In a World Where People Watch Movies

The Guardian has a great piece on how all movie trailers look alike, sound alike, begin with the words "in a world" and have the same guy doing the voiceover:

... by far the oddest practices in the world of trailers concern the music that accompanies them. Film scores tend to be completed so late in the production process that most trailer editors can't use the correct music even if they want to; normally, however, they don't. Deploying the music from a successful older film to advertise a new one must be about as close to subliminal advertising as it's legally possible to get.

"Fire In Brooklyn Theatre," a foreboding instrumental song from the 1991 film Come See the Paradise, has been used in trailers for Clear and Present Danger, A Few Good Men, and nearly two dozen other films.

A snippet of the song can be heard on the soundtrack page on Amazon.Com.

The director of the film, Alan Parker, can't escape the song:

There is a Randy Edelman cue in my film ... that has been used for the trailers of at least a dozen other movies at last count. I even have to listen to it every weekend because it's also been pinched for the theme music of the Premiership Plus matches on Sky.

Joshua Allen wrote a funny fake roundtable discussion of how the trailer was made for the Tom Cruise film Minority Report:

Erskine: Don't be coy, give us whatcha got. Combee: 'In a world where crimes are st -- ' Doven: No. Combee: But -- Doven: No 'in a world.' Erskine: What do you mean no 'in a world?' 'In a world' is our bread and butter. Test audiences love 'in a world.' The people like knowing a movie's going to be 'in a world.'

Music · Movies · 2005/06/13 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

Deep Daughter's Past Illuminated

A front-page story in Sunday's Washington Post examined Deep Throat daughter Joan Felt's association with Adidam:

Joan Felt is a devotee of an unusual and controversial self-proclaimed guru who, in two California lawsuits and several public statements 20 years ago, was accused of sexual abuse, slavery, false imprisonment, assault and brainwashing that was said to include persuading people to give him all their money.

Asked about the guru today, Joan Felt says, "None of this has anything to do with the Deep Throat story." She won't talk about the guru's group, known as Adidam as well as the Johannic Daist Communion. Nor would she discuss the length and scope of her role within it. Earlier this month, when asked about it in a brief encounter outside her house, she said Adidam was like Buddhism.

The reporter called numerous people who have been involved in Adidam, according to a participant in the online discussion forum where Felt's association with the group was first brought to light.

Although I helped push this story along, I have no idea whether Adidam influenced the decision to reveal Deep Throat's identity. If Joan Felt's study group was active in Santa Rosa, you'd think the Post could have found someone there to discuss her current level of involvement.

Politics · Journalism · 2005/06/13 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

Movable Gripe

A review:

What is the Last Book You Bought? The Movable Type 3 Bible by Rogers Cadenhead -- singularly the most useless reference book I've ever bought. I've learned one thing. One measly thing. Put this on your "do not buy" list.

Potential cover blurb for the next edition: "singularly the most ... I've learned."

Publishing · 2005/06/10 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

Unsolved Disappearances at Sea

The story about disappearing cruise ship passengers has been picked up by MSNBC.

This may be a statistically improbable thing to care about, since 10 million people cruise each year and around 12 have gone overboard during voyages in five years.

However, each incident affects thousands of people, because the ships turn back to participate in searches, and some may involve foul play rather than suicide or accident.

There also can't be many more grim tragedies to endure than a loved one who disappears off a ship in the middle of the ocean, never to be found. Seven years after Amy Bradley was lost on the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas, her family still has no answers for what happened to the 23-year-old.

Florida · Jacksonville · 2005/06/10 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

When Reporters Attack

Washington Post reporter Mark Leibovich covers a raucous press conference with Sens. Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, and DNC Chair Howard Dean:

The press chorus then devolved into a cacophony of competing screams. (And Dean knows screams!) After several seconds, a booming voice cut through the noise. It belonged to Brian Wilson, a Fox News correspondent who was standing in the middle of the crowd. He asked Dean "if people are focused on the other things that you've said about hating Republicans, about Republicans being dishonest and then this latest comment about the Republican Party is full of white Christians. You say you hate Republicans -- does that mean you also" hate white Christians?

Dean didn't respond and Reid talked about having a "positive agenda." Wilson was so insistent that at one point, Durbin asked, "Does he run the press conference?"

... An aide to Reid announced that the photo op was over.

"We'll decide when we're ready," Wilson said. Later, Durbin would recount the scene with some exasperation. He chided the media for avoiding important issues in favor of trivial matters. "Please, for a minute, get to the substance," he said to a group of reporters. "You guys should be ashamed of yourselves."

The article's more interesting when you learn that Wilson and Leibovich got into a journalistic sissyfight after the event:

Wilson was apparently wearing no credential of any kind (that wasn't a red flag to anyone) and behaving "bizarrely angry" so the Washington Post's Mark Leibovich asked who he was.

We hear that Wilson "went nuts," responding to the Post reporter (whose credentials were clearly on display):

"Who the fuck are you?"

I hope that Leibovich had the good sense to give the correct answer to that question.

Journalism · Politics · Television · 2005/06/10 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

As you enter Disney World Epcot, you pass granite monuments covered with thousands of postage stamp-sized etched metal portraits.

Getting a single picture on a Leave a Legacy monument costs around $35, and I've always regarded it as a very moving tribute to Disney's ability to separate millions of dollars from their original owners.

However, on my last trip I glanced over a few of the portraits, spotting one next to a woman and child with an inscription "Cesar Alviar 9-11-2001."

Alviar was a Marsh & McLennan accountant who died in Tower One of the World Trade Center.

Florida · 2005/06/09 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

Tracking an IP Address

A person calling himself Ranveer of Mumbai visited the Drudge Retort last night, posting three memorable anti-American rants:

... you have the gall to talk about not finding anything pure to drink in India other than Coke? Even our cows' urine is more pure than your drinks.

As I checked the IP address to see if Ranveer was really posting from India, I thought the links might be useful to others. Here's what I do when playing Scooby Doo Internet detective:

• The IP address to host name service reveals the name associated with an address, if one has been defined.
• A traceroute service identifies each hop from a chosen server to the address.
• Three WHOIS registrars -- APNIC, ARIN, and RIPE -- can tell you what company controls an IP address.

The WHOIS registrars cover different regions, so for any IP address, one provides a definitive answer and the others offer generic information covering the entire IPv4 Internet (the range 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255).

For example, ARIN identifies that the address 207.46.130.108 belongs to Microsoft, while APNIC and RIPE come up with bupkiss.

The only thing that worked on Ranveer was APNIC. He posted his comments from an address owned by REACH, a global Internet provider that specializes in Asian connectivity and has offices in Mumbai.

2005/06/09 · 18 COMMENTS · Link

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