ontario speeding to profits

globeandmail.com ran a story today on the new speeding law in ontario. a month into this law and over 1,000 people have been charged. i say kudos to this. not because it helps keep excessive speeding at bay - which clearly it doesn't if this many people got caught - but that we might as well capitalize on people's immense capacity for stupidity.

no one really needs to go 150 kph or faster. hell, how is that even possible these days with traffic jams being constant at almost all hours of the day. it must be all the country bumpkins who have open roads with which to burn some rubber.

they want to put the funds toward educational campaigns. i say boo to that. not when ignorance and stupidity can be so profitable. i think getting tagged with a $10,000 fine is education enough. When asked, Fantino wished he set it at 130. I don't agree with it being that low, mostly because i've been known to frequent that speed on an open 404 early on a sunday morning. but 140 seems reasonable and i bet that would almost double that 1,000 they've already nabbed.

24 / 7 - coming soon

fox just released the trailer for season 7 of 24:




yes, there have been a couple sub-standard seasons, but this looks not to be one of them. they've broken the molds that have kept the format a little static for a few seasons now. for starters, they've ditched CTU and have gotten the hell out of los angeles. bringing back tony almeida looks a little sketchy, but we'll have to see how it pans out.

i think that they could have gone a step or two further and shed all characters except for jack bauer. to be completely honest, they should have gotten rid of jack bauer a couple seasons ago. why? to keep it fresh, original, and semi-realistic. i mean, c'mon, how many 24 hour days of that intensity can one person have. granted the success of the series is largely due to the character, but the format might flourish without jack. it just opens up so many new avenues to explore. it's not like there's a lot of time for character development and characterization. we've only grown attached to jack because it's been so many seasons.

despite all that, 24 remains one of the select few absolute must-see programs out there today. it's riveting, action packed, high production values, anticipation and constantly moving story means you can't miss an episode or you have to wait until the dvd comes out.

goodbye cd's

i just recently completed digitizing all my cd’s, boxed up the cases and discs and banished them to the basement. forever relegated to a back-up if my hard drive ever gets wiped.

i can say that i’ve not bought a cd for myself in many a year (i have for my wife though). mostly that’s apathy as there isn’t much new music coming out that interests me. and what does, isn’t a whole album’s worth.

musicians should be happy. they have to do less now in the studio. which, btw, should make them happy since most of their money is made on tours and merch anyway. forget producing whole albums, they just have to put out singles. i think this could be a good thing. focus on that which is the best, pour more effort into it, and forget the also-ran musical chaff that you had to include to round out an album so consumers felt like they were getting their money’s worth out of the excessive prices cd’s were being sold for.

i was reading an article not too long ago (where i can’t say, even though i know that’s the point of a blog to share links and resources, i would if i could remember) that proclaimed the album dead. when music was first recorded (i’m talking in a viable, mass producable and stable medium here - not wax rolls), it was very much a singles market. elvis would go into the studio, record a track and that was the record. the concept of the album only evolved out of necessity. the cost to produce and market one song was disproportionate to a whole album, so by fitting more on one record, the labels could make more dough and the audience also benefited as they got more music. with the emergence of digital media an ADD audience, a singles market is returning because that’s all anyone is interested in paying for - that one song they like.

does that mean albums won’t be made, no. some bands cry foul in the name of artistic integrity of an album and not selling a piece of art piecemeal. i’m sure the labels will continue to make the whole album available, but delivering them to the market won’t be the same. nor will the marketing. but i think people will be more than happy to pay 99 cents for what they like and forfeit doling out the other $15 to $20 to maybe stumble upon somehting they like.

the postseason

tonight is the start of the 2007 mlb playoffs. many of you aren’t baseball fans and don’t think that playoff baseball is any different. but it is. everything changes once the first 162 games are finished.

as an avid baseball fan, i can admit that there can be slow games, maybe even boring ones. not in the playoffs. something magical happens. the baseball gods sprinkle a healthy dose of excitement and energy down on the 8 diamonds fortunate enough to make in. i find moreso than in any other pro sport, the games enhances so much more come playoff time.

take for example the one game playoff between the rockies and padres monday night. two teams fighting for their playoff lives. the game had everything you could dream of: controversy, grand slams, extra innings, blown saves, back and forth lead changes, stolen season records, blown calls, late rallies, defensive blunders and when it was all said and done, you were riveted for 4 hours and 40 minutes and didn’t even know it.

this year’s crop of teams all look to be a gritty bunch who will be battling hard. you have the improbable rockies who had to win 13 of their last 14 games just to get into a tie-breaker situation, the yankess who battled back from 14 games down in the division to almost taking it (and i hate to say anything nice about the yanks), the phillies who hung in and toppled the mets (that was equally the mets fault, but philly still capitalized), the d-backs who seemingly came out of left field (pun intended) and the sweet lou’s cubs who turned it around from 2006 and scrapped with milwaukee all season for their division.

and here’s to a national league team winning it all

hello blog world

well, i'm here to share my thoughts with the world like everyone else who thinks what they say matters or that people are interested or really care.