I gave news you could use on Friday, so for today here is an extended ‘Friday Review’ including some pictures of the recent fire at Universal Studios.

Universal Studios Backlot Fire

The building in the background is the current face of the clock tower from ‘Back to the Future’ you can see just how devastating this fire is to the back-lot.*

Kiosks Come to Life: Remember when we said that Blockbuster would be developing in-store kiosks to rival those of red-box? We’ll two of them now exist. You’ll need to buy an Archos Generation 4 portable media player to get it to work, but CEO Jim Keyes says the kiosks will be compatible with virtually any portable video device, including Apple’s iPhone and video iPod and the Zune. 

Universal Backlot Fire, film

Here firefighters carry film canisters out of the film vault on the back-lot. Some 50,000 negatives were stored in the building behind them. Incidentally I applied for a job working in that building a few years ago.

The Window Closes: If Disney CEO Iger and News Corp. CEO world dominator, Rupert Murdoch can agree on something it must be true. They both predict that movies will be released on video-on demand cable platforms as well as via digital technologies the same day they are released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Universal Studios Fire devestation

The devastation from the upper lot. On the right is the gutted-out ‘King Kong’ portion of the tram tour and the clock tower dead center.*

Radiohead- Denied: A few months ago now Prince covered Radiohead’s “Creep” at Coachella and naturally YouTube was the obvious place to find videos of the performance. Unfortunately for everyone, including the creator’s of the song, Prince’s label, NPG Records, had the clips removed citing copyright violation. When Thom Yorke found out about it from Ed O’Brien he said “Really?He’s blocked it? Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment… Well, tell him to unblock it It’s our…song.” As of now the videos have not returned to YouTube but this will for sure add to the debate over digital ownership. I guess if this does go someplace legally I’m glad to have internet pioneer’s, Radiohead, on my side. 

*Photos appear courtesy of David ‘Darkbeer’ Michael on Miceage.com


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