Niche my ass!

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/research/watchmen-blu-ray-strong-showing-charts-16567

Watchmen sold 36% in Blu-ray format during it's first week.

This means that of people who bought Watchmen during it's first week out, MORE THAN one in three persons with the movie got it on Blu-ray. This means that over 1/3 people who own this movie have a Blu-ray player.

Previous record before this for first week was like 18% or something too. Just goes to show what can happen when movies on Blu-ray are priced fairly; Watchmen was available for under 21 dollars at many places. I got my copy from Amazon for $20.50. I think I heard people getting it as low as $19.50... probably those bastards with Fry's near them. I checked, and the closest Fry's to southeast Michigan is located in fucking Illinois. What.

But I digress. People are STILL saying Blu-ray is failing to catch on. How? I can understand saying "I don't think it will replace DVD as mainstream media of choice", but to say it is failing is just totally wrong. I mean, what is the point that those people would consider Blu-ray to be successful? It's already a huge financial success, so that can't be it. Maybe 50% software market share? 50% hardware market share? I don't get it.

If I only have two ears, why do I have 7 speakers?

Dropped a ton of cash on a receiver and some speakers. It's great. Got it because the reviews of Watchmen finally pushed me to take the plunge. And the film was great, even if the dialog was overly quiet; that just made the explosions of sound hit even harder due to the overall higher volume necessary. But I digress.

The receiver doesn't have stereo input. I don't get it. The standard 3.5 mm "headphone" jack. Can't take input from that. And that's all my computer's sound card can output, and that's how I listen to my CDs. But the thing has plenty of RCA inputs I'll never use.

So I check Amazon, and yes, they have stereo-to-RCA cables. They cost a couple dollars, and I opt to pay a couple dollars more to get it next day. I wanted them right away, but didn't feel like driving up to Best Buy and spending 15 bucks on the same product.

It came in while I was asleep yesterday. I set it up when I got home from work this morning. Shit doesn't work. Oh, one side works, but the other doesn't.

So now I listen to one side of music. Hard pans fail completely. It's like wearing in-ear headphones, except only one. One. I pay all this money for a shitton of speakers and I get ONE input to play from. Thanks.

I think I'm going to splice up my own stereo-to-RCA cable on my day off next week. I'm not about to waste more money to get this shit to work, not when I'm confident that I can handle a simple splicing of two cables.

I watch the Watchmen

Watchmen is a comic series about superheroes. It is kind of a big deal. They recently made a movie about.

This movie is coming out next week. Because I was excited for it, I looked around to see if I could get one piece of merchandise.

A smiley button with a stylized blood splatter.

Long story short, in the comic, there is a man called the Comedian. He wears a smiley button and he is murdered. When he is killed, the button gets splattered with blood, and this iconic image of the blood splattered smiley face button has become a symbol of sorts for the entire series.

Ok?

So I was looking to find an official button. Not possible. They don't even make it. They make TONS of buttons for Watchmen (appealing to the Hot Topic crowd I suppose), but not a one of them is the iconic blood splattered smiley. What the hell?

Worse, like I said, this icon has become a symbol for the entire series, mostly thanks to it being used as the cover for the paperback collected edition I think. But it's not used in any of the artwork for the movie release. Instead, they have a special edition release with the Doomsday Clock colored yellow FOR NO REASON, and splattered with blood as the smiley button is supposed to be. Basically, they replaced the smiley with the Doomsday Clock (which itself is a noteworthy symbol in the series). Sucks.

Reason: As far as I can guess, it is because the original smiley graphic is copyrighted, and even though Time Warner was willing to pay to use it for the collected edition of the comic, they were not willing to pay to use it for the home video release of the movie. They weren't even willing to pay the case to get the graphic used on any of the MANY buttons they made to coincide with the film's release. Apparently, they never even made any for just the comics release either, but wow. How hard should it be to give the fans a simple button with a yellow smiley face and a small splatter of blood printed on it?

And while I'm babbling about Watchmnen, I'd like to say this: Amazon has it on pre-order for 20.50. New release Blu-ray of a high profile comic adaptation. Just barely north of 20 dollars. And people are STILL complaining about how expensive Blu-ray is compared to DVD. Check again, fool, the DVD of this movie is only a couple dollars less.

Harry Potter and the Inexplicably Titled Sequels

The next Harry Potter flick is coming this Wednesday.

Yesterday, I resolved to watch the first five films before.

I don't think I'll be successful.

And even worse, a few of my DVDs are -gasp- "fullscreen". Pan-and-scan is a bain of my existence. It's not completely unwatchable on a 4:3 TV set, but it is just completely stupid on a 16:9 set. Oh well, at least one of my two cropjob copies is duplicated in proper widescreen format in my mom's enormous DVD collection. I just need to figure out what to do for Prisoner of Azkaban. Luckily, that's the third one, and if all goes as planned, I won't get to that til Tuesday or maybe Wednesday, so I'm not gonna sweat it.

The nerve of those on FML.com

There's a site called FMyLife.com. On the site people post things there that happen to them. Bad things. Things that might make a person say him or herself, "fuck my life"...

I read this one just now:

"Today, I was going to propose to my girlfriend of 3 years. I got reservations for a romantic dinner, and at the end, fireworks would spell out my proposal. The whole thing had taken weeks to plan out and had cost me a lot of money. She proposed to me at a subway station first. FML."

What the fuck. Really? What does it matter? Fuck you, bro. The end scenario is the same, a happily ever after. How dare you be upset? That just gives you a funny story to tell: "I had planned an enormous proposal, but coincidentally, my girlfriend spontaneously proposed that night before I had the chance." That's not sad or messed up, that's cute.

Jerk.

Why do I want to see every movie

I got a little hung up on Transformers and was super psyched on that one, but I completely overlooked everything else.

Public Enemies, the John Dillinger picture with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Usually I wouldn't be too excited about a crime drama, but Johnny Depp and Christian Bale only do good movies, so this can't be bad.

The Proposal... normally I wouldn't be quite so jazzed on a romantic comedy, but Ryan Reynolds is great. Doesn't matter what the guy does, I always seem to enjoy it.

Year One, written by Harold Ramis, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera. Heard it ripped off Life of Brian a little bit, but I don't care. Harold Ramis.

And of course, The Hangover. Wanted to see it but didn't think too much of it, but the reviews were pretty amazing. Also kind of cool to see Zach Galifianakis in a major movie like this. Not too many people know of him still.

I gotta get around to this shit. Coming up I got:

The live action adaptation of Blood. Never saw the anime movie, but the show was good. Should at least make for a good action movie with vampires.

I Love You, Beth Cooper. Comedy with Hayden Panettiere about a kid who embarrasses this girl he has a secret crush on by telling her he loves her during his graduation speech. Apparently based on a book. Heh.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Could well be the best Harry Potter picture yet. Is many fans' favorite book, and frankly, I'd probably put it at the top myself. There's even buzz that because the Acadamy is doing 10 Best Picture nominees that this one might actually get a nomination next year. Amazing.

Funny People. The next Apatow film... this one has Adam Sandler in it (it's also a Happy Madison production). It's about a standup comedian who finds out he's dying. Has Seth Rogen too. Can't go wrong with Apatow and Rogen; can't believe I only just saw Freaks and Geeks and only just rediscovered Undeclared to find that Rogan was on that back then.

The Ugly Truth. Don't know too much about this, but it sounds like it'll be good. Gerard Butler (Leonidas in 300) and Katherine Heigl (Alison in Knocked Up). I think it's a romantic comedy or something. I don't know.

GI Joe. Will probably flop like crazy, but it should at least make for a good action flick.

And crap, I still have these free tickets for Night at the Museum yet. I hope I remember to use at least one of them before that thing lapses out of theatres, because otherwise I'll have to use them for Ice Age or just give them away (and whoever gets them would only be able to use them for Ice Age). I mean, I do have an interest in seeing Ice Age, but I just don't even care about it anywhere near as much as the other ones I listed. Just a good thing I already knocked off Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator, and Up.

Still wanna see Land of the Lost, Angels and Demons, and Away We Go, but I'll probably just wait til I can get a good price on a BD.