It seems more of a personal attack on childhood memories than a business decision, but after three decades of representing portable music, Sony’s cutting the cord of Walkman units.
The pinnacle of portable listening devices has seen the toughest of competitors, and at the old (technological) age of 31, it is time to take out those ‘AA’ batteries and stick them into your TV remote.
How woeful it is to see such a device being taken off the shelves. It’s one of those “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone” moments more or less, but considering I have a different branded music player, I can’t be too protective of a brand that I myself don’t still endorse.
I always loved using our stereo to dub tracks from the radio, and years later from other CDs, to those cassettes that could be sped up double-time by holding the ‘Play’ button halfway.
Do you remember ‘Mega Bass’, or the other brand’s ‘Bass Boost’? It did practically nothing to the sound, but it proved to people that you weren’t one to mess around with your music. Those Beastie Boys would’ve been all intergalactic up in your grill if your Mega Bass wasn’t turned on.
I laugh now thinking about the ‘Shuffle’ function we have. When I had my portable CD player, I remember pressing the ‘Random’ button, only to keep pressing ‘Skip’ ten times until that one track I wanted to listen to came on. We’ve gone from twelve tracks on a disc to 12 weeks of music no bigger than the palm of your hand.
Sure, the Walkman has come and gone, but I will never yield my childhood memories for an apple with a bite in it.
Have you ever had this moment of numbness for something you remember?
When trying to decide what single track gave the most powerful effect to the most amount of listeners, you’ve got a plethora of challenges waiting for you. Music is so incredibly diverse with range that to simplify it as “What is the best song ever?” would be doing music injustice.
When I first heard ‘Plug In Baby’ from Brit band Muse, I was already amazed at the power of Origin of Symmetry. ‘New Born’ and ‘Bliss’ were both such memorable tracks the moment I heard them, but it wasn’t until the build-up of Plug In Baby that I fell in love with Muse.
My brother had just handed me the album not thirty minutes before demanding I listen to it, and knowing his skills at picking out pure gold, I listened.
And boy, did I listen. And it seems I wasn’t the only one, because that track was named ‘Greatest Riff of the Past Decade’ by Total Guitar magazine, which is an incredibly hard achievement to decide considering nowadays all we seem to hear are hybrid versions of the classic rock tunes of yesteryear.
Muse were honoured six years ago for the same song by getting number 13 for ‘Greatest Riffs of All Time’, but it was noted that the best of the ‘00s was Plug In Baby.
We’ve got a huge range of Muse’s discography at CD WOW, and if you’ve never heard any more than ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ or ‘I Belong To You’ (stupid Twilight), I highly recommend you pick these guys’ albums.
Richie Cunningham was a very recognisable name back in the 70’s due to the TV show Happy Days. Ron Howard’s clean-cut character was a symbol to the way which Americans hoped their son would end up like, minus the devious plots to attract women.
But it was father Howard Cunningham that was the essential voice of reason, contrasting the extremely cool and wild ‘Fonz’. Tom Bosley had a great comedic talent to nicely finish up jokes missing that final finishing ingredient.
He passed away this morning due to lung cancer, and even though I only knew this particular role of his, it’s still sad to read about it.
Parents in TV shows and movies that seem to encapsulate all sorts of personalities, but all with the best of intentions for the children of the family that we needed when we were young. So it’s normal to have a certain soft spot inside of us when something like a death happens.
No one would shed a tear for the Full Metal Jacket drill sergeant for his kindness (but for how awesome he was at being a drill sergeant).
Are there any mothers or fathers on TV or a movie that you think would’ve been awesome (aside from your own, of course)?
Being one of the Cosby kids would’ve been cool. You get all the lessons needed to grow up a respectful member of society, and you can listen to dad talk about pudding pops.
I’m sure as a mother she’d be irritating with that laugh, but That 70’s Show’s Kitty Forman makes an awesome mother. She even came down to the basement that one time, so she’s not a total prude.
I think I may have found my new hobby for the next few weeks.
A group of people have designed a program to quickly modify humans in already recorded shows (Baywatch) and green screen to give them more or less muscle, height and so on (I have a feeling they were wanting to originally try it with a certain actress in that show, but decided to stick to the safer, less suable option).
Most of the video above is quite ‘tech’y, and isn’t exactly what I’m getting at, but see the beginning and near the end to see what I mean.
Partying with Paris...makes sense.
If this type of technology was available to the public, just think of the possibilities we could have with already made films.
Oompa Loompas could all be normal-sized, and The Meaning of Life’s Mr. Creosote could be an incredibly thin man, who would then explode from a mint.
Technology can be an extremely powerful tool when it comes to the creation of new worlds, new visuals, and essentially anything else your imagination would want, but it’s always seemed a little out-of-reach.
If this technology was as easy to use as checking your e-mail, what films would you love to be completely (or slightly) altered, twisted, flipped, squashed and rolled?
I would love to alter home movies of when I was a kid to be abnormally muscular, being one of those freak babies. But then I’d have to face being the muscular baby who lost his way over the years.
Unless I film me now and modify that……..I’ll be back. *Runs*
When a movie is able to holster on to a fear you’ve either kept deep or inside (or let the whole world know about) and drag it out to build up an increasingly frightening couple hours, that’s a success story.
‘Arachnophobia’ was a film that kept people checking the backs of their necks, and any dark corners of their houses, for any eight-legged freak. Then ‘Eight Legged Freaks’ came out, and well that’s a whole different spider story.
I’m sure there are some out there who have watched the Chile miners being rescued and thought “Ack! Talk about claustrophobia!” with the contraption they built to squeeze the 33 miners out. But just imagine being trapped.
Yeah, I know. Kind of gives you the creeps thinking about it.
Out in cinemas now is ‘Buried’ with Ryan Reynolds as a truck driver who wakes up in a buried coffin with only a cigarette lighter, a mobile phone and a lot less reserve oxygen than he’d like to have. The whole film is kept within this tiny space, and with the risk of the movie being confined only to its space, was a brilliant success.
A new trailer for the film ‘127 hours’ has just been released, surrounding the real-life happenings of Aron Ralston, otherwise known as ‘That Guy Who *SPOILER*’. Here James Franco of Freaks and Geeks fame (I don’t want to mention the Spiderman film series) plays out the psychological and physical limits of someone in a very daunting situation.
I wouldn’t class myself as a claustrophobic person, but I’m sure all of you at one time in your lives imagined being trapped in a coffin, or underground, or something similar. These movies will always work beyond their storylines because they’re so good at playing with your fears.
Yes yes, you may remember I was drooling over the TRON: Legacy soundtrack to be released soon due to the power ‘house’ duo Daft Punk behind behind it all. Well today I caught a glimpse of the future, and I saw robots.
A sample release of one of the tracks sums up two things about what to expect. The first is an obvious homage to the Tron world via Daft Punk’s love and admiration for the first film.
The second is to remind us all that the TRON soundtrack is not Daft Punk’s new album, but a movie soundtrack.
And no matter how good it’s going to be nonetheless, we won’t be hearing tracks reminiscent of ‘One More Time’, ‘Da Funk’ or ‘Digital Love’.
Do you think I care though? Not one bit! Being a blind fanboy is a dangerous road to travel on, but seeing the reaction the world over for this 90 second sample is no detriment to the cause.
Kinda reminds you of the theme to the ‘Inception’ trailers, doesn’t it? Thanks, Mr. Nolan. You’ve successfully claimed the ‘BRRR!’ noise as your own.
It’s only two months away, but maaaan there’s a great line-up of products ready for Christmas this year.
We’ve stuck together the best new releases of this year and packed them all in to a nice and neat catalogue.
Inception was a brilliant flick, bringing a complex layering of dreams into a film that was shorter than a Lord of the Rings film. I still have friends discussing the ending.
Entourage’s sixth season is packaged together with the antics of Mr. Vincent Chase and his band of merry men. I tell you, I’m glad men finally have a show that annoys women as much as Sex and the City annoys men. Equilibrium has been made.
Speaking of HBO, the second season of True Blood and third season of Mad Men are awaiting your purchase. Vampires and advertisers. Same thing, am I right?
One of my favourite DVD collections for TV to pop up is the entire series of The Thick of It. Who doesn’t love a bunch of politicians and media types curse and prance around about how everything’s gone to the toilet?
Kings of Leon’s new album Come Around Sundown will grace our warehouses come next week, and I’m just as eager as the rest of you to hear anything besides ‘Use Somebody’.
I could go on about video games like Playstation 3’s ping-pong motion-detecting Move system and XBox 360’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, but I won’t go further. Let it be said though that these holidays are going to go by very quickly for this reason.
Of course you’ve heard of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (or Julia Roberts now), so why not pick up a copy for someone who you think would benefit reading the memoirs of a mid-life marriage crisis leaving it all behind for an enlightening trip.
Click here to soak up the cheap deals we’ve got for y’all. Best think about it now before the rest of the world starts ordering these DVDs, CDs, games, books and cosmetics before you.
It’s a shame he went all loopy and decided to be a part of an “accidental suicide” with the Barbarian Queen herself, Lana Clarkson.
I’ve made a joke or two about Pacino in the past, but it isn’t to say I don’t respect the actor. After all, who could’ve given a better performance in The Godfather and Scarface than Al?
But he’s also played some off-kilter characters as well. His recent TV movie You Don’t Know Jack was based on pro-euthanasia pathologist Jack Kevorkian, who definitely doesn’t look like a mobster at all.
When I looked through some photos of what Phil looked like over the years, I saw glimpses now of what could be.
With Barry Levinson of Rain Man fame directing, it could turn out to be a great biopic.
Can you think of any historical figures or current faces that could be made into a decent flick? I still think a Mr. T biopic played by Mr. T would be absolutely mindblowing.
I would definitely put forth my pity for any foolish person that thinks otherwise with their jabbering and jabbering.
There’s been an online petition going around to ‘cease and desist’ Weezer from releasing “endless whimsical cutesy album covers and music videos”.
Weezer’s drummer Patrick Wilson upped the ante, saying that they’re willing to make a deal at $20 million. Then they’ll release a ‘Deluxe Breakup’ album.
This got me thinking: Could this process have worked on bands in the past?
Think about it for a minute. What band, group or solo ‘artist’ has continuously aggravated you to no end during their reign on the Top 40 charts?
Was there an ‘indie’ group just trying to fit in to the crowd, or a pop singer who just wouldn’t quit, even when the fans did?
With enough money, anything’s possible, right? 50 Cent made a bet that he would stop making records if Kanye West outsold him in a week. Although 50 Cent revoked the bet once Graduation walloped Curtis on the charts.
Who would you get rid of now, or would have liked to get rid of while they caused havoc to your eardrums?
Don't mess up at the 'D', or you'll end up like Pluto.
December 17th marks a very important release to the public. The sequel to TRON, titled ‘TRON: Legacy’, is Disney’s latest big project, and the newest attempt at getting fans to wear unflattering costumes at movie theatres for opening night. Jeff Bridges will be playing a big part in it all, which is nice.
But we all know why you’re excited about it. Daft Punk’s in charge of the soundtrack.
The soundtrack is being released on the 22nd of November, and I know it’s silly to take on a movie soundtrack as if it was a new album by the French duo, but I simply don’t care. As we saw through the power of animation, Discovery turned into Interstella 5555. Why can’t we listen to the TRON soundtrack and treat it in the same fashion?
Their last release Human After All seemed so long ago, and the pressure is definitely there for Daft Punk to produce something even remotely close to the level of their amazing Alive album. It was almost a ‘Best of’ CD that looked back over the years with a big smile on our faces.
And don’t get me started about the announcement that they’re planning a stadium tour for 2011/2012.
Not only that, but Disneyland is going to provide a light show and dance club starting in two days all the way up the opening of the film. I’ve never been to a Disney rave. Perhaps that could be the most mindblowing experience of a lifetime. Forget Disney Castle, I want to be on the VIP list for ‘D’.
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