This is Epth Nation

Epth is a state of mind, not a place. Reading this will give you a virtual drivers license in that state, but you'll still need to be 21 to purchase alcohol. And you can't get any there anyway, so stop asking.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Is this my life? Maybe so.

I told you it would become my motto! I'm typing this from my spacious new room, with a security camera watching me at all times, unless I go to the very back corner of the room. That's where I'll have to smoke my ganja from now on. The security camera is there because of what they temporarily turned the place into while I was gone -- the "high-dollar" merchandise area. It's unlikely that the powers that be will be wasting time watching me in here unless something is stolen, in which case they will probably look back at the tapes from the time in question and confirm that I indeed did not steal anything. So the camera means exoneration for me, unless they are watching me at all times and seeing me constantly posting to this blog. But they knew that already if they've been checking my internet logs like they should.

Last night I taped Alias and the season finale of Lost. As for Lost, I'm going to see if you can only watch 1/2 hour of a show's season and then pick up everything right when it gets interesting at the end. It should be an interesting experiment. My prediction? I'll give up 10 minutes into it. Alias should be fun, though -- it's a special double episode. Ooo dang. But unless there are only 21 episodes this season, I don't think it was the finale. That should be next week. And I should have my impressions of season 4 after the finale wraps everything up. So far, it's "different from but the same as" earlier seasons, which is right in sync with how the show usually is. They seem to have tried to make each episode more self-contained, with less umbrella story arcs.

For the second time in a couple of months, a site I like to download TV episodes from has cowered before the might of the MPAA. I went to the site and I saw an accursed godaddy.com splash page there instead of the usual friendly torrents. It's sick. If TV producers and execs would just embrace the technology of bittorrent* instead of fearing it (i.e., uploading some "official" torrents themselves with commercials -- which would effectively be "TV on demand"), they could make lots of money and make everyone happy. Instead, they're just being TV jerks about the whole thing. I found a site in Sweeden, though, that works because Sweeden's TV copyright laws work properly. I'm trying to get the Survior finale right now. Hopefully it won't be in Swedish. Although that would be funny.

*Bittorrent is a peer-to-peer technology designed to securely deliver huge downloads. It does not work by the traditional P2P search, it works through "torrents" that are like gateways to a particular file. The sites that are being closed down are "trackers", which are simply a listing of torrents. No content is hosted on these sites, it's being hosted on the computers of others who are downloading it. As you download, other people start to download from you. Cool, eh? TV doesn't think so. I suppose their main problem with it is lack of advertising revenue (since the files you get always have the commercials ripped out), but since they provide no on-demand alternative, what's a 5-nights-a-week working fool to do? Use 30-year-old VCR technology (currently my only alternative)? Why is TIVO legal but not P2P show trading? We need to make a distinction between actual stealing (making copies of a DVD and selling them at 1/3 the cost, for example) and helpful trading. The sad part is, I'm still going to buy the DVD's for Alias, The Simpsons and Arrested Development, and rent the DVD's of several other shows from Netflix. What kind of fool am I?

8 Comments:

  • At 10:17 AM, Blogger jill said…

    we're not buying alias....

     
  • At 11:15 AM, Blogger Mike Pape said…

    Shh. The MPAA will hear you. Seriously, though, we're renting them then.

     
  • At 9:28 PM, Blogger Danny said…

    Mike,
    Why is it that so many people like alias (or at least you and my cousin)? It isn't as though I dislike the show, I don't really know it at all, but it seems as though you really, really enjoy it. Could you fill me in? Not on what's happening, but moreover just the big "why"? I have to admit that I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with Ms. Garner...but than again you have a lovely wife and dog, therefore rendering senseless beauty powerless...right?
    ps: I think that you should download the alias and instead buy the season of Magnum P.I. that they've released...Higgins, P.T., that white guy with big hair, and Thomas Magnum are enough for anyone...

     
  • At 7:46 AM, Blogger Mike Pape said…

    I find that all dramas from the 80's just make me laugh now. I just can't take them seriously. If I got Magnum, I'd just spend the whole time laughing about Tom Selleck's omnipresent chin and the token black helicopter pilot. The series had one of the best finales ever, though. I don't really remember -- did we find out that the guy who owned the house and the dogs didn't actually exist? Anyway, I remember it being awesome.

    Alias is just a fun, mindless spy show. It's like James Bond meets Felicity. Yes, some of the show's charm comes from the "what crazy outfit will Sydney (and in season four, Nadia) be wearing this week" factor, but it's mostly just over-the-top spy craziness with constant plot twists. The show also completely reinvents itself at least twice a season, so it never gets old or too formulaic. They've also set it up as a show where you never completely trust the characters and their motives, even the good guys. The only one you really never question is Sydney, and she's obviously what the whole show revolves around. Out of these trust issues come the fun plot twists.

    Also, they fill the show with double agent wives, dopplegangers, nifty gadgets, shadowy organizations bent on world domination, dead people who aren't really dead, and an extensive catalog of characters that flow in and out of the main storyline at the writers' whim. It's not a great show, but it sure is fun and interesting.

     
  • At 2:05 PM, Blogger Brian said…

    I've got to say, there are certainly times when it strikes me as a great show. And, let's be honest: it's actually a show about a group of power-hungry people obsessed with a really, really old guy. Because I think Rimbaldi is alive.

     
  • At 2:06 PM, Blogger Brian said…

    Also, did they ever say waht David Carradine shows Sloane in that first S3 episode he's in? I'm going to go look online, but I thought I'd pose the question here in case you wanted to look, too.

     
  • At 9:41 PM, Blogger jill said…

    hell, i like watching alias because of the hot jennifer garner. (emphasize i)

     
  • At 9:14 PM, Blogger Mike Pape said…

    Forgive the late comment, but I second that whole Rambaldi-is-still-alive thing. I remember in season one Jen Garner went to that clockmaker to get that stupid Rambaldi clock working, and it came out that the guy wasn't a descendant of the clockmaker, he was the 500-year-old clockmaker himself. I like how they introduce elements like that into the story and you think they're just red herrings or lost plots, and then they totally bring them back, like Anna Espinosa.

    A lot has to happen in that season finale next week, dude. I predict Sloane will save the day since I refuse to believe he's just evil again all of a sudden. And I think Jack knows what Sloane is planning, too.

    See? Fun.

     

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