Tuesday, JUNE 20th at the Wembly Arena in London kicks of the ONE NIGHT ONLY WORLD TOUR of SPINAL TAP! heh…hehh….one night only…..world tour…. hheheheh.

1984 Rob Reiner created a fake documentary mock Rockumentary about the fictional band Spinal Tap. Reiner plays the part of filmmaker Marty DiBergi as he chronicles the bands first US tour. The film satirizes the wild personalities and antics of Heavy Metal bands, but then accidentally makes the fake band quite popular. To mark the 25th anniversary of the movie, the actors are staging a “Come Back” World Tour (that will only be held one night). They have a new album with a fold out cover that includes paper dolls of the band. I find myself laughing about this world tour and the whole premiss of the movie, but I don’t remember it being too family friendly.

I checked on the IMBD guide for parents has the following bit of information about this movie;

Some innuendo, some in the form of lyrics. Suggestive scene involving tight trousers. A pickle is found in someone’s pants. 23 F-words. Some S-words. Highly suggestive lyrics.

Spinal Tap Website.

I was so happy when I saw this video on Facebook last week.  I’ve written before about the art of Sampling music or sounds and re-organizing them into a new composition but this is different.  A street musician by the name of Roger Ridley was playing the song “Stand by me”.  Hearing his passion started the organization aptly known as “Playing for Change”.  Their goal is to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music.  They recorded Roger playing and then used that recording as a base track and had other musicians from around the world add to it.  The result is magical.  It’s not truly sampling, it’s a collaboration on a global scale. 

You can learn more about this project at their website. 

The other day I was listening to a podcast called This Week in Media.  One of the reoccurring themes of this media podcast is the conversation about the future of TV.  When my family got a VCR I was amazed by the ability to set it up to record a show that I wasn’t around to watch.  I could then watch it at my leisure and even fast forward through the commercials.  This process is now called time shifting.  The TV show is available on MY schedule, and the idea of rushing home to see a show is not quite as relevant as it once was.

Well, now things have gone digital.  If you miss a show, there’s a good chance that it’s available for you to watch on the Internet.  It seems like all the major networks have an online video service and with the AppleTV and Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, you can now connect your TV to the internet through these consoles.  Now with everybody wanting to have an internet presence for their TV shows, it seems like things are getting a bit muddled.  It’s always been so easy to just sit in front of the TV and surf the channels, but how do you surf through the World Wide Web to find a show to watch?  You go to YouTube.

YouTube seemed to just be a dumping ground for user created video.  Now they’re supporting HD content AND they have a section for SHOWS and MOVIES.  You can watch all seven seasons of MacGuyver or the first season of The Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon.  How about the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau staring Alan Arkin in place of Peter Sellers.  Or how about the 1967 film Casio Royale starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and a chimpanzee as James Bond.

All this time I thought that the built in inclusion of YouTube on the iPhone and Playstation3 and other media devices was just a waste of time.  Now I see that it is all so that we can watch TV where ever and whenever we want to.

I don’t watch broadcast tv anymore, but I do enjoy their programing.  I hear about new shows or old shows from friends and then I download and watch them.  I don’t pay complete attention to when the shows are actually broadcasting because I never watch them live anymore.  So, I would turn to TV.com to check when new episodes are out and get some information about the shows.  Well, TV.com is changing.  The site is a part of the CBS Interactive Entertainment and it looks like they’re getting ready to go up against Hulu offering commercial supported streaming video of TV shows and movies on the internet.The thing that I think is most interesting about this is that CBS pushed out a streaming video player for iPhones of all the content available on TV.com, including for the first time impressive full-length episodes of

some—but not most—shows.  Cool stuff.  I found the article at Gizmodo.

I guess that I don’t need to rush out and get that converter box so the kids can keep watching Curious George on PBS.  The Analog to Digital broadcast change over date has been changed.  Before Sunday’s SuperBowl, I can’t remember the last time I turned on the TV to watch a broadcast show.  I don’t have cable and I don’t really watch live TV.  For more information check out the Broadcasting Cable website.

Michael Crichton, the million-selling author who made scientific research terrifying and irresistible in such thrillers as “Jurassic Park,” “Timeline” and “The Andromeda Strain,” has died of cancer, his family said. Crichton died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 66 after privately battling cancer.

When I was in Japan (15 years ago) I was surprised by the different types of vending machines they had.  You could buy food, beer, batteries, and even underwear.  Well it seems that our insatiable appetite for media has demanded the creation of a Media Vending machine.

I had seen this presentation by J.J. Abrams at TED when it was first released last year, and then saw it again on Otis Frampton’s blog.  I think that it’s a wonderful presentation about the magic and power of storytelling.

I haven’t completely researched this yet but I find it fascinating.  I wanted to be an animator for Disney.  I interviewed and sent in portfolios and never made it.  I tried Fox Animation and learned just how competitive the industry could be.  I’ve got enough rejection letters to wallpaper my house.  I got a bit huffy and thought, “Baah!  I don’t need someone else to allow me to make animation.”  I’ve always liked the idea of Ed McMahon or some other Voice Over talent saying, “LIVE from Studio B… it’s SPENCER BRINKERHOFF!”  So I just put a few things together.

I’m Spencer Brinkerhoff III, and my site is Studio “S” “B” “3″.  So now it’s “LIVE from Studios B3…”  :D  I’ve always thought that the web was the way to make things happen for myself.  I haven’t buckled down and made my own series yet, but I can see it happening.

So here’s what’s new.  At the San Diego ComicCon there was a big panel discussion about the tv show, The Greatest American Hero.  I haven’t researched it yet so I’m not sure exactly what it’s all about, but it would appear that they are making a comic or bringing back the show.  Today I found a link to a website that says it’s a new web series.  It may be a fan made production, but I’m impressed that they are doing it.

The Greatest American Hero

The next one is on a bit of a bigger scale.  I had heard that Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and Firefly etc. was going to be doing a new project. I need to do some more research, but it would appear that it’s an online series.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along blog

I started watching this and was not too impressed.  I saw that the whole thing was 40+ minutes and I started to squirm.  I’ve got work to do and I don’t think that I have the patience to sit and…..Sing-along?  Neil Patrick Harris is Singing?  But it’s, well, it’s GOOD!  LOL!  I couldn’t turn it off.  I minimized my other windows so that I could have one eye on the show and the other on what I was working at.  I was laughing out loud!  I’m on the fence with the ending, but I’ll watch it again with my wife and give it another shot.  I need to go through and read more about it, but the web is the way to  distribute.