Wanda Sykes Show avoids RIAA by playing public domain songs

The Wanda Sykes Show tonight featured plenty of songs we all know well, and will definitely not have to pay royalties on any of them. Why? All the songs were in the public domain -- classics such as We Wish You a Merry Christmas (yes, even at the end of January) and Jimmy Cracked Corn. Good ol' Wanda, gotta love her!

Pee Wee Herman gets an iPad

future classic of Pee Wee in what appears to be the original Playhouse, too!

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

Bummer - Gumby's creator, Art Clokey, dies

First off, Gumby rocks! While the original Gumby was well before my time, Gumby became popular again, probably due to Eddie Murphy playing the character on Saturday Night Live ages ago. Claymation was also popular on the Penny cartoons on Pee Wee's Playhouse, so the original Gumby shows started airing again in the 80s, much to the delight of, well, just about everyone.
Thanks to Gumby and Penny I've been interested in Claymation and stop motion ever since, and love love love it to this day.
The original Gumbys (Gumbies?) were a bit effed up, or maybe it was just the tv stations forgot the closing segments after the commercials aired in the middle. It seemed at least 50 percent of the Gumby episodes had some random ending that didn't seem like an end at all, a bit like cutting off an idea in mid-sent

At any rate, Art Clokey, thanks for the inspiration. Gumby, blockhead, prickle, minga, u all will always be remembered and love. Clokey was 81.

*and for the Eddie Murphy/gumby fans: "i'm gumby, d**mit!

peace

Man fined $290,000 for speeding. OUCH!

A millionaire gets fined $290,000 for speeding in his Ferarri Testarossa in Switzerland. OUCH!!

Full Story here

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St. Louis fans fall from stands trying to grab a player's shoe

Two fans of the St. Louis Rams were injured falling from the stands at Edward Jones Dome while reaching for a shoe thrown by one of the players.

The game was the team's home-game finale at the stadium, so one of the players (unnamed) threw a shoe out to the crowd as a souvenir. The two fans reached too far over the railing in the stands and fell about ten feet trying to retreive the shoe.

Neither was seriously hurt, but one was taken to the hospital and later released, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch

"Conveyor Belt of Love" = the dating game on crack

Reality shows, particularly of the woman-meets-man/ cardboard cutout meets plastic-filled magnet of shallowness variety, have reached a new pinnacle. This new version of the Dating Game, called Conveyor Belt of Love (did Flava Flav name this?), puts a new spin on speed dating. (By spin, we mean reality show creators must be spinning a wheel or playing MadLibs to come up with ideas, which might actually be a good thing.)

The ABC show, which airs immediately after The Bachelor, starts out with male contestants on a conveyor belt (yes, for real), rolling them out one by one, with each having one minute to impress a female. The chosen items men are moved aside if the women likes them, if not, he moves along (to be reshelved?)

Fast forward 50 years when everyone is embedded with microchips and sadly, this could be how relationships begin. Let's hope not!

The show, by producer Tom Shelly, is supposedly a one-time thing, but it sounds just quirky enough to come back for more. Stay tuned...

Skiff reader debuts at CES 2010

Hearst Publishing (of the print world) is backing a startup called Skiff for its new ebook reader which has something the Kindle and the others ebook readers don't - a flexible screen. It's huge, thin and far more flexible than the others. It's on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

The coolness (besides flexibility): i'ts got great resolution -- 1200 x 1600 pixels. It weighs about a pound and only needs recharged about once a WEEK.

The uncool thing about it: black and white only. This is supposed to step in where the newspaper world is falling off, so, well, it makes sense for a newspaper company to move into the 21st century. This probably IS the future of the newspaper business.

So where can you get a SKIFF READER?

Sprint will carry the Skiff at some of its retail locations later in 2010, but the price is still up in the air. Skiffers (skiff users) will be able to buy and view newspapers, mags, books -- the usual print media -- as well as blogs and other things found online, and from multiple suppliers.

2010 looks to be a big year for the Skiff and the ebook / ebook reader market in general. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.