IPAD UNVEILED
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010
-- THE FIRST DECADE --
Crazed Fanboy's Most Memorable Moments, 2000--2009 As submitted by PCR writers, compiled by Chris WoodsTHE FIRST MIKE'S RANT AND MATT'S RAIL
From 2000, the debut of Mike's Rant by Mike Smith and Matt's Rail by Matt Drinnenberg.
Apple's Steve Jobs unveiled his new gadget this week ending weeks of speculation from tech-geeks everywhere. Named the "iPad", presumably as a derivation of "iPod", Jobs demonstrated his new baby as a revolution in portable computers....or something like that.
To a fellow baby-boomer, I can describe it as a MacIntosh computer stuffed inside an Etch-A-Sketch. To a younger person, this might look like a touchscreen iPhone for André the Giant.
I can see where they'd get that. It looks more Star Trek-ish---like that thin monitor-looking thing the crew is always carrying around. And like all things MacIntosh you can move icons around by touching and dragging them.
The biggest complaint is the gadget's name, iPad, sounding like a feminine-hygiene product, and spoofs on YouTube are already popping up. "iTablet" or "iSlate" or something like that probably would've been more spoof-proof, but like I said, I think Jobs wanted it to sound like iPod, one of the company's most successful products ever.
In the comedy-always-predicts-ridiculousness department, years ago, MadTV did a spoof on a computerized feminie hygiene product called, you guessed it, the iPad. I guess Jobs missed that episode.
Slight digression: I seem to be only one of about three people on the planet who remembers about thirty years ago when Saturday Night Live did a spoof-type commerical featuring a three-bladed shaving razor as ridiculous in its excess (the two-bladed razors had just come out). Sure enough, sometime during the '90s, the three-blade razors came out for real. Except for the most subtle of mentions on Weekend Update by Colin Quinn, the SNL prediction was never acknowledged!
Digression concluded. Despite the name, I can see the iPad catching on and....coincidentally, of course...being renamed for next year's model.
The author of the quissentential required-reading novel, 1951's The Catcher In The Rye, J. D. Salinger, has died at the age of 91. I'll go ahead and use the most oft-quoted description of the novel as, the "enduring anthem of adolescent angst and youthful rebellion and a classic of 20th-century American literature". To try and summarize this enigmatic and reclusive author's life--what is known of it--in a short space is futile. Sources all over the web can help with that (including this excellent bit in The Washington Post).
My main memory of Salinger has to do with his notoriously reclusive nature and hatred of all human contact, especially after his last short stories were published in the mid-'60s. He did leave a wish with his family to publish more stories after his death, but there is no word on when or if that will happen.
The adventures and misadventures of Holden Caulfield, the disillusioned 16-year-old central character in The Catcher in the Rye, arguably laid the groundwork for the "disenfrachised youth" literature that came after. Salinger's characters, it is said, were more real and desirable to him than real people and helped him express his feelings of the world's phoniness.
I, for one, was quite taken with President Obama's first State of the Union speech last Wednesday night (Jan 27). It was a really uplifting and encouraging experience. He spent most of the time talking about the economy, not all that much on health care (though it did get an important finger-shake), and a renewed commitment to exiting Iraq. All good stuff.
My favorite part -- and here I'm biased, of course -- was the "shout-out" (sort of) to Tampa, roughly 20 minutes into the speech. "Tomorrow, I'm going to Tampa, Florida, where ground is being broken on a new high-speed rail," or words to that effect. Yay, us.
Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden were indeed in Tampa yesterday, Thursday, January 28th. And indeed we're getting an infusion of Federal money, though not quite as high a figure as originally estimated. About $1.25 billion is going into the "bullet train" that will initially connect Tampa to Lakeland and Orlando. This is part of a $8 billion stimulus that is being seeded all around the country for a bullet-train initiative.
I couldn't attend the Tampa event myself, but the video of it makes me giddy to know that both the President and Vice-President of the United States were standing together not all that far away from where I am now. But if they'd've stopped by my 7-Eleven for a Slurpee and I wasn't there -- oh, would I have been mad.
Seriously, though, the new bullet train project will create something like 40,000 jobs during construction, but reduce to a labor force of somewhere around 600 to maintain and operate the facility. Good news in a dire economy.
AVATAR WATCH
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
Sometime over this past weekend, at $1.8 billion, the James Cameron film Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing the old record set by the 1997 James Cameron film, Titanic. Add to this that Avatar has only been out six weeks and it's taken the number one spot every weekend. Since it's not going anywhere anytime real soon, I think it's safe to project that Avatar may be the first film to pass the $2 billion mark. And it'll likely do it in the near future.
It's certainly good to be James Cameron right now. In the movie biz, he is indeed king of the world.
I still don't get it, but that's, apparently, my problem. I sincerely congratulate James Cameron and everyone tied to Avatar for this monumental feat.
For those who may still care, after accounting for inflation of ticket prices over the past 60 years, the number one film is -- still -- Gone With the Wind. Avatar, on this list, places somewhere around number 47.
CONAN WATCH
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
Soon after the announcement in last week's issue that Conan O'Brien's severance package with NBC would total about $30 million to peacefully exit, it was subsequently reported through many sources that his package was upped to $33 million with an additional $12 million to be split amongst his staff, all of whom relocated to LA for the seven months The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was on. Sweet deal.
Further, at the time, I commented on the Jay Leno situation being inconclusive about his return to late night. It was subsequently reported that he will indeed be returning as host of The Tonight Show after all.
Conan's final show as host last Friday was comparatively dignified, foreshadowing of the agreed-upon deal that though he cannot return to television until September, he is barred from taking any more potshots at NBC.
These moves are historic and will be commented on in books and specials for decades to come. I've never seen anything like it and doubtless won't again. At the end of the day, at least all parties managed to settle with the greatest profit and least humiliation -- save, maybe, for NBC itself.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will hold a town hall meeting in Tampa on Thursday (Jan 28) at the Bob Martinez Sports Center at the University of Tampa.
The program begins at 12:30 p.m. There is still no clear word on the subject of Obama's visit, but high-speed rail advocates believe the president will announce a Florida rail grant. Federal funds amounting to $2 billion toward this project are expected to be announced and confirmed.
Having our own bullet-train will solve the long-standing problem of how to cut our drives to Lakeland and Disney World in half. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. But....it may also give thousands of out-of-work Floridians much-needed jobs, so...ya know?
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Nolan B. Canova
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