J’accasse

I’m not planning to see Jackass: The Movie any time soon (or at all, really), but I did find today’s Times article on Johnny Knoxville and the accompanying photo interesting enough. Bookish? Who’d a thunk it?

On the media. The Seattle Times comes to some conclusions on why ticket prices to big-name concerts have been skyrocketing. The Chron tracks a slowing trend in internet pop-up ads, but says “rich media” ads are on the rise. Ugh. I hate those. Especially the MSN 8 ones that take up the whole screen.

Waiting in the wings. In theater news, Elton John and director Stephen Daldry will collaborate on a musical adaptation of Billy Elliot (Daldry’s directorial film debut of 2000), which may appear on the London stage as early as next year. Also in early development for the theater is Disney’s The Little Mermaid, to be directed by Matthew Bourne, whose modern, male production of Swan Lake I absolutely love. So it better be good. I know there’s a level of cheesiness built in, but if he, known mainly as a choreographer, can bring to Mermaid some of the exuberance that Julie Taymor brought to The Lion King, I’ll be happy. And lastly, the Jeff Awards?!

Check out that package. I look at all the clutter in my apartment, and wonder, why are cases for DVDs so much larger than they need to be? I suppose it’s to align the DVD format with VHS tape, and differentiate it from audio CD. But still, I feel like chucking all my DVD cases, and keeping the discs in a CD holder — I won’t, though, ’cause I know all that plastic will just relocate to some landfill, and sit there for a millenium or two.

As an aside, remember how CDs used to be sold in boxes twice the size of the actual CD? The first CD I ever bought was Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation, and I might still have the box somewhere in my old room at home. (I just looked up the original release date: September 1989. Wow. I was 12. What I won’t admit as readily is that the other CD I purchased at the time was Vanilla Ice. I’ve long since gotten rid of that, though.)

Robin! To the voting booth! Tomorrow, it’ll be time once again to rock the vote. It seems to be a relatively dull election season here in D.C. Since it looks like the top posts will stay in the hands of the incumbents, the only other big races are for city council… and how do you get excited over that? Well, I suppose I should be more aware of local D.C. politics, but it’s hard to focus on that in a place where national politics are so visible. Eh, I usually just vote a straight Democratic ticket anyway.

Just Jack. A TV note: W&G‘s Sean Hayes will be on with Letterman tonight. Ah, those blue eyes. He’s really great in interviews, like he’s having so much fun.