House, closed!

Let me preface this entry by saying that my wife (Kiley) is a firecracker. She used to be much worse but she has softened over the years. As witnessed yesterday though - she's still got it and it just takes a nudge to bring it back to life. All names have been changed to protect...well, me.

So we closed on our house yesterday. The dofus mortgage guy (we'll call him "Joe" for this story) that never remembered anything about our loan screwed up our paperwork and they tried to tell us it was going to be 3 more days for them to re-draft the paperwork and we'd have to drive back out to Fort Worth to close again. I started saying something to the effect of, "NO NO NO! We went thru this with him over and ov-" when suddenly Kiley's head erupted. She gathered herself and calmly says, "Get Scott on the phone. Now." She didn't even give him a chance to say hello before she tee'd off on him. I interlocked my fingers behind my head and kicked my feet up on the table and just pittied that poor fool. Kiley did some of her finest work on him and I imagine him curled up in the fetal position by the time she was finished. At one point he said, "You know, you're not my only customer". I don't understand why some people openly invite tortuous pain on their well-being. Kiley was unphased by his pathetic attempt at a defense and remained in the zone with the snappy return, "Oh, you've made quite evident by showing your lack of ability to handle our account, Scott." When all was said and done, Scott had a new hole torn with surgical precision and we had our paperwork signed and were on our way to pick up the keys to our new house.

Go Home To The Movies!

Fellow media lovers. I work in a media-based industry and in my various readings and conversations I'm hearing more and more talk on how we are on the verge of a very big thing. That thing being Hollywood distribution companies releasing DVD or digital direct versions of first run movies at the same time they are released in the theatre. To Joe Schmoe movie watcher, this may not sound like much, but to me it is huge Pandora's box with some terrible and awesome repercussions.

This means that instead of going to your local Cineplex and paying upwards of $8/ticket and another $10-$20 on snax, you can simply purchase the first-run DVD for $16 and eat your own kibble on your comfortable couch with your Boo. These DVD's would not be laden with all of the extras and whiz-bangs, because frankly those take longer than you think to produce. All of those features would come in the form of the "special edition" that would come out in the typical 4-5 months after a film's release.

So as a consumer, this reeks of so much awesome that it's not even funny. But I confess that the little kid inside of me that loved going "to the movies" is saddened by this. Economics always wins out, especially in these days of $2.00 gas. This means that theaters won't be able to compete with a keepable, replayable version of a movie that might even sound better on some people's home theatre systems. The delicious, yet terrible for you popcorn won't be enjoyed by kids and adults and Twizzlers might go out of business. An entire sector of the entertainment business could very well go extinct, because people love a good deal and let's face it - we typically opt for the solution that requires the least energy from us.

Yes, I hate people that talk to the screen. Yes, I hate waiting in line for a good seat on opening weekend. Yes, I hate having to powerwash my sneakers in order to get the caked Sno-Caps off. But there's something to be said for the experience of wincing with an entire crowd at a scary part of movie or erupting into laughter at a hilarious moment. It's like Discovery Channel and the zoo. You can see the animals even closer and in action on Discovery, but seeing and smelling them in the zoo just makes it seem more like a life event.

I also think, "wow, your giving high grade digital versions of first run movies to people so they can immediately pirate them?". Apparently, though, this move is to hopefully curtail the pirating trend. "They", whoever that is, believe that if people have a home viewable version of the movie at the same time of release, they will pay the extra $5.00 to purchase the authentic version with a non Xeroxed case sleeve and such - I know I would.

Like I said, this is good/bad news to me. The altruistic side of me hates when the economics of a situation cause age old things to change or end. People aren't going to movies anymore because of our "eh, I'll just wait for the DVD" mentality the majority of us have - and we've all said that at some point. I also believe that some interesting economic trends will come out of this. I think people will overall watch more movies because of the convenience. I think take out and home delivered food will increase while weekend restaurant business will decrease slightly. I think theaters with more capital will try and diversify what they use their screens for - digital concerts, etc. I think single guys will have to figure out a new activity to do on first dates. I think our domestic birth rate will increase. And I think Angelina Jolie movies will stick suck the big one (dude, she is so overrated).

If you would like the home version of this blog entry, please order it off the web site.

-Dale