Zune pass is Microsoft’s subscription model for streaming music.  It costs $14.99 a month and as long as you have an active subscription you can play (on up to 3 PCs) any songs from their vast library.  You can also download these songs and load them onto a DRM approved device (like the Zune) for the duration of your subscription.  Along with the monthly access to the entire library, Microsoft added a new element that lets you download and keep forever, 10 songs per month.  The biggest gap in this service which I didn’t realize wouldn’t work until I actually tried it, is that you cannot access the Zune Marketplace via the xbox 360 console.  This means that you can’t browse and stream unlimited music directly from the xbox, a huge oversight in my opinion since most people would love to be able to select and play any music in their main entertainment room instead of just the room they have a PC in.  Other than that, there are a lot of nice features about the Zune pass and Zune marketplace (social playlists and channels) that have me debating moving to a subscription based model for my music needs.

With the newest version of the Xbox 360 UI, Xbox Live Gold members and members of certain Netflix subscription plans can now access a large library of streaming content directly on their Xbox consoles.  I have tried this for a few days and it is implemented very well.  On the netflix website you select which movies you want to show up in your “instant queue” on the xbox, and once you navigate to the Netflix section on your console you get a nice interface that lets you play and watch the content you selected.  The standard streaming quality is very acceptable and some features are available in HD which looks very nice.  The best “instant queue” selections are mostly limited to Documentaries, Indie films and TV shows, but there is a large selection of almost anything you could want, and the most basic plan at $8.99 allows for you to have 1 DVD (or BluRay) out at a time to fill the gap.  A couple of improvements I would like to see are allowing you to browse the entire netflix instant library via the xbox console to add films to your queue, more HD content, and also better sound on the higher quality films.  It seems I am only limited to 2 channel audio, which is unfortunate.

With these two media subscriptions, Microsoft and Netflix really have a nice fulfillment of my music and movie needs.  This got me thinking, with a few of the improvements I listed above (most notably the Zune Marketplace accessible on the Xbox 360 console) Microsoft could easily offer a single subscription model that would compete and go beyond anything other media service providers currently offer.  Imagine if you had following options.

• Xbox Media Pass Basic – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming, and zune pass streaming  $20/month
• Xbox Media Pass Mid-range – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming + 1 at a time,  zune pass + 800 MS Points – $30/month
• Xbox Media Pass Deluxe – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming + 3 at a time, zune pass + 1600 MS Points – $50/month

The price points can be adjusted some, but you see where I’m going.  I would be very VERY interested in purchasing one of these plans, and even possibly a yearly subscription if it was given at a discounted rate.  The other adjustment that would have to be made according to how I have the model laid out, is that Microsoft would have to make their point system universal.  800 MS points would be good on the Xbox console or Marketplace for purchasing game or video content and good on the PC or Zune for purchasing individual tracks or whole albums.  I really think if Microsoft was able to combine these services and integrate them well, they would really start to separate themselves from everyone else in both the console and media offerings marketplace.

Tonight we’re going to see the Imax version of I Am Legend. Why the Imax version you ask? Because it will have a 5 minute preview of The Dark Knight, which introduces the Joker. I think I’m more excited about the preview than I am the movie, although I Am Legend should be pretty good.

“I love Will Smith” - Newbs

On a plus note, I have now become addicted to seeing moives via a DLP projector. We first saw Pirates 3 via DLP, and now HP5. I can really notice a quality difference which adds tremendously to my enjoyment of paying 8 bucks to see a movie in a theater environment.

I have finished the last of the Harry Potter books as of last night. While I find the conclusion satisfying, there are a few things in this book and the series itself, that will prevent me from calling it Great. I won’t go into them in detail now, since there are still a lot of people left who still need to read the 7th book. I will just conclude with a quote from Tycho @ Penny-Arcade which pretty much expresses how I feel and have felt about the Harry Potter series.

I finished the last Harry Potter yesterday, but I couldn’t actually tell you what happened in it. It’s been like that for several books now, starting with The Order of the Phoenix, where I grip the book with hunger and aggression and consume it without ever tasting the meal. I have a sense of being satisfied, but it is murky, and distant, the way an anaconda must feel one week after eating a jaguar. What is most important is that the wait, that long famine, has come to a close.

About 2 weeks ago, I went with my brother and parents to pick up a new puppy for them. They drove down all the way to Washington Courthouse to get a 1 month old Golden Retriever pup. You can find some pictures of him by clicking on the picture below.

We debated for a while on what his name should be and decided on Cody. My parents wanted something that reminded them of the West (Cody, Wyoming) and also might be related to a soda beverage (our dog before Zac was Fresca – like the drink). So Cody can also be considered Code Red (Mt. Dew). All very vaugue and weakly linked in my opinion, but Cody works. We thought of one name that all of us except my Mom loved. Bauer (or Bower in dog language). I’m considering getting my own dog this fall (if our housing arrangement allows it) and am pretty sure that I will name him Bauer. I’d really like to have my own dog, the only problem being if I got a puppy then I’d have to train him, and that could be difficult since I work all day. If I didn’t get a puppy, I’d be somewhat limited on his/her name. But we’ll see. My Mom is currently remembering how much work raising a puppy (do you raise a puppy?) is, especially when you’re home by yourself all day.

You may have noticed if you clicked on the picture, that it didn’t go to the normal spot. In fact it went to a entirely new area and layout. You may have also noticed, if you’d looked in the past 24 hours, that all my pictures in the photo section are someone limited. This is because my “pro” Flickr account has expired after 1 year and I’m debating still if I want to renew it. The puppy gallery is currently being hosted by google’s picture service. Its a great service especially since it integrates well with Picasa, my windows picture organizer of choice. The only hold back is integration with my site ( I really liked hosting a plugin on my site that connected with Flickr) and the amount of storage. With Flickr, I paid $25 for a years worth of infinite storage and bandwidth. So I’ll be debating over the next few days/week if I want to move or just renew with Flickr. I’ll be sure to post, once I’ve made a decision.

Going to see Spiderman 3 tonight at midnight. I think I’m going more just to keep the inner geek inside me fed more than I am excited for it. Its not that I don’t expect to enjoy it. Thats not it at all. How can I not enjoy the most expensive movie ever made that’s based on comics and guaranteed to feature some badass fight scenes. I just feel like I know what to expect. Plus I hear there is a lot of Peter crying and Kirstin Dunst singing. Not sure what to think about that. It should still be good, but I’m not nearly as excited for this as I am say The Dark Knight (Batman Begins 2).

And while we’re on a superhero kick, Heroes is by far the best show on TV right now. Yes, better than Lost, 24, and Entourage. Every episode for this opening season has been amazing, and there are only 3 left! Even though I’ve been dealing with Heroes and 24 being on at the same time (watching 24 live and DVRing Heroes to watch immediately after), both shows have their season finale on the same day at the same time. UGGG!

In other news here is a preview of a new movie poster I just bought. Recently I’ve gotten into buying movie poster that I find cool. I’ve got two frames out in our living room that I rotate new one sheets in and out of. The ATHF movie should be pretty sweet, but their teaser poster just ooozes awesome. Almost as awesome as some of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s favorite posters.

And finally, while I’m on an image posting craze, here are the two new teasers for the Transformers movie. Pretty sweet. Optimus Prime looks pretty close to himself with that mouth shield thing, but Megatron still looks like an alien.

Our format was as follows.  I wanted to see if we could easily identify the differences between all the “crap”/”light” beers.  We ended up purchasing Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light as our first batch of competitors.  Our first group of testers included Mike, Jess and Bree.  We filled up nine cups with the 3 different types of beer and marked a number on the bottom of the cup.  Newbs and I made sure to record what number referred to what beer and then proceeded to hand out the samples.  The testers were instructed to try and identify a) what beer they were tasting and b) which of the 3 they liked the best.  Something we picked up on right away was that it would be best if you had something to wash/rinse your pallet out with something like pretzels and water.  Also, we found out half way through that you should leave some in your cup for the end so you can go back and re-sample to determine which you like best.

The problem we had with requiring tasters to identify which was their favorite, was people always have predispositions.  For example, of the 3 beers Coors was Mike’s favorite (before testing), so he’ll be more inclined to identify the best taste with whichever beer he things is Coors.  In the end, after the 3 of them, then Nick, Newbs and I had done all the samples,  we concluded that Coors by far had the most distinctive taste, with Miller and Bud Light tasting nearly identical.  No one was able to identify all 3 beers correctly (except for me )  It was a fun experience and something I’d definitely recommend if you enjoy a beverage or two.  In my opinion it showed that marketing can have a large influence on choice, even if taste is the same.  I’d like to try it again sometime with a larger selection of “bar” beers including maybe some Sam Adams, Rolling Rock, Corona, etc.

After the light beers we moved onto attempting to identify a Stout, an IPA and a Red Ale.  This was  little easier to pick out, but not easier to drink.  Going back and forth between the much heavier and tastier beers was a little overwhelming.

Tonight I’m planning on going to see 300.  I’m very excited for this movie.  It’s basically going to be a bunch of Spartan dudes kicking Persian ass for 2 hours.  There will be lots of gore, swearing and possibly dude-ity so if thats not your thing I would skip this one.  Along with the comic book/video game visual style, I’m expecting a cross between Gladiator and Sin City.  Even though I haven’t read Frank Miller’s 300, I heard that every panel was recreated during the film, which should make for an awesome comic to movie translation.

Apparently though, this isn’t the norm and quite a few people were upset at the cruelty towards “challenged” contestants. I just happened to watch at a bad time. I’m fine with people who can’t sing or dance being made fun of, but if they are obviously hindered due to a learning disability or deformity, I don’t see how America accepts it. Then again, it is Fox.

On a happier note, Matt is 100% correct.  Pan’s Labyrinth is complete awesomeness and you should go see it.  Best way I’ve heard to describe it is a Fairy Tale for adults.

The Departed

I was fairly excited for this movie before it came out, but did not expect it to be nearly this good. Its got some good twists and suspense, and I won’t be surprised if it moves onto my favorite movies of all time list.

Little Miss Sunshine

I was actually fortunate enough to get to see this as a free preview with Kate many weeks before it was released in theaters. I’d heard nothing about Little Miss Sunshine other than some small internet hype. This movie is by far the surprise of the year. It does an awesome job of combining comedy and drama. I recommend this movie to everyone.

Casino Royale

Not just another Bond movie. Casino takes the Bond Franchise and resets it much like Batman Begins did for the Dark Knight. I really enjoyed the new take on 007 and was very impressed with Daniel Craig as James Bond. I look forward to seeing him in the upcoming 007 movies.

V for Vendetta

Yet another comic book movie that does everything right. The character V is nailed down perfectly and they got the best guy to play him. I’m glad that a lot of the “darker” comics are translating to the big screen so well and am really hoping that 300, does just as good a job as V and Sin City have done.

The Prestige

Another movie that I had high expectations for that were surpassed. Normally I’m not one to try and guess the ending or “big twist” but this one just came to me mid way through. Even so, it was still an awesome movie and for it Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan have moved up onto my favorite actor and director’s list. I’m curious to see how The Illusionist compares to this since it came out around the same time and focused on similar subject matters. Plus Edward Norton is always quality.

Superman Returns

Reseting big franchise titles has seemed to be a big theme over the past few years and so far the idea is working. Superman Returns is actually supposed to continue where the original Superman left of, but really you don’t have to have seen it to enjoy this movie. Some may think it is a little long, and I can see that, but overall a great flick representing the Man of steel.

There you have it. A few other movies that came out last year and I enjoyed, but not enough to make best of the best were:

Borat

Flags of our Fathers

United 93

Inside Man

And a few that I haven’t seen yet but might be in consideration for this list had I are:

Babel

Letters from Iwo Jima

The Illusionist

Blood Diamond

Did I miss any that are on your list?

More than meets the eye!

This weekend, The Departed comes out staring about 20 named actors. Looks pretty good if you’re into the cop/crime drama sort of film. Following that we have The Prestige and Flag of our Fathers. I’ve already talked about The Prestige in a previous post, and I’m still just as excited. It should be a good October movie and I’m ready to watch anything Chris Nolan puts out as long as it gets him closer to working on The Dark Knight. Flag of our Fathers is based on a book of the same name that tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima. I had heard about it a few months back, but hadn’t seen anything on it till last night. There was a 30 second HD trailer on during Lost and it looked amazing. I’m definitely going to try to catch this one. It’s directed by Clint Eastwood and will have a second one that comes out later in the year called Letters from Iwo Jima that tells the battle from the Japanese POV. I’ll be very interested to see how the second film is received here in the United States compared to Flags. Also I’m curious if there will be storylines that are continued/concluded between the two films. It’ll be a cool mix of 2 seperate movies that run parallel so they contain some same plots and some very different. Wonder if sometohing like this has been done before.

Finally late in the month we have Borat and Babel. Borat is going to be hilarious (if you’re into that kind of funny), and from the trailer, Babel looks very cool. Something like Crash or Traffic. I can see it getting lots of talk for Oscar season if it’s any good. I would expect that I’ll probably see 2 or 3 of these in the theater which is more movies than I’ve seen at the cinema in the past 3 months.

For those of you who don’t’ know, my sister is down in New Orleans for a few month helping out with Katrina clean-up. The few times I’ve talked to her she sound very busy, but is having a good time. I helped her set up a blog that she can use to keep people updated.

You can find that here – LifeofKim