From Somewhere, Volume Two

The News Wheel. It never sleeps. However- its  typist tends to nod off a bit, though.

On today’s hit list: iTunes-now only slightly less annoying, New Product for your approval, Santa as you’ve never seen him before (and as you still might not), Bob Dylan’s holiday joy, the Waters of Mars US air date, and news on Top Gear Series 14 .

Updated and expanded upon as things become interesting / author has time … and it begins after the jump! (continue reading…)

Yep, its the News Wheel- watch it spin.

On today’s hit list: Apple sort of wins over the clones, Did DJ Hero tank, why you can’t always get what you want on your Wii (and maybe why you shouldn’t), and  Infinity Ward suddenly hates PC owners.

Updated and expanded upon as things become interesting / author has time … and it begins after the jump!

(continue reading…)

As we all do, I usually juggle a lot of information on a daily basis.  Most of which gets used and digested in one format or another. This will be a somewhat scattered digest of that information- which may not or may not be expanded upon here or elsewhere at a later point when I’ve had a chance to properly have a chance to process it.  I’ll add to on as I come across things in the day. Ta-da! Content you have to check back for! Fun, yes?

It might be an idea clearing house, it might even be entertaining. All I can tell you now is that its a thing called the News Wheel. And it begins after the jump.  Enjoy!

(continue reading…)

Interesting news for readers in the Atlanta area. 99x, the big Alternative station in town-is being quietly taken out back and shot, possibly for playing far too much Fall Out Boy and still trying call itself “alternative”.

99x is set to leave the airwaves over the next two weeks in a slow phase out as its Top 40 sister station Q100 settles into the 99.7 frequency. Meanwhile, the influential alternative format station will remain on life support via internet streaming and for the estimated three people in the market who have HD radio.
The planned phase out of 99x into the eventual Q99 (?) is eerily reminiscent of 99x’s original October 1992 roll out, replacing then Top 40 Station “Power 99″.

Before I moved here, picking up 99x was always a sign that I was close to Atlanta- but not close enough to pick up the infinitely superior Album 88. But for what it was- 99x showcased the ‘mainstream alternative’ acts and had a pretty good relationship with many of the local scenes.

Certain members of 99x’s talent are currently rumored to be moving over to Q100’s soon-to-be-vacant 100.5 frequency in a new “rock leaning” format said to be headed up by the return of the Regular Guys Morning Show.

In a move that, well, damn well suprised both EA and Microsoft (who were also courting them not too long ago),  Vivendi and Activsion will merge (in a series of complex combo transactions of stock and cash that would make any World of Warcraft player proud) to form Activision Blizzard.

For the record, Activision will oversee production of all the (formerly Universal) Vivendi games, franchises, and IPs (Crash, Spyro, Call of Duty); Blizzard (WoW, Warhammer, Diablo) will continue to operate mostly independently.

And since Activision also bought Guitar Hero pub Red Octane earlier this year, that places both your GH Axe and you WoW axe under the same roof. It also makes the combined company the largest Vid Game publisher, just overtaking EA until they buy someone else.

(Atari on line two….)

So that’s the word-BBC has confirmed as much. Sometime during Series Four.

Now reportedly, its for three episodes of the afforementioned S4, and (as the rumor further stretches itself) possibly for at least one of the three scheduled Who specials in 2009.

Now, allow me to now call bullshit on that extended rumor. Thank you.

Lipstick Jungle, the Brooke Shields led series based on a Candice Bushnell novel will take over ER’s slot in February (when the medical drama is said to run out of fresh epsiodes).

It seems that this would be the first time (barring special events and the like) that the show’s been bumped from the timeslot since ER premiered 14 years ago.

Wow. Both the Minstrels of Mayhem and New Order break up on the same weekend.

And no, not the Simpsons. The other Springfield- the one mentioned in the last post. Yeah, the soap opera…

An Avengers storyline will cross over with CBS’ Guidling Light- with characters from the soap appearing in the comics over the next month or so and characters from the Marvel comic eventually appearing in an November episode of the daytime soap.

There goes the nieghborhood….

The two Sci Fi franchises have thrown down in a dispute with the Guiness Book of World Records over which of their respective series has had the longest consecutive run.

The trouble started with the publication of the latest edition of the Book of World Records, which had proclaimed recently-canceled Sci Fi Channel series Stargate: SG-1 as the “Longest Running Sci Fi Series”.

Then the BBC weighed in, crying foul math. Posting to the official Doctor Who series website- the Beeb mentioned Stargate’s record and then openly noted that Guiness had failed to take into account Who’s 1963-1989 run (which itself was incorrect- as the Beeb had put the series on ‘hiatus’ after its 1985 season).

Guiness performed a recount and Stargate kept a slightly altered record : Longest Running (Consecutive) Sci Fi series. Doctor Who got the “Longest Running” honors. And it seems everyone is happy….But let’s go back to that “Consecutive” thing for a minute.

To come up with the “Longest Running Sci Fi Series” record, Guiness went by episode count. And counted all five incarnations of Star Trek as one show.

With that in mind, let’s go over this again….

Doctor Who ran consecutive series every year from 1963 to 1985. That’s 22 years.

IF we going to go by Guiness’ standard, you’d count all incarnations of Star Trek as one show. That makes the run which began with the premiere of Next Gen in 1987 to Enterprise’s 2005 cancellation proper fodder. And that’s an 18 year run.

By its 215 episode count- SG-1 comes in third. 10 years.

The X-Files is fourth by virtue of being a mid-season replacement. 10 years, 203 episodes.

But the Doctor, Starfleet, and members of Stargate Command are nowhere close to being in longest running scripted TV series of all time- that honor goes to CBS’ Guiding Light, The televised version of the daytime soap (which had a long run on radio prior to its TV Debut) has been on the air since 1952, and is still in production.