Over the years, I've told listeners of the Hawk and Tom Show about a site called Epinions.com where you could research products online before you buy them.  Back when I first started using Epinions, it seemed like an incredibly useful tool and a novel idea.

However, after some bad experiences with Epinions recently, I'm withdrawing my recommendations.  You can get the same information from places like Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.com and Target.com, without the weird politics and secret forumulas for how a product is rated.

I think simple is better and you can't beat Amazon's five star system.  Either it has 5 stars, or it has less and each person gets an individual vote that is equal to the other votes.

I've written a longer blog about epinions here - check it out...

http://tsteele93.blogspot.com/2007/08/10-things-i-didnt-know-about-epinions-1.html

-Tom Steele

Hey ya'll!  We have a YOUTUBE page with a bunch of videos from Torture Tuesday up now.  Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tsteele93

Thanks,

-Tom

 

P.S.  Why does myspace suck so bad?  I wanted to prop this band in my "what I'm listening to right now section," but when I search for them myspace has no idea who they are, even though they are ON MYSPACE.  Myspace, you suck!

And Then I Turned Seven

http://www.myspace.com/andtheniturnedseven

You can now listen online to the Hawk and Tom Show (and B93.7 of course) by going to www.b937online.com or www.hawkandtom.com and clicking on the "listen live" button.

We've gotten a lot of request for this and we are excited that the engineering staff has gotten it up and running for us.

-Tom

I still get e-mails about Burnlounge and I still have friends trying to talk me into joining.  Rather than get into it more, I suggest this site for an active discussion of Burnlounge.

http://burnlounge.proboards92.com/index.cgi

-Tom

Well, my wife and I finally watched Million Dollar Baby. It was much better than I had expected.  I thought it was going to dwell on the (DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE) paralyzation and ethical issues about assisted suicide and euthanasia.  It really wasn't about that.  It was about Hillary Swank's character breaking out of the dead end life that had been dealt to her and even though she ended up with a terribly short life, she didn't feel like she had been cheated because she had achieved her dreams.

Overall, I liked it and would recommend it, but know ahead of time it is depressing.  Let's give it 8 of 10.

We also watched Bad News Bears with Billy Bob Thornton.  It was a way to kill 2 hours without being totally bored, but it wasn't very good.  I'd give it a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. 

Oh yeah, we also saw Kingdom of Heaven. Orlando Bloom is such a hottie!    That's what my wife says anyway.  It was a good movie (I'll say a 7) that could have been a lot better.  I was a little confused sometimes and I didn't know the history of that era well enough to keep up and they didn't educate me as well as I would have liked.  Still, it was a decent flick. Great hero and interesting story.  Better than Bad News Bears, that's for sure!

Ok, I saw Crash - before it won the Oscar actually.  Saturday night.  Here's my take...

Crash is an excellent movie, a little over-hyped though. I think the "it will change how you think about racism" and "you will closely examine how you view race" comments are kind of ridiculous.  I already know what I think about racism, I alread know where I stand on the subject, and I'm secure in my position.  Crash did not change a thing about how I feel, nor did it even make me seriously re-examine my feelings about racism.

On the other hand, it was a very well-done, clever movie - and that is what I liked about it.  Carefully woven together, the movie takes you through a couple of days in the lives of some very different people.  Different races, different socio-economic levels and different viewpoints.  One thing they seem to have in common, (at least most of them), is that they have some degree of racism.  In most cases, an ASTONISHING degree of racism.  That's why I wasn't forced to re-examine my views.  I couldn't even empathize with most of the characters, not even a little.

BUT, that's what makes Crash so good.  For most of the movie you are sitting there staring at the screen in disbelief (except the movie is well-enough done that you DO believe) of the characters actions and statements.

Without giving anything away, I had to stifle laughs when the gun store owner was dressing down the convenience store owner.  And Ludacris was outstanding in his role.  Very hard to like, but outstanding.  You wanted to yell out, "See - that's why they (we?) think that way!!!!

One of my favorite things about the movie was that all of the characters were gray.  Varying shades, but no one was shining white, and no one was pure black.  (Note the clever use of black/white - good/evil analogies in discussion of a movie about race!)

Ultimately, the movie may teach you something about racism, but I think you have to dig deep to find it - Crash teaches you that racism is about whether you know someone or not.  If you know a person of a different race, then their race fades out of the equation in your mind.  (Sandra Bullock telling the maid she is her best friend at the end of the movie for instance.)  But if you don't know someone, then race is the first level of defense, probably dating back to "caveman days."  You look to see if they "look like you" and if they do, then you feel a kinship or comfort and (possibly false) degree of safety.  If they look different than you, then you put up defenses.

I'm glad Crash won for best picture of the year.  It is a really well done movie.  I bet it was twice as good in a theater when you had to look around and see if someone of a different skin color was near you, judging how you reacted to a particular scene.  Or knowing that someone of a different skin color was reacting differently to a scene than you did because of that different skin color.  Certainly a movie to see.  I'll give it an 8, or maybe even 9 out of 10.  Definitely worth your time!

-Tom

I'm still catching flak about my Burnlounge Blog and comments that I made on the show.  In an effort to be fair about it, here is a Burnlounge message board where you can hear both sides of the issues and decide for yourself.

http://burnlounge.proboards92.com/index.cgi

-Tom

P.S.  Anyone ever heard of Janglefish?  I hadn't... but if you are going to do BurnLounge, you should probably google them or go here...

http://burnlounge.proboards92.com/index.cgi?board=scam&action=display&thread=1142387587

P.P.S - Some more interesting links: http://netmix.com/wordpress/burnloungecom-launches-viral-marketing-effort-in-new-york-city/

http://www.indiemusician.com/music_business/2006/02/index.html

 

Ok, I'm not really going to suggest that you steal DVD's from blockbuster, or teach you how to steal from them.  You'll have to figure out how to do that yourself, and decide if you want to or not.

But I will tell you how those plastic yellow locks that slide down into the DVD case work.  Why?  Well, let me tell you a story...

I got off work today and went by the grocery store to get some fixins for my award winning chili (I'll post the recipe in another blog if you want sometime) and saw that Blockbuster had their "3 for $25" deal going on their pre-viewed DVD's.  When it comes to DVD's, I usually watch them once and I'm done.  But sometimes it is nice to own the DVD.  That way you can loan it to a friend and never see it again at a later date.

Anyway, I digress.  I figure the math on that works out to under $8.50 a DVD which isn't bad.  So, I go in and see what they have.  I'm looking for Crash in particular, since so many of you have recommended it.

I ended up with 6 DVDs and figure that is a lot of movie watching over the next few weeks.  As I approached the counter, I also saw 2 more DVD's that looked interesting in the "2 for $12" which is a heck of a deal!  So I ended up with 8 DVD's.

When I got the register, I had this nagging suspicion that the person working was not the usual high caliber employee that I get at Blockbuster.  She seemed a little clueless to be honest.  So, I carefully separated the 2/$12 and 3/$25 DVD's and laid them on the counter.  She said, "Are these for rental?"  I said, "No ma'am, they are previously viewed and these are 2/$12 and these are 3/$25."

She looked at them for a second and then said, "Ah yes, I see the prices on them now."  The prices are very large, so this worried me.  But then she proceeded to ring me up with a total of $65.10.  By my calculations in my head, this was what I had expected, so I was delighted and thought maybe I had been too quick to rush to judgement. I dropped the movies in my car, went to the grocery store and then went home and made the chili and set it to slow roasting in the crockpot.

Now, if you are like me (and Lord help you if that is true) you like to take a look at your newly purchased LOOT when you get home, even if it is something you aren't going to use for a while.  So I decided to look over the movies and see which one I wanted to watch tonight.  I went to open one of the DVD's and it wouldn't budge.  I know they make those things tough to open, so I tried again.  Nothing.

Then I spotted the yellow tabs on the bottom of the cases.  She hadn't taken the theft prevention devices out of the DVD cases before she gave them to me (which means she didn't look inside each one and check to see if the proper DVD was in it either... bad Blockbuster employee!!!).

Well I wasn't about to waste 15 minutes driving down to the store to get them taken out, so I proceeded to spend the next two hours trying to open the case myself.  First I went online to see if there were any tips.  www.ihateblockbuster.com was interesting, but only provided a small bit of information.  Something about magnets - and icepicks.  I got a screwdriver out and managed to mangle the case of Million Dollar Baby and get it open, (scratching the crap out of the DVD, which still seems to play, but will probably lock up when I actually go to watch it.) and guess what - there's a complicated, yet clever, arrangment of metal pieces and plastic tabs and it takes a powerful magnet to release the tabs.

Not wanting to destroy the rest of my DVD's, I went looking for a strong magnet.  I had an old 12 inch subwoofer in the closet, so I got it out and tried, but it wasn't strong enough.  I poked some paper clips in a couple spots where I thought it might loosen the tabs, but that didn't work either.

I finally solved the problem though, and that is what you are here for - right?  When my wife gets off work, I'm going to have her take them down to Blockbuster and get them to remove the yellow tabs for me.  :-)

I hope this helps anyone else in my predicament.  Next week I'll share my secret for getting those theft prevention devices off of clothes when they forget and leave them on your purchase.  I'll give you a hint now... it involves my wife and a car!  Bet you'll never guess.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I've got 16 hours of movies to watch.

-Tom Steele

P.S.  My total list for this trip, in case anyone cares or wants to comment on the movies.

The Island
Crash
Undertow
March of the Penguins
Bad News Bears
Batman Begins
Million Dollar Baby
Hide and Seek

We are excited to announce the new Hawk and Tom Show myspace page!  Just click here to check it out.  We have free tracks from the Best Of Hawk & Tom CD's and you can download the most requested Thelma Holister Crank Call of all time... Welcome to Wal-Mart!!!

Let us know what you think.  We are excited to be able to offer audio here on myspace.

-Tom

Well, I've stirred up a bit of a hornets' nest with my last blog entry!  If you haven't read it, I asked the question, "Is Burn Lounge a SCAM?"  Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that Burn Lounge is a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme which does not look like a legitimate business plan to me.

Since then, I've gotten some phone calls!  Last night I was contacted by a friend in the music industry who wanted to chat with me about Burn Lounge.

I'm not sure exactly what level of involvement this friend has with Burn Lounge, but I do know that he is friends with many of the primary creators of Burn Lounge.  (I don't know if he wants his name mentioned here, so I will err on the side of caution.)   That means two things to me.  First, he wants Burn Lounge to succeed.  Second, he does know a lot about the inner workings of the company.  I believe this friend was sincere with me, but I also believe there are still some problems with Burn Lounge that he cannot address.

Let me start with the good things he told me.  First off, he pointed out that Burn Lounge gives a much larger percentage of the money you pay to download a song to the ARTIST than any other service.  I'm told as much as 70 cents on the dollar, compared to the pennies that many record companies give to the artist.  That's a good thing.

My friend also pointed out that Burn Lounge is a great place for unsigned bands to get noticed.  If enough people feature a band on their Burn Lounge storefront, they can "get noticed" by the public, without the expense of record company promotion and radio airplay.  Again, another good thing.  (Especially if you are in a band!)

I agree that these aspects of Burn Lounge are positive things.

However, (and you knew that was coming) my friend could not eliminate my concerns about the multi-level marketing side of Burn Lounge.  He stated that he was also concerned about that aspect of Burn Lounge and he told me that the creators of the Burn Lounge are actually more focused on getting people to sell music than getting people to sell "moguls" and "universities."  He emphasized that the Burn Lounge creators were very serious about making sure that people understood what they were getting into when they signed up for Burn Lounge and he told me that the owner of the http://www.worldwidemd.net/Compensation.htm site would be asked to remove that site because it did not accurately reflect the focus of Burn Lounge concept.  He also suggested that I instead go to http://www.yourburnteam.com and see for myself what the creators of Burn Lounge are trying to accomplish.

Well, I did that - and unfortunately, as of this writing, the http://www.yourburnteam.com site does not appear to support this claim.  It does say the "site is designed to help you understand and participate in the Burnlounge concept,"  and claims to "help you open your own digital music store and earn commissions selling the music you love, or show you how to create a powerful sales force of Burnlounge retailers in markets all across the country and turn your music sales into a lucrative business or show you how to simply become a Burnlounge music customer and explore the latest, coolest music from unknown independents or your favorite signed artists."

However, I didn't find any of those things on the site except how to become a mogul with university package on this page: http://www.yourburnteam.com/getstarted.php?NAME=getstarted.php - a page that looks a lot like the discredited http://www.worldwidemd.net/Compensation.htm page mentioned in my previous blog.

Ultimately, I wish that Burn Lounge was everything that it could be.  Without the multi-level marketing aspect, it might very well be a great place for new bands to get noticed and sell their music, and a great place to buy music.  But right now I have not heard anything from anyone that disputes the fact that Burn Lounge is primarily a multi-level marketing program that depends on sales of the mogul/university packages to other people in order to make a profit.

I am very open to anyone who would like to show me otherwise. 

Sincerely,
-Tom Steele