Chip Rosenthal's blog

Get Ready for the Big Gig: Google Fiber in Austin

Chip Rosenthal — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:00:02 +0000

So have you heard that Google Fiber is coming to Austin?

Of course you have -- you're a film fan. Whether you create, study or just watch movies, you engage in the one art and entertainment form that chews through network bandwidth and hungers for more.

On Tuesday morning, Google and the City of Austin held a joint event confirming the worst-kept secret in city history: Google will build a gigabit speed, fiber-based Internet access network in Austin. The company will be the fourth entrant in the Austin residential wireline broadband market, joining Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Grande Communications.

Here's what we know so far: The service offerings will be similar to what Google does in Kansas City, their first fiber market. That includes a gigabit broadband service ($70/mo), gigabit broadband with high-def TV channels ($120/mo) and a megabit broadband service (free for 7 years, with $300 install fee). Note: Those are Kansas City prices. Google has stated multiple times the Austin pricing is uncertain -- except for the free service, which they assure us will indeed be free.

Local 'chunky_bacon' Doc Premieres at ... a Software Conference?

Chip Rosenthal — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:30:20 +0000

Well, this is a first. Slackerwood often publishes movie reviews from film-festival screenings. Even film conferences. But software conferences? Never been done -- until now.

chunky_bacon is a short documentary from Austin filmmaker Kevin Triplett. The film premiered earlier this month at the Lone Star Ruby Conference. Ruby is a programming language that's been the foundation for many of the so-called Web 2.0 sites that ushered in the age of the interactive and social web.

The doc recounts the work and ultimate death of the persona known as Why the Lucky Stiff, or just _why to his friends. _why was known throughout the Ruby community not only as a stunningly prolific programmer, but also an artist. His most famous creation was a free book called Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. It's an odd, loopy software manual intertwined with strange narrative and punctuated by twisted Lynda Barry-like cartoons. It aims to teach Ruby programming to non-programmers -- you know, artsy types, not pocket-protecter-wearing, technical certification wielding, Microsoft-worshipping nerds.

Then one day, _why decided -- for reasons unknown -- to commit digital suicide. He removed all traces of his creations from the web: the posts, the code repositories, the wonderful book. And then he died.

Rant: Tim League is Wrong, Bring on the Texters

Chip Rosenthal — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:00:30 +0000

Last week, the Internets were atwitter with news from CinemaCon in Las Vegas. During a panel discussion, Regal Entertainment Chief Executive Amy Miles proposed that allowing moviegoers to text might be a way to lure more people into theaters. Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League took to the microphone to declare that would happen over his dead body.

There was an immediate outcry among film fans. They condemned the proposal, and sang kudos for Tim.

That's great, except maybe Tim's wrong.

First, the Alamo Drafthouse has packaged various "bad movie viewing experiences" into popular programming events. The Alamo presents quote-alongs, sing-alongs, and heckle-alongs (sometimes by texting). Heck, they've even turned the worst movie experience imaginable into a product: crying infants during "Baby Day" screenings.

Why shouldn't Regal and Cinemark have the same opportunity to boost their net bottom line with creative programming? In fact, I'd rather they do that and lay off the blaring pre-show ad reels.

Why Slackerwood is Joining the SOPA Strike

Chip Rosenthal — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:05:07 +0000

Today, January 18, Slackerwood is joining the national protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Incoming visitors will see a splash page erected for the event.

SOPA has been introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar Smith of Texas (including a small gerrymandered chunk of Austin). The legislation makes pirating movies and other content on the Internet, which is already illegal, double super-secret illegal.

It also mandates, for the first time, that a censorship infrastructure be built so pirated content can be blocked. This blocking could be done not by a court, but by order of a government agency. This is the sort of censorship regime that brought the Egyptians to overthrowing their government. And now it's happening right here, in the good old U.S. Magnited States of America.

The following video explains the Protect IP Act (PIPA), the version of anti-piracy legislation that has been moving through the U.S. Senate.

Our Holiday Favorites: Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Chip Rosenthal — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:00:51 +0000

Every couple faces the challenge of how to blend two holiday traditions into one. Here's ours: I don't celebrate Christmas. My wife does.

She deserves to have her holiday, but I shouldn't have to pretend to celebrate an event that I don't -- even a secularized facsimile thereof. Yes, I'm one of those people who prefers "season greetings" to "merry Christmas", but I don't want to deny -- or even dampen -- anybody else's celebration of their holidays.

So we've had to build our own holiday tradition, one that allows her to express her celebration for the season, while allowing me to be true to my grinchy self.

SXSW Review: blacktino

Chip Rosenthal — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:00:02 +0000

On Friday night, Austin-based filmmaker Aaron Burns brought his first feature-length film, blacktino, to the Paramount Theatre for its world premier. It was an event worthy of SXSW opening night. A food truck was parked on 7th Street, giving out free tacos to the crowd. A photo backdrop was setup for people to take pictures. Even the director was out -- buzzing a bit from opening-night adrenaline -- walking the line and greeting the enthusiastic crowd.

The movie started late, due to delays in seating, but once it did the crowd was no less enthusiastic. Every credit was given a loud cheer. If they showed those awful "FBI warnings" before cinema films, I think even that would have gotten applause. This clearly was a hometown crowd rooting for the home team. They even applauded a shot of the Austin skyline, later in the film.

Blacktino is a dark teen comedy about drama nerd Stefan Daily (Austin Marshall), born of an African-American mother and a Hispanic father. Daily lives with his Nana (charmingly played with a small dose of Betty White spunkiness by Selma Pinkard). In his spare time, Stefan writes music and keeps a blog. His school is divided into rigid cliques, and it's not that there is a lot of hostility among the groups -- they just don't mix.

SXSW Review: Little Deaths

Chip Rosenthal — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:30:11 +0000

Little Deaths is playing SXSW as part of its SXFantastic genre film series. It's a UK anthology of three stories connected by themes of sex (often kinky) and death (often disturbing).

In "House and Home," a couple with the enthusiasm of religious missionaries and an inability to find sexual satisfaction in each other do find that satisfaction by preying on society's unfortunates. They may have bitten off too much, however, with their latest victim. This story felt a bit simplisitic, and lacked the foreshadowing necessary to deliver satisfying payoff from the turns. Caution: while the entire film is infused with sex and horror, this particular short had scenes of sexual violence that might be difficult for some.

SXSW Review: For The Sake of The Song: The Story of Anderson Fair

Chip Rosenthal — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:30:59 +0000

The documentary For The Sake of The Song: The Story of Anderson Fair tells the tale of Anderson Fair Retail Restaurant, the renowned Houston more-charity-than-business venue that has anchored the Texas singer/songwriter circuit for decades. Beloved Texas musicians from Lyle Lovett to Townes Van Zandt have honed their craft on its stage -- which, in its earliest days, was more cleared corner than actual stage.

The film opens with a shot of the Anderson Fair sign being ripped off the face of the building. That bit of dramatic tension creates some misdirected expectations. The film really is about capturing a moment in time, when Anderson Fair became the home base for Texas' most revered folk singers. The story is told through interviews with both musicians and staff, with many musical performances interspersed.

The movie will be a treat to fans. The production is beautiful and the sound is lovingly produced. Numerous performances are complemented by an original soundtrack from Austinite Gurf Morlix. Even the archival footage was crisp and clear on the Paramount big screen (and sound system).

Call for Filmmakers: "Faces of Austin" Video Exhibit

Chip Rosenthal — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:30:53 +0000

Looking for a filmmaking opportunity? The Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin has issued a call for filmmakers to participate in its "Faces of Austin" multimedia program. Short Austin-centric films and video works will be selected for display at City Hall, as well as streamed online by Channel 6 video on-demand. The city previously picked films for this program in 2005 and 2006; it's good to see it again.

The full press release follows after the jump.

2009 in Review: Biggest Geek Uprising

Chip Rosenthal — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:30:33 +0000

Don't piss off the geeks. They've got their Twitters and they know how to use them.

We found that out back in April, when Time Warner Cable (TWC) announced that Austin would be one of four cities in the nation to get "consumption-based billing." The proposal was to cap the standard broadband Internet plan and then charge extra for usage over the cap.

The proposal was portrayed as an issue of fairness -- a way to manage excessive or abusive users. In reality, it was a shot directly at emerging online video usage.

Standard definition video requires about 1GB/hour bandwidth. That means there will be about 1 gigabyte of data transferred for every hour you watch video. So a 20GB cap means you have sufficient bandwidth to watch about 20 hours of video.
If you reach your usage cap and try to stream a movie across your Internet connection, TWC is going to assess a surcharge. You’d pay about $2 for a typical movie. [...] High-definition video is worse. It uses about 2GB-4GB/hour, so that surcharge could jump as high as $8 for a single high-def movie.

The geeks were irate. The issue became the talk of the town, and was covered nationally. By the end of April, TWC announced that the plan would be suspended while they conduct a "customer education process." (shudder)

Consumption-based billing has not returned -- yet. Online video remains a serious threat to cable video, so none of us believe that we've heard the last on this issue.