See, I went out today to rent a copy of Clash of the Titans.  I’ve heard it’s pretty bad, but I wanted to see it anyway so rental was the only real option.  I’m generally a pretty busy guy, but I had some free time so I thought “why not?”

Now, there are no video stores nearby me.  You might know this.  Apparently most of the rental places are closing.  I used to have an HMV nearby, but they’ve also closed, so I couldn’t even buy the movie without a 20 minute excursion, even if I wanted to.  There is, however, an automated system at the grocery store, but they don’t seem to have you in their system yet.  That’s unfortunate.

So next, I turned to my PS3, which recently got a Canadian video store.  But apparently they don’t update on release dates either.

So I checked iTunes, and sure enough there’s a rental there.  Of course, since I don’t have an AppleTV I can’t actually rent an HD version to watch on the TV, and short of connecting my computer  to the TV I can’t even get a decently upscaled SD version to play on my TV.  And that’s at a $5 rental cost.  So basically, I need to spend a third of the purchase price (via Amazon) for a rental that will not look as good on my TV as an actual DVD without going to a fuckton of effort.  Also, there is no way for me to rent an HD version today without spending another few hundred dollars.

This is not a good deal.

Look.  I know your industry is facing some problems and you think DRM is the solution to them.  But you know what?  If I could download a video which I could stream to my TV I’d be happy to pay for it.  You could have a number of stores online, and a number of different solutions to the problem.  I mean, software to stream video from Macs and PCs to iPads and TVs exist, so why don’t you bundle your DRM to some sort of streaming solution if you insist on this DRM crap?  I mean, a video that I can’t see is of no use to me and no money for you.

In short: Fuck you.

Twist Equation Alarm Clock

Basically, when the alarm goes off, you get an operator and a result. You need to twist the clock to make the equation make sense or it doesn’t shut up. Feeling tired?

Player	Team	Acquired	Departed
Kyle Chipchura		Draft (1/18, ’04)	Trade (ANA, ’09): for 4/??? ’11
Saku Koivu		Draft (1/21, ’93)	FA (ANA, ’09)
Chris Chelios		Draft (2/40, ’81)	Trade (CHI, ’90): with 2/39 ’91 (M. Pomichter) for D. Savard
Ron Hainsey		Draft (1/13, ’00)	Waivers (CBJ, ’05)
Steve Begin		Waivers (BUF, ’03)	Trade (DAL, ’09): for D. Janik
Mark Recchi		Trade (PHI, ’95): with 3/74 ’95 (M. Hohenberger) for E. Desjardins, G. Dionne, and J. LeClair	Trade (PHI, ’99): for D. Zubrus, 2/58 ’99 (M. Carkner) and 6/172 ’00 (S. Selig)
Michael Ryder		Draft (8/216, ’98)	FA (BOS, ’08)
Craig Rivet		Draft (3/68, ’92)	Trade (SJS, ’07): with 5/146 ’08 (J. Demers) for J. Gorges and 1/22 ’07 (M. Pacioretty)
Craig Conroy		Draft (6/123, ’90)	Trade (STL, ’96): with P. Turgeon and R. Fitzpatrick for M. Baron, S. Corson, and 5/122 ’97 (G. Razin)
Christopher Higgins		Draft (1/14, ’02)	Trade (NYR, ’09): with R. McDonagh and P. Valentenko for S. Gomez, T. Pyatt, and M. Busto
Tom Kostopoulos		FA (LAK, ’07)	FA (CAR, ’09)
Sergei Samsonov		FA (EDM, ’06)	Trade (CHI, ’07): for J. Cullimore and T. Salmelainen
Christobal Huet		Trade (LAK, ’04): with R. Bonk for M. Garon and 3/95 ’04 (P. Baier)	Trade (WSH, ’08): for 2/45 ’09 (J. Morin, ATL)
Brett Clark		Draft (6/154, ’96)	Expansion Draft (ATL, ’99)
Darcy Tucker		Draft (6/151, ’93)	Trade (TBL, ’98): with S. Richer and D. Wilkie for P. Poulin, M. Vukota, and I. Ulanov
Mathieu Garon		Draft (2/44, ’96)	Trade (LAK, ’04): with 3/95 ’04 (P. Baier) for R. Bonk and C. Huet
Mike Ribiero		Draft (2/45, ’98)	Trade (DAL, ’06): with 6/176 ’08 (M. Tassone) for J. Niinimaa and 5/142 ’07 (A. Conboy)
Stephane Robidas		Draft (7/164, ’95)	Waivers (ATL, ’02)
Doug Janik1		Trade (DAL, ’09): for S. Begin	FA (DET, ’09)
Sheldon Souray		Trade (NJD, ’00): with J. DeWolf and 2/61 ’01 (A. Holmqvist, TBL) for V. Malakhov	FA (EDM, ’07)
Tomas Vokoun		Draft (9/226, ’94)	Expansion Draft (NSH, ’98)
Raitis Ivanans		FA (AHL, ’04)	FA (LAK, ’06)
Guillaume Latendresse		Draft (2/45, ’05)	Trade (MIN, ’09): for B. Pouliot
Francis Bouillon		FA (IHL, ’98)	Waivers (NSH, ’02)
		Waivers (NSH, ’02)	FA (NSH, ’09)
Ben Guite1		Draft (7/172, ’97)	FA (NYI, ’01)
Yann Danis		FA (NCAA, ’04)	FA (NYI, ’08)
Dainus Zubrus		Trade (PHI, ’99): with 2/58 ’99 (M. Carkner) and 6/172 ’00 (S. Selig) for M. Recchi	Trade (WSH, ’01): with T. Linden and 2/61 ’01 (A. Holmqvist, TBL) for R. Zednik, J. Bulis, and 1/25 ’01 (A. Perezhogin)
Mark Streit		Draft (9/262, ’04)	FA (NYI, ’08)
Donald Brashear		FA (QMJHL, ’92)	Trade (VAN, ’96): for J. Cullimore
Corey Locke1		Draft (4/113, ’03)	Trade (MIN, ’08): for S. Belle
Matt Carkner		Draft (2/58, ’99)	FA (SJS, ’01)
Alexei Kovalev		Trade (NYR, ’04): for J. Balej and 2/51 ’04 (B. Graham)	FA (OTT, ’09)
Michael Leighton		Waivers (PHI, ’07)	Trade (CAR, ’07): for 7/192 ’07 (S. Kishel)
Robert Lang		Trade (CHI, ’08): for 2/32 ’10 (J. Knight, BOS)	FA (PHX, ’09)
Mathieu Schneider		Draft (3/44, ’87)	Trade (NYI, ’95): with K. Muller and C. Darby for P. Turgeon and V. Malakhov
Jay Leach1		Waivers (NJD, ’09)	Waivers (SJS, ’09)
Matt d’Agostini		Draft (6/190, ’05)	Trade (STL, ’10): for A. Palushaj
Alex Tanguay		Trade (CGY, ’08): with 5/138 ’08 (M. Trunev) for 1/25 ’08 (G. Nemisz) and 2/49 ’09 (S. Elliott, COL)	FA (TBL, ’09)
Francois Beauchemin		Draft (3/75, ’98)	Waivers (CBJ, ’04)
Andre Deveaux		Draft (6/182, ’02)	FA (TBL, ’04)
Mikhail Grabovski		Draft (5/150, ’04)	Trade (TOR, ’08): for G. Pateryn and 2/32 ’10 (J. Knight, BOS)
Mike Komisarek		Draft (1/7, ’01)	FA (TOR, ’09)
Jose Theodore		Draft (2/44, ’94)	Trade (COL, ’06): for D. Aebischer

¹ Not currently on active roster.

The final tally, at the end of the playoffs:

• 1 team has four (TOR)
• 1 team has three (BOS)
• 11 teams have two (ANA, ATL, CGY, CAR, COL, DAL, NSH, NJD, NYR, OTT, PHX)
• 14 teams have one (BUF, CHI, CBJ, DET, EDM, FLA, LAK, MIN, NYI, PHI, SJS, STL, TBL, WSH)
• 3 teams have none (MTL, PIT, VAN)

A much more even spread than we saw with the Oilers, excepting the fact that the two teams with the most ex-Habs are the team’s two traditional rivals, Toronto (four!) and Boston (three). Worst of all, all four ex-Hab Leafs are Habs picks, though to be fair, two of them (Beauchemin and Deveaux) combined for one game in le tricolore, so it’s not so bad. Additionally, only one active player has recorded two separate stints as a Hab — Francis Bouillon, who did a bit of waiver-swapping with Nashville back in ’02. At some point in the summer, I may yet look back on how players left each team, and see if there’s anything useful to be learned from it (probably not without a bigger sample, but I’m not sure I’m interested in doing this for a third team). I may keep on keeping track, so…check back in October? Maybe?

Finally, since the playoffs, we’ve already had movement on two guys:

Player	Team	Acquired	Departed
Jaroslav Halak		Draft (9/271, ’03)	Trade (STL, ’10): for L. Eller and I. Schultz
Sergei Kostitsyn		Draft (7/200, ’05)	Trade (NSH, ’10): with futures for D. Boyd, D. Ellis, and futures

Miss you, Dad.

I’ve had it as one of my starting tabs for two weeks and haven’t bothered to listen to it, but this seems like something that other people who frequent this site might like.

Doogie	Hoop	Matt	Gerard	Result
4-1	4-1	4-2	4-1	4-2
1-0	1-0	1-0	1-0	W-L
1	1	0	1	GO
8-7	11-4	7-8	8-7	W-L
36	28	35	36	GO
1	4	4	0	PS

You may notice the extra row at the end. Because Gerard and I perfectly tied, the second tiebreaker had to come out, and I arbitrarily selected perfect series. Not because it gave me second place (that was a happy accident), but because it was the only damned thing I had left that I’d tracked.

That sixth game was an absolute classic. It’s a bit of a shame, in a way, that the final goal was a touch anticlimactic, with the delayed reaction of everyone in the building not named Patrick Kane. Then again, there’s something pure and enjoyable about Kane’s whoop of joy being the only sign that the ‘Hawks had just won the Cup for damned near five seconds. Still, the game itself was entertaining pretty much from start to finish: even when the ‘Hawks tried to sit on their lead in the third, they got a few quality chances, and did more by sound positioning than they did by playing that Godforsaken dump and chase that most teams do when they defend a late lead.

The goaltending was awful, sure (neither ‘keeper had a SV% over .900, and the series was the third-highest scoring Final of all-time), but overall, I can’t complain one bit about the quality of the series. What many in the hockey world –including three of us — expected to be a coronation turned out to be a heck of a series with a number of lead changes, history in the making (Briere’s 12 points, one off Gretzky’s record, and 30 points on the playoffs, besting Brian Propp for the Flyers record), and defining moments, the kind of series that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago (remember the slogfests of the early aughts?). Plus, Game 6 was apparently the highest-rated NHL game since the mid-70s. It did the unthinkable and outdid the NHL’s dream matchups of the last two years in pretty much every way. It’s too bad the salary cap is going to ravage this Chicago team over the summer: I’d love to see more of this next year.

I think I’ll wait for the RiffTrax to come out before renting it.