The Offspring and Coldplay made free song downloads available to in an effort to promote their albums. We see this strategy all the time from record companies. Those of you that are familiar with the iTunes Free Single of the Week will know what I’m talking about. This strategy confuses me though, since the RIAA continuously fights file sharing.

It’s a fact that free music downloads actually help album sales. I always buy albums that I think are good, because I actually want to own them. Recently a friend burned me a copy of a Green Day album. I had the copy and didn’t need to buy it, but I did. Why? Because the album was good and Green Day and the record company deserve my money.

Back in the days when tapes were traded, the same thing held true. A friend would give me a tape they made, and if I liked what I heard, I went out and bought the album. Shockingly, tape trading was mainly how Metallica rocketed to fame. Yet years ago they started the fight against file sharing.

If free music is the evil entity for record companies, why do they practice giving music away for free themselves? They must think by giving away their tunes it will help sales on albums, otherwise they wouldn’t make the files available for free. Why not just let people trade freely if it’s so positive for them? I know some people will abuse the system and not purchase the album when they should. This rule applies to anything, including the late, great days when tapes were passed around, but the record companies need to stop fighting against the listening public who embrace free downloads and instead embrace the system for what it is. The freedom and love of music.

OK people. You all need to settle down. Actually, maybe not so much the people, but the media in general. Everybody’s making a big deal about this Miley Cyrus dealie. She’s showing her back people! No boobies and really, not all that much flesh at all. It’s also Vanity Fair, not Playboy or even Maxim.

People are acting like young girls posing sexy in magazines is new thing. Miley has plenty of company when it comes to girls under 18 posing with skin showing. Hell, Britney Spears made an entire career out of it.

Oh but I get it. She’s embarrassed by it. So is that the story? She’s embarrassed by it? Ooo, very interesting! How about we spend our resources on stories like the election or the war?

There is a moment when you’re in the DVD section of your favorite store and your brain thinks “Miss Congeniality 2 would be a good addition to my DVD collection.” It happens almost every time I go to buy movies. It’s a fact that 1 out of 3 DVDs purchased will never make it out of the shrink wrap. 1 out of 6 will end up on eBay within a year. 90% of statistics are just made up too! Here are a few DVDs I still own and don’t know why.

Vanilla Sky

It was $3 at Wal-Mart. It sits in my DVD collection still in shrink wrap. I was unfortunate to have to sit through this flick in the theater. It was long, disturbing, and uncomfortable to watch once, let alone more than once on a DVD.

Family Guy

I think this show is on every channel on my cable network. Pretty much anytime I want to see this show, I can just flip in on Fox, TBS, or Cartoon Network. Kind of defeats the purpose of having the DVDs.

Million Dollar Baby

With that ending, nobody wants to watch this movie again. It’s not that it was a bad movie, it’s just not one of those movies you need to see more than once. Kind of like Black Hawk Down. Good, but the mood is not one I want to experience too much.

Baseketball

For some reason, when I saw this movie in the movie theater, I remember it being hilarious. I had to get the DVD on Amazon when it became available. I watched it once at home and now I wonder how in the world I thought this movie was ever funny. I guess I’ve actually matured.

The Matrix 2 and 3

I fell for it. These were ‘must have’ DVDs because the first movie was so cool. After people took a step back and realized the sequels were crap, the DVDs ended up in bargain bins everywhere. Parts 2 and 3 along with a few crappy video games under the Matrix name ruined this franchise for good.

Star Wars: Episode 2

Everybody said they got it right this time around. They didn’t! It was better than Phantom Menace, but still not worthy of a DVD purchase. The only entertainment I get out of this movie is watching it with a Rifftrax.

So I’m sure people are going to bash Britney Spears over her appearance on So I Met Your Mother. Yes, I agree the acting was terrible, but guess what, Britney Spears is not an actor. Yah! That’s right! She’s a singer. She’s not supposed to be good at acting. She was on the show to get ratings and she probably got a hefty fee for that appearance.

Britney is just like the other countless actors that have tried their hand at acting. Terrible! Elvis Presley wasn’t any good at acting either, but he did plenty of terrible movies and they all made money. So really it makes no sense to bash her for what many other singers are terrible at. It should be treated like any other appearance when a singer, model or any other person whose field outside of acting makes an appearance in a movie or television show.

After years of waiting for this sequel, Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day is finally getting made. Check out writer Troy Duffy’s video about it and celebrate, because everybody’s Irish today.

Am I the only one that doesn’t get the high definition television craze? Maybe I’m getting to be an old man, but I like my 3 old analog TV’s, and I don’t plan on spending money to replace them. I’ve been to the electronics stores and looked at these televisions. The televisions look very “pixelated” to me. That’s not something I want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on. I know these new televisions are slim and sexy and supposedly better, but It just seems that people are going crazy to chuck their old analog televisions out the door. They find reasons to purchase a $4,000 mammoth, high def television on credit. I don’t see the value.

I’ll admit that I picked a neighbor’s garbage. I found a perfectly fine 27″ television sitting out in the rain. The thing sits in my living room and works great. I can make out Roger Clemens’ face on it as he lies to all baseball fans. I don’t need to see him in high def. Am I the only one that doesn’t get it? Or is everybody just falling for another consumer rush?

I’ve been really into classic gaming lately and through my searches, I came across the documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It’s about the fight between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell for the highest recorded score on Donkey Kong. What started out for me as a trip down memory lane to my childhood of playing in arcades turned into something more in this film. It’s a great “Charlie Brown” like story. You know, the good guy always comes in second and never wins. The bad guys always win, and for all those second placers to get by, they just have to be content with the fact that they gave it their best shot.

The movie also delves into a world where people do nothing but compete in classic video games all day long. I was shocked to see people that play Pac-Man and Frogger all day long still exist. I thought I was a big geek, but these people top me and anybody I’ve met in my techie/geeky world.

This is not only a good video gaming movie, it’s a good movie PERIOD. A definite must see. If you are interested in seeing it as well, you might have a hard time finding it at your local stores. I couldn’t locate it at Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart or Target. Instead I ordered it on Amazon Unbox and watched it on my TiVo.