illegal and wrong and I want nothing to do with it). Neither the studios nor the theaters have any interest in hassling me for having a code free player, since I spend so much money on their product every year. And when I buy a DVD, I'll always buy the american version if it's available at the time (or I know when it will be available) and has all the features I want (very rarely I've bought a foreign version of a DVD because it had an extra not available on the american version).
Anyway, as I said I'm not an expert in the economics of worldwide film distribution, but that's my rant. Your mileage may vary.
--Jason
http://www.dvdexploder.com/dvdcodes.htm, http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php.
First, let me say that I've never used these sites and I have no knowledge of their effectiveness and/or legality, and I would never knowingly encourage you to do anything illegal. Baceman007 also made a similar disclaimer in his comments. I'd also add that some years ago I looked around for DVD region code hacks and found a number of them, many of which actually involved physically jumpering out/replacing components. So I'd only recommend this if you plan to trash your player if you fail.
Furthermore, often hacking the region code is only half the battle. For most foreign DVD's, you also have to convert PAL format to NTSC to play on an American TV.
Personally, for my time and money (especially if you need a new player anyway), I'd rather just There are any number of online stores that'll sell you one if you just search google for "code free dvd player". One I've used before and have never had a problem with is http://www.world-import.com/dvd.htm. I'm not guaranteeing it's the best or cheapest or anything, just that I've used it before and it worked for me.
Finally, as for the greedy studios who imposed this system--I don't know a lot about the worldwide movie distribution business, but it seems to me that the studios have less to lose from import DVDs than do individual theater owners. Perhaps more money is made on theatrical release than DVD, but more and more I hear that that's not the case. If the studio get the $$ from a DVD sale, whether it's sold in America or in Europe, I don't see how the studio loses all that much (note that I'm talking about import of legitimate studio DVDs, not piracy--that's a different issue). Sure, import DVD sales could cannibalize theater box office, but I think that's already happening for many movies. I personally know several people who'll purposely miss several movies because they'd rather rent them on Netflix than spen $10 to see them on the big screen. People who go to the movies nowadays are people who care about the big screen experience--not just big special effects but the experience of sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and having a shared experience. I'm not saying studios aren't greedy or that they aren't the driving force behind enforcing region codes. I'm just saying that the system protects more than just the studio interests. Primarily, it protects local distributors and theater owners, and consequently it protects theater patrons. Sure, it can be frustrating to wait for a much-hyped movie to come out in your country, but if you care that much for a few bucks the system can be circumvented anyway. In fact, my only real complaint about the system is that it's a joke--it's so easy to circumvent that why implement it in the first place? Just release movies more or less simultaneously worldwide (perhaps some smaller movies won't have enough prints), and release on DVD after it's played everywhere theatrically.
Really, I think the current system is actually a fairly comfortable balance (well, maybe not that comfortable). The people who want to see foreign movies that might never make it to the US can see them if they look hard enough and spend a few extra bucks on a code free DVD player (again, I'm not talking about piracy, that's illegal and wrong and I want nothing to do with it). Neither the studios nor the theaters have any interest in hassling me for having a code free player, since I spend so much money on their product every year. And when I buy a DVD, I'll always buy the american version if it's available at the time (or I know when it will be available) and has all the features I want (very rarely I've bought a foreign version of a DVD because it had an extra not available on the american version).
Anyway, as I said I'm not an expert in the economics of worldwide film distribution, but that's my rant. Your mileage may vary.
--Jason
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