Monthly Archives: July 2010

Jul22

Is TiVo Right For You?

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Is TiVo Right For You?

A friend just received a big, honkin’ flat-screen TV as a gift, and she asked me if TiVo was right for her. She describes herself as a “software person,” so I explained that the the basic model is
TV > computer with remote control > Internet.
Everything else is software.

Tivo is a computer with a remote control. It accesses Tivo and NetFlix, and maybe some other things. Roku is a computer with a remote control. It accesses NetFlix and Amazon, and maybe some other things.

A laptop is a computer WITHOUT a remote control. It accesses the Internet. It can play YouTube, Hulu.com, ABC.com, CBS.com, USAnetwork.com, TV.com and so on. If you can connect it to your TV, you can play that stuff on your TV. It DOES NOT access Tivo, so you can’t get your computer to record first run TV easily. (It can be done, but it’s a hassle.) And you may not want to fill up your hard drive with that stuff.

A laptop DOES have a DVD player. You can play DVDs using your laptop if you connect it to your TV.

Tivo is not a laptop. It is hardware (a hard drive and a remote control) and software. The software allows Tivo to know all the programs on TV that are available to you, and to record (a) the ones you select and (b) the ones Tivo recommends for you. Tivo does the same thing with TV that Netflix does with movies. It tries to figure out what you will like, then it records it for you.

The big question is: what do you want? I want to watch exactly what I want, when I want. Tivo records TV when it airs (remember, I go to bed early) and I play it back when I want entertainment (7 p.m.). For movies, I get ordinary DVD’s from Blockbuster or the library. And I go to movie theaters like the Roxy for independent movies, and the Rialto for major studio big budget releases.

If you want something different, you may want a different setup. I love broadcast TV. Some people only like movies. Some people hate going to the movie theater, they want everything in their living room. What do you want to see on this big honkin’ TV?

Jul19

Movie Rave: Inception

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Movie Rave: Inception

On Saturday I went to see “Inception” on the biggest screen in Santa Rosa. On Sunday I went back to see it again. As the NYTimes says, it lives up to its hype. If you liked The Matrix and The Bourne Identity, you will like Inception. If you haven’t seen it, you might want to stop reading here.

The NYTimes considered it a heist movie “one last big job,” but it is also a psychological thriller. When a wife commits suicide, the widower is burdened with guilt. The projection of his guilt invades his dreams and kills people there. But this team works in dreamspace. The projection sabotages the widower, just as guilt sabotages a life.

I thought the casting was good, but I would have made one change. As much as I loved Ellen Page in “Juno,” and I suspect that they need a very small woman to make Leonardo DiCaprio look tall, I think a better choice for Ariadne would have been Anna Kendrick from “Up in the Air” and “Twilight Saga.” The tightly-wound Anna would be an interesting counterpoint to the elegant, troubled Marion Cotillard.

I predict that this is the first of a trilogy from the immensely talented Christopher Nolan. I think the final shot of the spinning totem will be the opener of the second installment. The totem will topple and stop, reassuring us we are in normal reality. The kids will be slightly older, and Tom Cobb will learn just what a bad idea this inception was. Saito wants the energy company broken up because he cannot compete with their new system. The vertically-integrated power company that Maurice Fischer built has developed a breakthrough technology that can save the planet from global warming with cheap, plentiful, non-polluting energy.

But if Fischer’s company is broken up, the economies of scale are lost and the investment in the new technology becomes unviable. Saito holds on to his market share and the planet just gets hotter and dirtier. Cobb must undo the idea they so carefully planted to save the planet. Can he “unplant” the suicidal ideal in his wife’s mind, too? Is he falling in love with Ariadne? He can’t have both, which one will he give up?

And how is Robert Fischer, Jr. the son of Maurice? How can he be a junior if his father’s name is Maurice? Does he think that “Uncle Pete” Browning betrayed him, or betrayed his father? Has the power of attorney been appropriately transferred? There is a scene in the first movie that indicates that the legal matters of transition and succession in the Fischer corporation have not been completely taken care of.

I am very pleased to see that this movie had a great opening weekend. I look forward to seeing what Christopher Nolan has in store for us next.

Jul14

Disappointed with Fox’s “The Good Guys”

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Disappointed with Fox’s “The Good Guys”

This is the new Fox comedy by Matt Nix who created one of my favorite dramas, “Burn Notice” on USA. I had great hopes for it and it is silly without being stupid, but I find myself losing interest. I think too much of Bradley Whitford’s intelligence seeps out. Let me explain.

Johnny Depp’s reckless pirate is said to be modeled on Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. There is an untethered quality to his performance. Bradley Whitford seems to play Dan Stark with a tongue-in-cheek quality that undercuts the show’s premise of “unearned confidence” as showcased in the movie “Talladega Nights.” He needs to play it more as Lt. Col. Oliver North; brilliant, effective, amoral, ruthless, charming and irresistible. A loose cannon who can get the most astonishing things done. Ollie North was so charming that the ACLU got his felony convictions vacated, even through many Americans thought he was a traitorous drug smuggler and others considered him a national hero who saved Central America from communism.

It must be very hard to play a character with the emotional abandonment of Johnny Depp’s pirate.

Jul5

Movie Rave: “Winter’s Bone”

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Movie Rave: “Winter’s Bone”


The 17 year old girl in “Winter’s Bone” learns that they are about to lose their shack in the Ozarks where she takes care of her younger brother and sister and her mentally-ill mother. Her meth-cooking father put it up for bail and he just missed his court date. She and the kids are broke and hungry, and soon they will be homeless. The girl is relentless in her effort to care for them.

The movie is without a false note, and draws you in the way “Hurt Locker” did. You find yourself walking the chilly paths with her as she stubbornly looks for a solution. I found myself saying, “she’s only trying to keep two kids alive, without any help from her mentally ill mother or absent dad,” but what really struck me was the love in the household. She tenderly brushes her mother’s hair and the kids try to take care of her when she is hurt.

It gave me a chance to notice how this would have felt in a household of danger, chaos, and shame. The feeling of a lack of resources, that we’re all gonna die. Of no help or bad advice from adults who hurt you and others, yet insist they love you. The cold gray palette, the skinny trees, no feed for the horse.

The Kansas City Star review captures the movie, and the reader comments to the NYTimes review are very meaty. I hope you see the picture. If you do, let me know what you think.