Mistress Darkness

You Are a Unique Wedding

For you, love is rare and important. You consider love a gift, and you're know you're lucky for each person in your life who truly loves you. To be unloved would make you feel rejected. You love carefully and deliberately, and you take being loved in return very seriously. Romantic love makes you feel secure and taken care of. You take romantic relationships seriously, even in their early stages. When you're with someone, you tend to quickly build your own little world together. It's likely that outsiders don't truly get your relationships.

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I imagine many have already heard of Joss Whedon's offer to buy the Terminator franchise rights. I was reminded of it when I read this short piece about falling DVD sales, slow Blu-Ray adoption and how this impacts movie profitability. "[T}he DVD business has been the most profitable part of the film industry with many films becoming profitable only after the film is released on DVD." But falling sales are leading to price increases in DVDs. Because this article focused on movies only it didn't mention how TV series DVDs were being affected, but presumably they are also declining since the article talks about streaming video online, and that's being done with TV.

This made me think of the Terminator issue because people who are real fans tend to buy DVD sets (either that or people with small children and no cable). And Joss does seem to make shows that sell DVDs out of proportion to their original ratings. It's a pity he won't get the rights, I'm sure he could do something interesting with it.

On a different note, SPARC has put out a report on different income models for open-access publishers that reviews current practices being employed. Seems a good time to consider this. An open-access journal that I was a peer reviewer for has closed down after ten years of publishing and three sponsorship moves. I suspect it won't be alone.

Found via a post on (I believe) dot_pagan_snark...

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog.

Oh, Jesus, I haven't laughed this hard in weeks. I took Middle English in university, and whoever's writing this inspired parody has got it down pat as far as I can tell.

An excerpt from one of the list of Favourite Posts...

Serpentes on a Shippe! (spoylerez)

Al of Londoun ys aflame wyth newes of the grete entertaynment of 'Serpentes on a Shippe,' the which ys perfourmed ech daye by the menne of the gild of beekeeperes (and thus ys ycleped a 'b-movie'). Ich haue just nowe retourned from a trippe to see yt wyth Litel Lowys and Tommy Vske. Whan ich was ther, Tommy founde for me a copye of the romaunce in fyve chapteres on whiche the performaunce ys based, and Ich shal pooste yt heere for yower redyge. (This writer hath a verye good style - ich am reallye jealous. Oon daye, peraventure, ich shalle write sum thyng of Arthur; and yet, the matir of Troye hath alwey ben easier for me.)

Spoyler alert: If ye haue nat yet sene the performaunce of 'Serpentes on a Shippe,' rede nat of the romaunce, for it doth telle of the manye suprises and straunge eventes that happen in the course of the storye, and thus it mayhap shall lessen yower enjoiement of the performaunce yt self.

...

*wipes eyes*

Maybe you have to be an English major to appreciate it.

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WOW.



( Two more behind the cut )

Yes indeed... back before "Photoshop" was even a gleam in the eyes of the future, it took real painterly talent to create a good movie poster. I stand in awe.

The rest here @ pfodge

I heard a story on the BBC about how Africa is starting to follow Japan's lead in downloading novels to mobile phones, including those with interactive elements. I was looking for a link to it on the BBC website and didn't find it but did come across this story about how UK publishers are completely uninterested in eBook development.

On the Media had a whole episode devoted to a look at the evolution (or devolution perhaps) of the music industry. Of particular interest was their segment on what the music charts actually mean today and the dramatic changes that can occur when the data collected changes. I had to wonder if the same thing might happen to TV ratings in the future.

Of particular interest though is that musicians are coming up with their own definition of fans. While academics still can't seem to agree on a common definition, unsurprisingly money is a key issue for the artists:( Read more... )