Christopher Walken is Psycho

The Mind Snatchers, a.k.a. The Happiness Cage or The Demon Within – is a cult classic film for a lot of good reasons. Christopher Walken is awesome as Private James Reese, a borderline psycho, or sociopathic as the Army doctor calls him. And Ronnie Cox as Miles also delivers – in his debut movie no less. Check out Frank Random’s free movie preview, another tasty morsel for our users and guests. It reminds me of Frank Zappa and the brain police. If you like sublime, disturbing and bitterly ironic – well this film is for you. Great story, well acted and the kind of movie that will stick in your head for a while. Check it out.

Tomorrow i hope to provide a link to some of the best Christmas related videos featured at LikeTelevision. Yeah, i know – we should be like most retail stores that push Christmas content as soon as Halloween ends. SHeesh – they used to wait till after Thanksgiving… but this year i noticed that many retail halls were decked with holly as early as November 1st. Leaves me wondering – in 2025, will Christmas sales begin after the July 4th holiday? OK, enough whining… if you want a preview of some cool Christmas content – just search for Christmas.

LikeTelevision on Broadcast News

Kudos to LikeTelevision’s massive marketing department – for a getting a boatload of marketing air time – for nothing. While it is true – you usually get what you pay for it, in this case we actually got a lot for no cost. In July, LikeTelevision was contacted by a very nice fellow named Mike Goldfein, who has a cool TV News segment for Belo called Tech Files. (you can google it and learn more). Anyway – Belo owns a ton of media assets including a couple dozen broadcast tv stations in many different major markets including Charlotte, New Orleans, St. Louis, Phoenix, Seattle etc etc… basically their tv stations reach about 20% of the US market. So – to make a longer story short, we talked briefly with Mr. Goldfein and about a month later we started getting all kinds of additional phone traffic from all across the US. And then we watched the story about LikeTelevision on WNCW, Belo’s Charlotte NBC affiliate. WOW, finally – my kids were impressed! And we also got a nice bump in traffic and sign-ups. (which allows us to get more nifty content for our subscribers). Anyway – check it out if you missed the story on television. But hey.. you can still catch it at LikeTelevision.

The Future is Now

Recently, LikeTelevision heard from a major league media guy named Doug from Chicago – who was working for one of his clients, Intel. His job was to produce a video press release – to announce a cool new chip set that Intel developed to make convergence a reality. The solution uses cool software recently deployed by Microsft as the operating system. Convergence? what’s that you ask? Well – it is a little hard to explain – but basically it means the convergence of computers, television and the high speed internet to create a new medium for broadcasting, entertainment, and fun. Over 5 years ago – we created this short interstitial commercial for LikeTelevision that proclaimed – That Someday… is Now. Yes…. we made more too – like this one, we call kindness in the hard drive. Or this one – LikeTelevision – Only Better. And oddly enough – we found ourselves laughing at this old philco ad – that was plug and play(like the Intel/Microsoft motto), and encouraged folks to throw out their rabbit ears (antennaes). Anyway…. Intel got a very cool video press release – and woo woo… LikeTelevision was featured in the press release as a cool application that was here today on the internet. Yes… faster than you can say – five years is a long time – convergence is here. And the future is now. LikeTelevision would like to thank the Anderson’s – a very cool family that subscribes to LikeTelevision for their help in creating the video press release for Intel. The video press release was sent to all the major broadcasters of news around the world – we’d be interested to hear from folks who saw it on TV News. So in case you were wondering why we picked LikeTelevision for the name – it’s because we always felt that Someday – the computer would be LikeTelevision. Of course lots of people saw this age coming for a long time – in fact, Bill Gates said that phrase – Someday the computer will be LikeTelevision at a dog and pony show sometime last century. And now – the hardware needed to make it plug and play is here. COOL! And in case you were wondering – do i need all this new stuff to watch LTi content on my computer? No… of course not. We’ve been doing this for over 5 years now. You can watch it on your computer anytime you want, anywhere you want. But – our vision has always been to see our subscribers kicking back on a couch… and accessing our massive media library – just LikeTelevision. Well guess what – the future is now!

Storm The Bastille!

Just 215 years ago – the French were storming the Bastille, a notorious prison that probably treated prisoners with the same gentleness as Sadaam Hussein did. (please, no Abu Ghraib ironies – since the folks involved in the torment there are being punished and the US Army was the one who relayed the news of the atrocities in the first place, on their web site for journalists – over 4 months before traditional media decided they could use the story to feed the I hate Bush disease (humor might cure it)….though you’d never know that if you read the N.Y. Times or watched mainstream network news). And what makes July 14th so special? Well that’s the day France celebrates their Independence Day, with fireworks and parades no less. Also – lots of folks think the French Revolution happened before our the American Revolution – not so, July 4, 1776 happened thirteen years before – and America became the first true democracy on planet Earth. Ok… we really are not a democracy – huh? Nope, we are a Republic, which means that the winner is chosen by the electoral college, not the one who gets the most votes. (darn those lame schools – there’s a ton of people who still think Bush stole the election – but in many cases in US history, the guy getting the most votes did not win the election for President. America is a Republic, not a democracy for a good reason. It was done to protect those who lived in less populous states – because we all know that those city slickers would someday want to tax us stupid bumkins in rural areas, and take all the money for the big cities. But i digress… today we celebrate the French Revolution – that began with the storming of the Bastille. While most folks think the good people did this to release the prisoners – the actual reason was to get the guns in the Bastille- and fight the monarchy that was ruling the people like a bunch of thugs. Since many French soldiers fought for America in the 1776 revolution – Independence, Freedom and Liberty became one of our first major exports. Yes – i realize that many people in Europe, the Middle East and even in the USA think the US Army invaded Iraq to loot and pillage – i suggest you take a chill pill and examine the history of our country. Deep in our hearts – most of us in America really believe in freedom, equality, treating people fairly, and in the God given right to allow people to govern themselves.

As I think back to the morning of September 11, 2001 – everyone here at LikeTelevision was busy filming a video for an incredibly talented fellow from France named Bruno Frascone. Bruno has devoted most of his adult life to perfecting his skills as a marionette operator and creator. Years ago he lived in Charlotte, NC and i met him and his charming wife Darlene through a mutual friend, Dr. Barre. (he’s not really a hockey team dentist, but he played one at LikeTelevision). Anyway – Bruno went back to France to ply his craft, where he is viewed as a French National treasure. Over a decades passed … and he was returning to the USA for a tour in San Francisco that included a private party for Robin Williams. (cool!) Dr. Barre asked us if we could help Bruno put together a promtional video for him and we were happy to comply. What a great time we had and the experience was wonderful – full of love, hope and laughing children. A perfect foil to the atrocities that were taking place that morning on 9/11. Unlike most of America – i never watched the planes crash into the towers. I knew it would be a bad thing to inject in my mind. Yes… i know it played over and over and over on the news – but i never watched it, always turning away before the planes hit. Several weeks later – the news networks figured this out for themselves – that replaying this horror over and over like a news byte was terrible thing to do, and in fact playing right into the hands of men seeking to wipe us off the face of the planet. Years from now – i suspect that most people will look back on how the mainstream press covered this war and turn away in disgust. Imagine if they covered D-Day the same way? Or Pearl Harbor? Sometimes i wonder if all the noise involved in living in large US cities or across the world for that matter – whether Paris or Berlin or London… sometimes i wonder if the daily grind of the city somehow erodes common sense. It seems like a fair question.

By the way – if you were wondering about the painting – it is perhaps the best known work of a brilliant Frenchman named Eugene Delacroix, and is titled – Liberty Leading the People. The painting was created in 1830 and can be viewed in the Louvre. Or at google.

NEW – Cool, Weird and Funky!

Anyone who has been with us a subscriber knows… when it looks like it is getting “quiet” at LikeTelevision (that is, not as many new additions as usual)…. something is happening behind the scenes … something cool…. and weird is brewing in our little heads… and yes… once again – this is the case. Part of what makes LikeTelevision so different (the oddball charm) – is that we just love funky video content. The kind of whacky media that is lost to time, because it is just to bizarre for all the men in gray flannel suits walking about from dusk to dawn looking to make a buck. Well, we are certain that there is no money to be made from this new library of insane content – but for us, it is a treasure. We hope to offer you a few choice samples in the coming weeks that will cement in your minds, once and for all – that we have totally lost our minds. But – the catch 22 applies, unless you become nuts in the upside down nature of our world… if you stay normal – well hey, then YOU are the one who is insane. If you can stay normal… well that’s just crazy. Go read Joseph Heller’s epic novel on the subject – Catch 22 if you need more background on the theory.

Come back later this week for a taste of the new library additions – that take you back to the days, when weird was cool. We will as always – keep you posted of new additions in the LikeTelevision Blog

LikeTelevision -Forbes Best of the Web Award

Recently – we heard from one of our subscribers that we had won a Best of the Web Award from Forbes in the Television Category. Cool! LikeTelevision also received a glowing review from Beth Kracklauer of Forbes – here’s an except – “you can access thousands of TV episodes, movie trailers, vintage commercials, cartoons, musical segments, newsreels, documentaries–even a handful of movies. Bonanza, Beverly Hillbillies, Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger, Rock ‘Em-Sock ‘Em Robot commercials, classic 1930s scare documentaries like Reefer Madness and Sex Madness–the list goes on. The selection can be unpredictable–a fair number of old favorites like Ozzie and Harriet alongside plenty of obscure titles like Ramar of the Jungle–but the haphazardness is part of the site’s oddball charm.” Cool… oddball charm, i can live with that. All of the oddball elves at Liketelevision say – thank you for your kindness and support. Have a great weekend!

Memorial Weekend Update

We hope everyone has a safe and rewarding Memorial Day Weekend. Like most of you – we will be out till Tuesday. So if you need some help – thank you for your patience. Just send us an email info@liketelevison.com. We’ll be with as soon as we get back. Till then – here’s a page highlighting our Memorial Day video vault.

Andy Griffith Dethroned?

Yikes! – a sign of the times – The Battle of Algiers dethrones Andy Griffith’s long reign at #1 as our user’s picks… but the latest update shows Battle of Algiers, a disturbing documentary related to current world anxieties, as the new champ. We heard it was mentioned on some show today. Go figure. There’s lots of fun content at our site too. Go to a channel, movies, classic tv, commercials, history or cartoons. The Battle of Algiers is a very good film, a really awesome film… but it is hard to watch. My personal preference is more inclined to fun. Don’t count old Andy out – i bet Andy gets back on top. Have a great weekend.

New Screaming Servers

For those users who had trouble watching videos between 12:00 pm EST and 1 PM EST… we apologize for the service interuption. We were retiring some older video servers on the network, and there is a chance you might have been bumped if you were on the boxes we were servicing. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the new video servers that replaced them – are much smaller, lighter and downright SCREAMERS – which means they are much more powerful and efficient.

Also of interest – the hard drives in the new video servers are stocked with all the titles currently available PLUS there’s a mountain of free unused space. We like that a lot.

Rotations, New Server Update

Just finished a big rotations of the interstitial toy commercials… so what used to Twister … is now Malibu Barbi… and Rock ‘em Sock Robots is now Mr. Machine… as an example.

The loading of media files to the new servers… the super mondo QUAD processor server beasts is quite a chore. But time marches on…. another brick in the wall, another 25 gig chunk …. (think Rowdy… & sing along)… loading, loading loading … keep them doggies movin’, though they’re disapproving … Raw Data!