Animal puppet replica coming
From muppetcentral.com:
Muppet drummer Animal is the second authentic replica. The Great Gonzo is scheduled to debut by the end of 2007 with Fozzie to follow in 2008.
Anyone have the Kermit one. I want them all, but they’re so expensive.
More info at the link.
EMI Joins iTunes DRM-Free Music
From soulshine.ca:
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DRM digital rights management software has been a staple of legal music downloads since their inception online, but now EMI Music is kicking off the movement to allow customers the option of buying their songs on a section of iTunes called iTunes Plus for $1.29 each instead of the usual 99 cents where music lovers can purchase digital downloads without the DRM software.
DRM-free versions will be of lesser quality 256kbps instead of the original 128kbps and cost 30 cents more, but Apples CEO Steve Jobs remains confident that consumers will respond positively, “”We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”
Consumers are even allowed to upgrade previously purchased iTunes songs to DRM-free versions. While EMI will be excluding the DRM-free deal from their Beatles catalogue, several artists such as Coldplay, The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra are all ready to go.
Those who want to purchase the new DRM-free songs option will need to download iTunes 7.2.
Graham library or theme park?
www.worldhum.com
In Charlotte, North Carolina today, 88-year-old evangelist Billy Graham celebrates the dedication of the Billy Graham Library, which, according to some observers and Graham fans, is more like a corny theme park than a dignified museum. “Their concerns start just inside the enormous glass cross that forms the door to the 40,000-square-foot museum,†according to the Los Angeles Times, which headlined its story, Billy Graham, tourist attraction. “The lobby is set up like a barn to evoke Graham’s boyhood on a North Carolina dairy farm. Hens cluck on a soundtrack. A stuffed cat heaves a battery-powered sigh. And amid bales of hay, a cow that looks uncannily lifelike begins to sing.â€
Graham’s wife reportedly called the place a “circus,†but based on that description, it sounds more like a zoo, or The Enchanted Tiki Room.
TweetWhat ride is next on the chopping block?
From mouseplanet.com:
Interesting article on possible rides that could close as the Nemo subs open. Click on the link for the entire article. – Mark
TweetWhich ride will Disneyland torpedo to offset opening the subs?Thursday, May 31, 2007
David Koenig, staff writerIn the Bad Theme Park Management Hall of Fame, there are certain policies that will live forever in infamy: Run it until it fails. Every facility must generate a profit. Promote shops and restaurants, not attractions. Every guest contact is a sales opportunity.
Most of these brainstorms and their ilk were instituted under Disneylands president in the mid-to-late-1990s, Paul Pressler. But theres one frustrating policy that he cant be blamed for: Every time a new attraction opens, an old one must close.
The rationale behind this practice does make sense, at least financially. Adding a new attraction doesnt just increase overall ride capacity; it also increases the amount of money required to operate the park on a daily basis. You need more ride operators, maintenance crew members, electricity, paint, replacement parts; you even pay higher property taxes. So, one way to keep expenses in check is by closing attractions-assuming the park can do without the increased ride capacity.
Movie Theater Tattle-Tale Button
From wcbstv.com:
Regal cinemas say you can now silence those interruptions with the Regal Guest Response System — a virtual remote control to mute that annoying patron who’s ruining your silver screen sanity.
“I get enraged, and I often want to tell them to shut up,” moviegoer M. David Levin told CBS 2 HD.
Theatre employees at Battery Park Stadium now handle that duty without patrons missing a second of film. A hand-held pager is given to a random member of the Regal Crown Club Loyalty Program who’s attending each movie.
“If any situation does arise they can just press a button which goes directly to the pager which the manager will have and they’ll signal it and they’ll go right into the theater and handle the situation,” theater manager Heather Dematteis said.
“This device can be used for more than just reporting loud patrons,” Dematteis added. “It also can be used to report problems with the picture, sound and even piracy.”
Evidently this is already installed in a few theaters. Has anyone out there seen or used one?
It seems like a disaster waiting to happen. What if the unruly person turns into the person holding the button? Movies could then be interrupted by employees entering the theater every 10 seconds to scold every other person in the theater. Or perhaps it would start button wars where one person tells on another person for being on the phone, and that person’s friend tells on the original person for coughing too loudly, etc.
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