iSawNEWS » Entertainment

Arizona’s Renaissance Festival

Admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:52:30 +0000

Arizona’s annual Renaissance Festival kicks off on February 6th, 2010, and runs through the end of March. I’m giving you plenty of head’s up so you can plan your vacation to Arizona accordingly! Need to get out of the snow and cold of your home state (or country)? A visit to Arizona in February will treat you to sunshine and temperatures in the high-sixties.

I may complain about the summers on a regular basis, but I’ve got nothing but good things to say about the winters.

Anyway. The Ren Fest. It’s fun. If you purchase tickets from a local Fry’s Supermarket, the cost is $18.00 for adults, $8.00 for kids 5-12 (kids under five are free). If you buy the tickets on-line, it’s $19.00 for adults, $9.00 for kids. And if you buy tickets at the gate, it’s $20.00 for adults, $10.00 for kids, $17.00 for seniors.

Turkey legs the size of… well, your leg. Artichoke hearts with butter for dipping. Beer and Meade. Chocolate dipped strawberries. Face painting. Arts and crafts. Wenches and barbarians. The Ded Bob Sho and other live entertainment on twelve different stages. Jousting. Glass blowing demonstrations. You can even dress up in Renaissance garb – costume rentals are provided by several vendors at the festival. All enjoyed in the Arizona sunshine. There really is no reason NOT to go.

It is open every Saturday and Sunday, and Presidents’ Day Monday, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. From Phoenix, take US 60 east past Kings Ranch Road to the Festival Village. From Tucson, take Rt. 79 to Florence Junction, then 7 miles west on US 60 to Festival Village. Call 520-463-2700 for more information. Rain or Shine – No Pets – Free Parking.

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HP refreshes touch PCs

Admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:01:14 +0000

Hewlett-Packard took the wraps off its latest line of touchscreen PCs, a category that seems to be edging its way into the consumer consciousness.

The growing popularity of smartphones means people are much more comfortable computing via touch — rather than typing — and new devices are crowding into the market. Touchscreen computers also allow companies like HP to innovate on the traditional PC paradigm, offering fresh applications and stretching the limits of what a traditional PC can do.

“This is not just a gimmick, you have to make it something that’s would be useful for people,” said John Cook, vice president of marketing in HP’s consumer PC unit.

HP’s TouchSmart line was first introduced in 2007, and the company now sells a laptop model along with two all-in-one desktops. The TouchSmart tx2 laptop features a multi-touch screen that can swivel to lie flat. The company’s latest desktops, a 20-inch and 23-inch model, will ship in the U.S. with a number of pre-installed apps–another smartphone feature that has migrated to PCs–including Hulu, Netflix and Twitter. Many people using the all-in-ones on the kitchen counter as an entertainment hub of sorts.

HP also unveiled traditional business laptops, the ProBook 6545b and 6445b, that may not be touch, but still offer users innovative features–namely a spill-resistant keyboard with a drain underneath. When liquid goes in, it comes spilling out a hole in the bottom, rather than sloshing around inside for weeks. The new ProBooks also feature HP Power Assistant, an intuitive program that helps a user to better manage power and extend battery life.

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Rupert Murdoch: You call it free news, I call you ‘kleptomaniac’

Admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:57:21 +0000

Lest anyone doubt the thrust of Rupert Murdoch’s speech on Thursday (or was it Friday? I’m losing track of time zones) at the World Media Summit in Beijing, it was all about paying for news — as in: You’re going to pay for news, and if you think it shouldn’t cost you anything, you’re a “flat-earther” and a “kleptomaniac.”

For those of you accustomed to the News Corp CEO’s occasional verbal ramblings and hints of ghosts of suggestions, this was a departure. He has gone on the record in great detail about his thoughts regarding paid news, but this is the first time that I recall him using fightin’ words like “flat-earther.”

Murdoch also “urged the Chinese government to take full advantage of the country’s creative potential by opening the door to media competition and ensuring that intellectual property is protected,” according to the speech and the press release, but let’s be clear — the message that resonated was: “You’re going to pay for news as long as we need to pay people to report it.”

Here’s the Reuters take, “leding” on China.

The New York Times’s David Carr throws in some similar comments from the head of The Associated Press, and says that it and News Corp are “cocking the gun” on free news. Pungent!

And here is the AP’s take on its own story.

Finally, here’s the speech itself. There’s plenty to digest.

Rupert Murdochs Speech at the World Media Summit

(Reuters Photo: Rupert Murdoch on the left, China’s president Hu Jintao on the right. Behind them is David Schlesinger, who runs Reuters News)

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Donna Friedman Meir, Respected Kids Entertainment Executive, Joins KIDO’Z – Exciting New Web Operating System for Kids

Admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:04:22 +0000

Former National Geographic Kids Entertainment President and Founder, Donna Friedman Meir, joins KIDO’Z, the Web Operating Environment for kids. Her role at KIDO’Z is Chief of Content and Strategy. Her expertise will add tremendous value in shaping the content and overall creative strategy for this global platform, which is powered by parents and managed by industry experts.
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Would Polanski get a pass if he were a paedophile priest?

Admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:16:54 +0000

It’s hard to watch France’s political and cultural elite rush to support filmmaker Roman Polanski against extradition to the United States on a decades-old sex charge and not wonder exactly how they interpret the national motto “liberté, égalité, fraternité.” It’s tempting to ask whether they’re defending the liberty to break the law and skip town, respecting the equality of all before the law and championing a brotherhood of artists who can do no wrong.

(Photo: Roman Polanski, 19 Feb 2009/Hannibal Hanschke)

Here in Paris, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner declared the arrest was “a bit sinister … frankly, (arresting) a man of such talent recognised around the world, recognised in the country where he was arrested — that’s not very nice.” He and his Polish counterpart have written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the issue. Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand said “just as there is a generous America that we like, there’s also an America that scares us, and that’s the America that has just shown us its face.” Directors, actors and intellectuals have been signing a petition demanding Polanski’s immediate release.

Almost all the focus is on the argument that Polanski is a brilliant director, the charge of unlawful sex with a 13-year old dates back to 1977 and the victim herself says she wants the whole issue to be forgotten. Almost completely ignored is the fact that he fled the U.S. to escape sentencing, which added a crime to the original crime. There is such a widespread assumption that all artists and intellectuals would automatically support Polanski that Paris papers today — both the left-of-centre Libération and the conservative Le Figaro — wrote with an air of surprise that Hollywood was not storming the barricades to back him.

The French Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit made headlines by bucking the trend and saying he was “ill at ease” with the rush to absolve Polanski of raping a minor and the culture minister should have been more cautious in his comments.

Across the Atlantic, by contrast, Hollywood’s hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times, reviewed the objections by Polanski’s supporters and concluded: “Plausible or preposterous, these arguments are eclipsed by a simple fact: Polanski fled the country … the Justice Department and L.A.’s district attorney are right to seek extradition.”

And almost nobody in the media here in France asks the tough questions that Fr. Tom Reese, S.J. (photo at right) did in his Washington Post blog post entitled “Father Polanski would go to jail”:
“Polanski’s defenders … argue that he should not be punished. They say that the girl was willing and sexually experienced and she has forgiven him (after receiving a settlement). They even cite his tragic childhood and life as an excuse. And besides, it is ancient history. Such arguments from paedophile priests would be laughed out of court and lambasted by everyone, and rightly so…

“The Catholic Church has rightly been put under a microscope when 4 percent of its priests were involved in abuse, but what about the film industry? The world has truly changed. Entertainment is the new religion with sex, violence and money the new Trinity. The directors and stars are worshipped and quickly forgiven for any infraction as long as the PR agent is as skilled as a saintly confessor. Entertainment, not religion, is the new opiate of the people and we don’t want our supply disturbed.

“Is there a double standard here? You bet.”

There’s a lot to say about the different ways Americans and French approach the law. But let’s go right to Tom Reese’s question. Do you think Polanski’s supporters cut him slack they wouldn’t think of permitting for a paedophile priest? Is the entertainment industry setting our values?

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Sony’s PlayStation chief: We’ll get iPod game dabblers

Admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:33:03 +0000

So what happens when the Apple suggests your handheld game device is sub-par? Out of touch? Passe? ‘Dems fighting words, right?

That’s what I asked Sony’s PlayStation boss Jack Tretton during a recent interview. His response? Keep talking, Apple — you’re only creating more future PlayStation users.

A little background: Earlier this month, Apple’s Phil Schiller said this about Sony’s PlayStations Portable (PSP) and the Nintendo DS, which have together sold more than 150 million units around the globe:

When these things came out they seemed so cool. But once you play a game on the iPod touch, they don’t really stack up anymore. They don’t have this amazing multi-touch user interface. The game are kind of expensive. they don’t even have anything like the Apps Store to find great games and titles. And they certainly don’t deliver a media experience like the iPod that is built into the iPod touch.

But worst is the buying experience. Having to go to the store and trying to find a hot new title is not a lot of fun.

Not long after, Apple CEO Steve Jobs piled on to the New York Times, saying that the new lower price for the iPod Touch would draw in gamers.

Tretton, whose full title is CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, counterpunched:

The gaming heritage and the home of gaming is PlayStation. Dabbling in gaming is nice and ‘thank you’ for getting people interested in gaming — because they are going to end up with us.

Its sort of like saying, I got my drivers license and my first car was a beat up Subaru, but if you are ultimately going to be on the track, you are going to be driving a race car, and not something that’s basic transportation. So if you are going to be seriously interested in gaming you are going to end up a PlayStation consumer.

Tough talk between two consumer electronics giants.

Personally, I have played games on all three devices — but not the same games — so I can’t testify to an apples-to-apples comparison. But I’ll say this: Poker and Tetris on the iPod Touch? Fun. Super Mario Bros on the DS? Cool. FIFA Soccer on the PSP? Wicked.

(Photo: Sony’s Jack Tretten at E3; Reuters)

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Here’s your chance, Chancellor!

Admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:54:11 +0000

Blog Guy, summer is over, and I was wondering how the tourist season treated your famous DC tourist destination, the Goofy Face Museum and Doughnut Shop? Our family went there in July, and it was the high point of our trip.

You’re too kind. Thousands of tourists visited, leaving sticky glazed fingerprints all over our photos. Maybe we should only sell doughnuts to folks on their way OUT from now on, or at least maybe offer moist towelettes.

Good idea. Any big plans for new attractions in the fall?

That’s up in the air. I think we’ll postpone our new exhibit, “Goofy Dad: a Look at John and MacKenzie Phillips.”

Probably wise, under the circumstances. So what will you show instead?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been auditioning right and left, and I guess we may have to give her a chance. Every day new goofy Merkel face shots arrive, so there’s no shortage of good stuff.

That’s great! What will you call the exhibit?

She’s promised us a whole box of photos of her trademark skin disorders – poison ivy, allergies, chicken pox, so we’re thinking of calling it…

No! Don’t say it!

You’re too late. Angela’s Rashes.

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Above: German Chancellor Angela Merkel frowns during an election campaign rally in Kassel, Germany, September 21, 2009. REUTERS/ Wolfgang Rattay

Below: Assorted Angel Merkel goofy faces, REUTERS photos

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Stadiums, hotels on alert amid terror probe (AP)

Admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:50:47 +0000

AP – The government expanded a terrorism warning from transit systems to U.S. stadiums, hotels and entertainment complexes as investigators searched for more suspects Tuesday in a possible al-Qaida plot to set off hydrogen-peroxide bombs hidden in backpacks.

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Stadiums, hotels put on alert amid terror probe (AP)

Admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:46:39 +0000

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Stadiums, hotels warned to watch for terrorists (AP)

Admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:41:22 +0000

AP – Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists’ desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels ? the latest in a flurry of such internal warnings as investigators chase a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York.

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