Daily Marauder


BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: MUPPETS STYLE

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: MUPPETS STYLE

Uploaded on November 23rd to mark the 18th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s death on November 24th, this video has amassed just under 5 million views in 4 days on YouTube alone. Impressive numbers to say the least.

In addition, it’s just really f-ing funny. Mama!!!

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THANKSGIVING JUST GOT A BIT MORE SOCIAL

THANKSGIVING JUST GOT A BIT MORE SOCIAL

Making the Tasty Treats

The first year my mother tried to make a turkey, she apparently over-stuffed the bird and a turkey powder keg blew a hole through the oven door exploding precious white meat all over the wall of our kitchen. Being that I had heard this story on numerous occasions, my first attempt at bird making was very well planned.

Here are a few sites to help get you started using language even the most beginner chef can understand. As an added bonus, after several years of trial-and-error, the Marauder kitchen recommends sage butter (and lots of it) underneath the skin. Also, when attempting to brine, soaking a bird in the crisper overnight is probably not the best idea…

How-Tos:

Videos to impress the giblets out of your friends:

Amazing recipes itemized by course:

Wine Pairing

Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV offers 12 wine selections to pair with the bird, a somewhat more difficult wine-pairing item.


Giving Thanks

Tweetsgiving


Last year, Epic Change launched Tweetsgiving raising $11,000 for charity in 48 hours. Those donations were used to build a classroom in Tanzania. How’s that for giving thanks? This year, the bar has been raised to $100,000. While many are returning for their third plate of stuffing, Tweetsgiving will be raising awareness across social networks from YouTube to Twitter asking users what they are thankful for. Follow @tweetsgiving on Twitter and tweet about what you’re thankful for from now until the 27th using the hashtag “#tweetsgiving” at the end of your tweet.


Socialvibe

Socialvibe donates to charity by marketing brands such as Kraft, Timberland, and Powerbar. Every time a brand is successfully marketed, charity benefits. At first, I thought this sounded a little sleazy. But really, marketers scream for your attention on a daily basis. At least in this case, charities benefit somewhere along the line.

Download the Thanksgiving Feast App to play. Every time you add a meal to the table, a real meal is provided through the UN World Food Programme.


Setting the Mood: Best Thanksgiving Song


Sure, this song is old but no has yet to top Adam Sandler on the joys of Thanksgiving.


Talking Tryptophan

Yet again this year, you can get your thanks on via many of your favorite social networks.

Get real-time cooking advice from the Butterball team either on their Twitter feed or Facebook page.

What to do when mom locks herself in the bathroom because your 35-year old brother insists on making fart noises at the table? Butterball may not have the answer for that one…

Get your spirit on with 23,000 of your other friends on the Thanksgiving fan page.


Mobile App Fun

iHost: Thanksgiving

Developed by a Rhode Islander (big-ups to my home state), iHost helps you get organized from menu, shopping list to budget. Their most recent update supposedly added recipes from local Newport, RI chefs. A little Rhode Island flavor has come to southern California. Very nice.

Chef’s Timer

If you’ve cooked with your iPhone in tow, as I always do, you know the device only has one timer. In most situations, that works just fine. But, what about situations where you have three side dishes and a turkey crammed into your tiny NYC oven while your friends stare at your assortment of tiny snacks in disdain? Yup…there’s an app for that.


Thanksgiving = Football

For those of you who know me, you understand why this comes last in the list. I know next to nothing about football. I do know that the grunting emanating from living rooms countrywide leads me to believe that you all care. This year, the NFL is offering a central portal for all 3 Thanksgiving games.


From Marauder’s home to yours, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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HOLIDAY GIFTING WITH A LITTLE HEART: GOOD SHOP

HOLIDAY GIFTING WITH A LITTLE HEART: GOOD SHOP

Good Shop is a web site which helps you shop like you normally do, but with a little heart. Here’s an example. Let’s say you were looking for a fun holiday dress to wear to that company party to impress your Office Crush. Clearly, something short is in order.

Aqua Brocade Combo Dress from Bloomingdales


Buy this dress for the same price it’s listed at ($98) but donate to the charity of your choice at the same time.

 

So, now in this case, I would start by going to goodshop.com, entering in the store I’m looking for (Bloomingdales) and the charity I want to donate to (Art Start). I will then be re-directed to the Bloomingdale’s site to purchase the dress in the same way I always have: browse and order. In this case, 2% of that $98, has now been donated to my favorite charity: Art Start. Some retailers offer up to 30% of each purchase to the selected charity.

Easy. Breezy. Beautiful. With Heart.

In addition, retailers offer coupons to shoppers who shop through the site.

 

This holiday season, take an extra step, head to goodshop.com and feel good about yourself. More importantly, raise a little money for those who so need it.

The ASPCA has raised over $30K so far and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a disease my cousin so sadly died from, has raised over $12K. These numbers are a culmination of money raised from this site goodshop.com as well as their corresponding search site goodsearch.com. Impressive for a few pennies donated here and there. It’s the Office Space strategy for charities…oh yah, and this one is legal.

But it’s an annoying extra step you say? Yes, I agree. It is an extra step. But in this case, it’s for a good cause. If you’ve ever volunteered your time for an AIDS Walk or a telemarketing drive, this takes way less time than that. Now, go get that cute little dress, make out with your office crush and think about all that money you donated to charity while you do the walk of shame.

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THE ONLINE VIDEO GORILLA IN THE ROOM: EPIX

THE ONLINE VIDEO GORILLA IN THE ROOM: EPIX

Epix, the new premium TV channel from Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate, launched on TV and online at the end of October. The launch opened up movie catalogues from each of the three studios to be watched on three separate platforms; the content triple threat if you will. In a world of packed viewing options, how did we get to the point where three movie studios have launched a new pay TV channel?

Here’s the skinny. In 2008, Showtime’s contracts with Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate expired. You see, in the premium pay TV world, channels like HBO and Showtime manage two streams of content: their original programming including both television series and films, and their movie studio content. These channels pay the studios premiums to air their movies on TV for a determined amount of time. When these contracts near expiration, negotiations settle in.

In this case, the negotiations between Showtime and these studios were fairly contentious. The studios wanted a higher fee than Showtime was willing to pay. So passionate were these negotiations, the studios basically declined revenues from Showtime entirely to instead walk away from the deal entirely. Showtime will now lose Paramount films released after Jan 1 2008 and MGM/Lionsgate films released after Jan 1 2009. That includes heavy box office winners like Iron Man ($318M US box office) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($317M bo).

Instead of negotiating with another pay TV channels, like HBO or Starz, the three studios instead pursued the completely unexpected option: form their own pay television network.

I worked at HBO for the past 4 years and hence was a little more eager than most to try out the product. When I initially heard about the new pay service, I was generally mystified. In a world of disaggregation,with content scattered on premium networks like HBO, online through services like Netflix and Hulu, download-to-own/rent on iTunes, and on demand, I hardly saw the need for additional options. That said, as audiences trend online to watch content, I was most interested in taking a look at the online product. Here’s a break down:


Availability

If you are a Verizon FIOS subscriber, you have access to the product. In addition, Epix is offering 50 thirty-day invitation codes to Marauder readers who are the first to Follow @epixHD on twitter AND tweet “@epixhd Experience Epix #DailyMarauder.”  If you miss your chance, you can also get a weekend invitation code if you visit the site during the month of November.


Content

Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer of Epix, tells me that as of today, there are 183 movies on the service. By the second quarter of next year, the goal is 3,000 movies. I asked Emil about Epix’s competition, eager to find out whether the channel views traditional pay networks like HBO and Showtime as competition vs. online movie providers like Netflix. “I’m personally a subscriber to both HBO and Netflix. I love the DVD service that Netflix provides but we’ll have more content online than Netflix. HBO doesn’t yet have the licenses to put all of their movie content online.“ Being that Netflix claims 12,000 streaming titles online, I pushed Emil on his answer. Within those 12,000 titles, Emil claims 2,000 are movies, “The preponderance of those titles is either public domain or bottom tier selections. They don’t have a lot of titles that will drive the subscription nut…We don’t buy content. We buy hits.”


User Experience

Hulu-Like Video Player

The online video itself looks and feels very similar to the Hulu experience. It rocks the same full screen, pop out, and light dimming options. Epix, however, features 720P HD quality for all of its movies, if you have a connection speed which can handle it of course. If not, it delivers the video to you in a quality compatible with your connection speed. Hulu also has films in 720P through their HD gallery although I only peeped 3 TV episodes in the library when I drove through this morning.


Finding What you Want

Either browse or search for content using predictive content options based on what you type in the search box. In this case, I was typing “Valenti” . I wasn’t looking for My Bloody Valentine but instead for the Valentino documentary.

Watching Movies Online with Friends

Here’s my favorite feature. Viewers can watch a movie with up to 4 of their friends, even if that friend is not an Epix subscriber. This is an acquisition and retention play of sorts but a very smart one at that. To make the analogy work a little harder for you, imagine if I could call you, the non-HBO subscriber, and invite you to instantly watch that next episode of True Blood with me from each of our respective houses. Yah, pretty neat. Here, fellow Marauder Martha and I, watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from each of our houses in NYC and LA.

Movie watchers can type messages to each other while watching allowing an almost couch-like experience. Martha and I tested this feature three times over the course of a week. Our results varied from seamless to all-out failure.


Portability

The content is currently only available in a streamed model meaning that the viewer can only watch when connected to the internet. Starz Play, the online offering from Starz also available from Verizon FIOS, is instead a download model offering the option to watch movies on a computer screen or portable device even when Google decides not to holiday gift free Wi-Fi to the masses.


Distribution

Currently, Epix only has one distributor with Verizon FIOS giving them access to a pool of only 2.5 million subscribers. The two most attractive cable operators in the US according to audience size are Comcast (25M subs) and Time Warner Cable (15M subs). In July, Comcast publically responded that they were not interested in the service and think that it is in fact, “a bad idea.” So that leaves, Time Warner Cable as the most attractive girl in the room. Rumors have been floating around about a DISH distribution deal, which would pick up just over 13M subscribers and give Epix a bit more to talk about. The other pay TV networks are watching, but not really paying attention until Epix finds someone to carry the channel to more people. And even then, it’s really Showtime which has the most to worry about. It seems as though CEO Matt Blank may agree on this one.


Price

$10 per month. The service was initially offered its first weekend as a free preview.


The Low Down

Epix most reminds me of Hulu at least in the reason for its creation. Hearken back to the days in which Hulu was “New Site” and everyone laughed at its imminent failure. Mr. Techcrunch himself, Michael Arrington, liked to call New Site Clown Co. before it was dubbed Hulu.

Hulu was created as a joint venture between two broadcast television networks (Fox and NBC) which wanted more control (and hence revenue potential) over the distribution of their content in an iTunes world. Let’s just remember how NBC felt about Apple during one painful period in which The Office wasn’t available on iTunes.

Similarly, Epix was built by three movie studios, who in a world of Hulu, Netflix, and Showtime, wanted more control over their content. Both decisions were risky for the companies in question. Just ask Jeff Zucker from NBC how those digital pennies, dimes, or whatever currency he’s using these days are doing.

Here’s the main difference between Epix and Hulu: Hulu acts as a central location for all content even if its not featured in its super slick video player. Epix only offers content from these three studios.

Epix isn’t interesting to me as another pay TV network. We have HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, and a few others you probably don’t even realize you have. In a world of Movies on Demand, pay TV networks, Hulu, Netflix, and those things we used to call DVD’s, do we really need one more TV channel? In short, no. No we don’t. The cable operators realize this. They have enough to sell you when you call to set up service. HBO and Showtime used to be the cash cow for the cable companies. With the advent of online and digital phone services, this is no longer the case. The revenue potential on these two services far outweighs the opportunity upside on a pay TV network. So, why would I, Mrs. Cable Company, choose to carry another pay TV network that I will have to relegate marketing budget to? Hmmm…

Back to the consumer perspective. To really dig in on this, it’s important to quickly reference the content windows.


Traditional Windows

Time

Platform

Start

Theatrical Release

Theatrical + 4.5 months

DVD Release/Rental

DVD + 1.5 months

Pay Per View (PPV) Rental

PPV + 6 months

Premium (HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc.)

Premium + 15 months

Free TV (ad supported)

Here’s an example of this structure using a recent box office hit: Paranormal Acitivity. The traditional window, previous to Epix, would look like this:

(Please note. Apart from the movie release, these are NOT announced dates, simply a look at traditional movie windows.)

Movie Release: October 2010

DVD Release/Rental (Netflix): February 2010

Cable Movies on Demand/PPV: March-April 2010

Premium TV Channel (Showtime): September 2010

Free TV: December 2011

So, let’s pretend you’re a Comcast subscriber for a moment. You would have been able to watch the movie on DVD first, then buy it through your Movies on Demand service, then watch it through your Showtime subscription, and finally some time close to never watch it on free TV. Head spinning yet?

Well, Epix is now on the scene and Paranormal Activity happens to be a Paramount film. So, now the film will no longer be available on Showtime.

So now, the story goes first on DVD, then Movies on Demand through the cable company, then Epix on TV and online, and finally when hell freezes over on free TV. Confused again? Yup. I haven’t even mentioned that Netflix is considering delaying their DVD rental offerings 30 days to pay the studios less. Oh, and of course, companies like Comcast are pushing day-and-date movies on demand offerings with the DVD window.

All I wanted to know was when and where I could watch the movie again. Crikey…

In short, Epix is interesting to me purely for its online subscription-model offering. They can’t compete with the movie quality of other pay TV networks like HBO. Yes, Netflix is doing online streaming but Epix claims that they will have more and better quality movies online soon. Epix is connected to a distributor whereas Netflix need not rely on one. Both subscriptions cost about the same but one gives you additional access to 100,000 DVD rentals and the other to a TV channel and on demand network. Epix has the closest relationship and pull with the movie studios except in this case, its just three of them.

Epix needs more distribution to make some noise but if they find some, things will start to get a bit more interesting. Game on.

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WINE SIPPING: TASTING ROOMS TO SOCIAL COMMUNITIES

WINE SIPPING: TASTING ROOMS TO SOCIAL COMMUNITIES

Sideways

Today, being one year older, I head to my most favorite place on earth to taste some wine and turn off my phone. Five years ago, the movie Sideways released and a furor of wine tourists flourished to Los Olivos, Santa Barbara wine country.

I’ll head to my favorite winery, Rusack Vineyards, and like I always do, stand in their tasting room and gush over their Anacapa using such proverbial phrases as “awesome town” and “I dig it.”

Wine tasting is a tradition trending from the 14thcentury and onward. There are typically four stages in a wine tasting from appearance, smell, mouth feel, and finish.

But in the age of online media, wine tasting has evolved from the traditional tasting room experience to social communities of online wine-drinkers. Here are a few sites helping to transform the industry and introduce wine to a whole new generation.


Online Video

Wine Library TV

Gary Vaynerchuk, online entrepreneur, debuted the “Thunder Show” in 2006 attracting some 100,000 viewers per episode. Weekly online episodes attempt to deconstruct wine tasting and the entrenched associated wine lingo. I mean, when’s the last time you described a wine as tasting like “wet clay”?

In this, my favorite episode, Gary attempts to pair his favorite cereals with the proper wine. Riesling and Captain Crunch? Yes please.

Social Community

Corkd

Cork’d allows wine tasters an online tasting room experience. Rate and review wines that you’ve tasting creating a library of your wine tasting experience. Share your notes with friends to get your wine community on.

Twitter Search

Twitter Search Wine

While there are sites that aggregate wine tweets like Wine Twits, a simple Twitter search is usually by far more effective and interesting. As I soon plan to be holding a delightful Pinot in my hand, I figured a little Twitter search was in order. @Wine Bistro I’m on board. Let’s go tasting!

Apart from simple searches, some are taking the onslaught of Twitter communication to the tasting room itself. Instead of walking around the winery, pen in hand, now wine tasters can tweet their tasting notes. City Winery in NYC tried their hand at this concept just last week with their Spit & Twit event. Alex Baldwin, Marketing Director at City Winery tells me, “It was a very successful initial effort in connecting the online and offline worlds. Participation was very high during the event and afterwards. All of these things are experimental in the world of the unproven but overall we were very happy with the turn out.”

Wine Blogs

Dr Vino

There are several choices to choose from when looking for a good wine blog. Tyler Colman has a PhD in political science and is a wine educator at New York University and the University of Chicago. He has written about wine in many publications from The New York Times to Food & Wine. So, yes, he’s highly accredited. But simply, I like his blog better than the other highly rated wine blogs because he speaks in a manner in which the non-wine educated masses can understand. He also tends to run a visually driven site, which I firmly believe to be the best way to communicate.

So, I tip my glass to you. It’s time for me to go get my birthday party started. Hopefully, this doesn’t all end with me drinking from the spit bucket…

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LA STREET WARS: COMMUTING VIA BIKE PART 2

LA STREET WARS: COMMUTING VIA BIKE PART 2

Downtown Bike 2 Daily Marauder

110 Freeway Downtown LA

At the end of October, after being in LA for about a month, I took to the LA streets for my maiden voyage from my house in West Hollywood to Daily Marauder offices downtown. As exhilarating as the ride was, a former shoulder injury flared up from the 26 miles I rode with my MacBook Pro baring down on my left side via messenger bag. Not smart.

For this trip, I borrowed a Chrome backpack from Intelligentsia barista master, Christopher “Nicely” Alameda. Computer. Check. Bike. Check. Ready to roll.

I took to the streets a bit earlier this time around at around 8AM armed with a new route: Wilshire Boulevard.

The Road


View Larger Map

This route proved to be a much better option as compared to my first attempt down Venice Boulevard. Wilshire is 3 lanes for most of the trip and predominantly, cars gave me my own lane. Wilshire is super choppy, clearly in need of repaving, and not for the skittish rider.

Downtown LA Bike Daily Marauder

Daily Marauder Offices, Downtown LA (note Urtth coffee cup in bottle holder)


There’s nothing like being out on the open road commuting to work in the morning. You probably don’t realize the world you miss by commuting via subway, train or automobile. I see it all. I see that runner make a racist comment to the guy waiting for the bus. I see skid row up close and personal. I see the guy proudly rocking his Dodgers hat as he crosses the street with the paper under his arm. If you want to know what our US cities are really like, take a ride through one. You’ll be intrigued by what you discover.

Distance: 22 miles roundtrip

Time: 1 hour and change

Hills: Much less than the Venice Boulevard route and much less steep.

Challenges: Wilshire is super choppy in many areas forcing the rider to ride in the middle or left side of the lane. Be aware of car doors in areas where Wilshire becomes two lanes. Also, unless you’re with a group, I recommend staying off Wilshire at night.

Bicycle Parking Daily Marauder

NYC


Bike Commuting in NYC:

Ride the City

NYC Bike Maps

Map My Ride

Bike Commuting in LA:

C.I.C.L.E.

LA Bikeways

Map My Ride

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BROADCAST/CABLE

BROADCAST/CABLE

With the star power of Ellen DeGeneres, Kobe Bryant and Carlos Santana, George Lopez pulled in 3.2 million viewers with the premiere of his talk show. The debut of “Lopez Tonight” was presented across Turner nets TBS, TNT and truTV, with TBS accounting for 1.7 million viewers. The Hollywood Reporter(11/10)

George Lopez

NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zucker will lead the joint venture currently being negotiated that would control the media conglomerate, according to unnamed sources cited in this report. Comcast is in talks with current NBCU owner General Electric about taking a majority stake in the company. Reuters (11/10

It may not be long before the troubled MGM studio is forced by its creditors to seek a buyer. That’s the word coming out of a Nov. 4 meeting between MGM CEO Stephen Cooper and the debt-hobbled film company’s 140-member creditor committee. According to one source with knowledge of the meeting, the creditor group turned thumbs down on a proposal by Cooper to convert the studio’s $3.7 billion debt into equity as part of a restructuring plan to keep the studio out of bankruptcy. (BusinessWeek11/11)

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