Jason Bryant Blog

There has been some discussion lately about why it seems like podcasting adoption has hit a plateau. I would suggest it has a great deal to do with what I call active content consumers and passive content consumers. Here’s a test. Do you know who Doc Searls, Robert Scoble or Leo Laporte are? Do you know what Joost is? Are you aware of Twitter? Do you use Skype? If you answered yes to any or all of the questions, you are what I would call an active content consumer. The very fact that you are reading this blog at all means you fall into the active category.

But what about the people who don’t know who or what any of those things are. Are they stupid? Are they lazy? Or are they just too busy to bother seeking out content. I would suggest the latter for most people. They know what Desperate Housewives and American Idol are and have some idea that the Iraq war isn’t going well, but ask them who Arianna Huffington is and they don’t know who you’re talking about. They know about Google, but ask them what they think of Wikipedia and they respond with Wiki-what? They’ve seen iPods but have no idea what iTunes is, much less how to sync it with the computer. They know about audio books, but still think you have to get them on CD. It never even occurs to them to download the audio from iTunes, sync with the iPod and play it in the car.

These passives are large in numbers but they are not stupid, far from it. They just live in the old media world. A world that has a vested financial interest in keeping things as they are. How many local TV news stories do you see about kids getting raped by online predators or an elderly couple getting suckered out of their life savings? If that’s all the information the passives ever get about the internet, no wonder they just stick with broadcast radio and television. It’s safer, and familiar. That’s not to minimize the dangers of the internet, they do exist, but it’s not the whole story. If the best place to find out information about new internet technology is on the net, how are new users ever going to find out about it? Not unless friends or co-workers show them.

Until more people become active searchers for new media, the blogging and podcast audience will not grow. Everyone who knows about podcasting is already participating and everyone else either doesn’t know about it, or thinks it’s too hard. Unfortunately as time goes on, the learning curve for the passives gets steeper and steeper. We must educate as many people as possible, everyone we come into contact with, about new media. And not in a dismissive, condescending way, but an excited “here’s why this is so cool” approach. The Apple TV will help bring video podcasts to T.V. sets, YouTube is bringing peoples cat and laughing baby videos to millions. But it has to be a grassroots initiative, because the forces that want to keep things as they are will be doing everything they can to keep everyone passive content consumers.

If you have ever wondered why there are no movies and television shows in the Canadian iTunes store, this post from Michael Geist should help explain things. I have complained about this before. The release of AppleTV has brought this issue to light. Protectionism should not win out over innovation. What about my case last month, where my HD signals kept dropping out and I was forced to download missed shows. Is that piracy? I don’t think so. If anything, internet downloads are a great option if you miss an episode of your favorite show. These guys are leaving money on the table, just like the music industry.

Of course the entire Canadian broadcast system is built on simulcasting U.S. shows and substituting Canadian ads. How is this a long term business model, given that I don’t need CTV to get “Lost”. Just look at the problem they had with scheduling the upcoming Juno awards. They were going to preempt Canadian content to make room for simulcasting a U.S. reality show (Amazing Race) that is readily available on CBS. And don’t forget last year, when CTV interrupted Desperate Housewives with Juno cut-ins all night. An executive at ABC was horrified when she found out about what CTV did. She said something about how that was not the way they intended the show to be viewed. No kidding. And it’s not the way I’m going to be watching my favorite show either. Sorry Canadian advertisers, you’re going to have to get my attention some other way. Like say, on the internet. On MY terms, not yours.

UPDATE…A few months later, more to report on this issue of regional restrictions.

NEW UPDATE…T.V. Downloads Coming To Canadian iTunes Store! T.V. Downloads NOW in Canadian iTunes.

ANOTHER UPDATE…Movies Now Available in Canadian iTunes Store.

NBC’s “The Black Donnellys” seemed appealing at first. The slick trailers, edgy soundtrack and good looking cast caught my attention. Also, writer Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) guaranteed a certain level of quality. After watching the first few episodes I came to the conclusion that this show wasn’t quite up to the hype. Here’s why.

Although the lighting and overall look of the show is fantastic, I found the dialog to be a bit predictable. There was a certain cadence that each scene took on that became repetitive. The gimmick of showing the end first and then flashing back to how we got there is becoming overdone. “Lost” can do it, but anyone else should try another approach. The jump cuts in the flashbacks became annoying, as did Joey Ice Cream’s narration. I commented during the pilot that this was okay to introduce the series, but if they do it every time I’m out. They kept doing it, and as promised, I’m out.

For some unknown reason I don’t care about any of the characters. Certainly not the melodramatic romance between the two leads. The whole “romance that almost was” is so tired. Smallville did this for six years with Lana and Clark, and I quit watching that show too. (I laughed when I stumbled upon a description of tonight’s Smallville that mentioned Tori Spelling would be a guest! Good grief)

The final reason I quit watching “The Black Donnellys”…Tony Soprano. The final season starts April 8th. The Sopranos is quite simply the best gangster show on television. Arguably the best show on television period. The originality, depth of characters, quality of actors, scope of the story and attention to detail makes anything in The Black Donnellys seem like gangster deja vu. Anything the Donnely brothers come up with has already happened in The Sopranos (or Goodfellas for that matter). I’ll meet you at the BaddaBing.

I have finally finished reading Stephen King’s final book in the Dark Tower series. Dark Tower VII is the final chapter in the series King began in the seventies. I read the first volume “The Gunslinger” in the late 80’s when I was in grade eight (or as close as I can remember).

Although King’s books are always put in the horror section, this book fits better in the Fantasy section, or even Westerns. It’s “Lord of the Rings” meets “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”. It’s a tale of a cowboy knight, or gunslinger named Roland who treks across many miles and worlds to meet up with the Man In Black and finally, reach The Dark Tower. The imagery is reminiscent of Tolkien, Clint Eastwood Westerns, Mad Max, Blade Runner and Harry Potter. That’s not to say it’s not original but King is the first to point out the homages.

While most serious literary readers scoff when I mention Stephen King, he deserves a place in history, and not just for the millions of books he’s sold, but for his accessible writing style that simply makes you believe. His use of dialog can be witty and touching. The expressions his characters utter are laugh-out-loud funny.

The final chapter in this adventure begins where the previous, “Songs Of Susannah” left off. Pere Don Callahan and Jake taking on the Vampires and other unspeakable creatures, Susannah about to have here demon baby (her chap) and Roland and Eddie Dean are in Maine. King fans will notice all the references to other books, 16 of them in fact have something to do with The Dark Tower series. Far too much happens to outline plot details in a blog post, but it’s a tale of redemption, doors to other worlds, revenge, loss, saving the beams that hold up the universe, fate or “ka” as it’s called, and adventure. From talking robots to giant underground centipedes, gangsters, demons and yes a giant spider (there’s LOTR for you). A worthy end to a saga that’s lasted three decades.

I don’t care what serious readers say, reading a Stephen King book is fun, the kind of fun only a grade eight kid can have.

You wouldn’t think a person needed four blogs, but today I have come to the conclusion that you do. So here’s what I have now. This is my main blog (which I moved over from Blogger today) where I will do my longer, posts. My old Blogger blog will now be my notes from all my postings and podcasts. A way to keep up to date with my latest content. My Twitter is exactly what I’m doing right now. Very addictive. My Vox attention blog will be movie, music, T.V. and book reviews, things I am paying attention to. The reason for this… I want to do more blogging and I realize not everyone will want to read posts about every subject, so you can pick and choose. If you want all four, go ahead and subscribe to all four. And don’t forget my podcasts, a music one and a talk one. I also want to try out different blogging software and see how they all work. So far, it seems that it all depends on what you want to do with your blog. I think I have a system that I can work with.

According to film and television industry publication Playback, 1/3 of the entries for the reality show “On The Lot” have come from Canada.  The Mark Burnett-Steven Spielberg backed show will air this summer on CTV (in Canada) and Fox.  Up for grabs, a one-million dollar development deal from Dreamworks.  I’m amazed they are even allowing Canadians to take part.

I’m not sure why I need more blogs, but I’m twittering now and voxing. Twitter seems to be really slow this morning. Maybe they are getting so popular that they’re having trouble scaling. Who knows. Time to fire up ProTools and do some recording. I haven’t done a podcast in a month because I’ve been working so much.