If you’re like me, and I know I am, you know that “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ is the best TV series ever made. But even though you’ve been picking up all the collections from Rhino and now Shout Factory or at least watching them on Netflix, there are tons of episodes you haven’t seen since they were originally broadcast. And you know that the episodes are out there somewhere on the internet, but that involves torrents and checksums and all kinds of other internet stuff that I mean really who needs it.
Turns out that some of the rarer episodes are out there on something that’s like YouTube but isn’t but is also owned by Google and like YouTube, it also shows videos. You can search for “Time of the Apes,” which is one I haven’t seen for over a decade and will likely never be released in one of the official sets because of rights issues. Other semi-rare classics to search for: “Daddy-O,” “Master Ninja I,” and “Fugitive Alien.”
I’m excited because I love MST3k and hate copyright.
I’m hoping everybody’s seen the brilliant Thru You project by now. The editor/composer of that, Israeli musician Kutiman has put together a new project: a video for Craftsman tools:
Only the finest things are recommended by Spectre Collie.
I got a totally not-lying, for-real request from an actual human being to make a list of my favorite iPhone apps and put it online. Seriously — making lists and giving out my opinions unsolicited are two of my favorite things to do, and now I’m being encouraged to do them.
So I put up a Tumblr log, called Recommended by Spectre Collie, which I’ll eventually expand on and possibly incorporate on this site, depending how ambitious I get and if I ever get more free time. For now it’s only got a few iPhone games, but eventually it could be a repository for anything I’d like people to buy, read, or watch, and then come back and thank me for pointing it out to them. The RSS Feed is here for people who swing that way.
Incidentally, if you weren’t aware, and you’re interested, there’s already another Tumblelog called SpectreCollie Annex that links to my favorite stuff from YouTube, Flickr, and random websites (when that works).
At least, that’s if you believe everything you read on the internet. If you’re still at all grounded in reality, you realize that Apple announced a big iPod Touch.
(That’s if you’re not still giggling over the name. And for the record, I never would’ve made the obvious joke had I known a) they were actually going to call it that, and b) it would so quickly become the 2010 equivalent of abbreviating Microsoft as M$ by YouTube & blog commenters).
I still don’t understand why so many Internet types — both criticizing and defending — seem to think that calling it “a big iPod Touch” is such a devastating ice burn. John Gruber insists that the iPad is what Apple’s had in mind all along; the iPad isn’t a bigger iPhone, but the iPhone is a stripped-down iPad. Whichever way you want to look at it: the iPhone is pretty cool.
The iPad announcement confirmed my own worst suspicions of the thing — not that I’m particularly prescient or even in the loop of the tech world, but just because it was the most straightforward and obvious thing that Apple could’ve announced. It’s designed for consuming media, not creating it. And according to people who’ve had a hands-on with it, it does a really good job at that. I’m inclined to believe Stephen Fry’s claim that you have to see it in person to really appreciate it — not because he’s any more or less reliable than anyone else as a technology commentator, but because I had the same experience with the iPhone. I’d been trying to talk myself out of getting an iPhone, but was completely won over as soon as I used a display model and saw the clarity of the screen and all the polish that’d been given to the UI.
And the iPhone is still pretty damn neat. It’s already obviated a laptop computer for a lot of the “casual computing” stuff I tend to do, and the app store has expanded its functionality several times over. And yes, I have often thought, “a faster version of this, with a larger screen, would be ideal.” So what’s the problem?
“The P.I.S.S is by far the most together group in the show biz.”
I’ve already linked to this elsewhere, but it makes me sad to think there are people out there who haven’t seen it. Presenting the Best Video On The Entire Internet, “Kiss Shreds” by the inimitable St Sanders (presumably):
“The P.I.S.S is by far the most together group in the show biz.”
