I’m a Sony whore. I know their stuff is more expensive than it needs to be, but just I love their design. I’ll buy outside the brand when there’s reason to — I went with an Epson projector because it was, quite simply, superior to anything Sony had to offer — but as a rule, I’ll look at Sony’s offerings first.
Anyway, for the last couple of years, Sony’s had this line of pocket camcorders, modeled after the Flip but designed to be more versatile. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, but I could never quite bring myself around to buying one.
The first-generation model, branded the Webbie, was cute but clunky, with an awkward joystick and a tiny video screen; the second generation, renamed the Bloggie, addressed a number of interactivity problems and expanded the screen a little but kept the weirdly flimsy form factor, with a swiveling lens design that felt like it’d get wobbly within hours of its first use. But they all shot 1080i or 1080p HD video, and they were all the size of a cell phone, and the idea of carrying something like that to a press conference or an interview was awfully tempting.
Well, the third generation came out this month — pictured above — and it’s gorgeous. Rechristened the Bloggie Touch, it’s been redesigned for simplicity and function, with one button for recording video, a separate camera button for stills and a big ol’ touchscreen interface for monitor and playback functions. It looks more like an iPhone and less like a friendly Dalek than the previous models, but then Daleks aren’t supposed to look friendly, are they?
Plus, you can shoot a feature with this thing. You probably shouldn’t, as it’s got no microphone input and the focus options are pretty limited … but what do you want for two hundred bucks?
So, you know. Want.
That was probably the fastest turnaround I’ve ever done to Los Angeles — 35 hours from gate to gate, not even long enough to worry about jet lag. So I’m home now, wishing I’d brought a box of bearclaws from the little donut place next door to the Pantages on Hollywood Boulevard, and marvelling at the thought that, yeah, I was on Hollywood Boulevard yesterday. Sunset, too, just steps from the magnificence of the Cinerama Dome. Someday I’ll actually see a movie inside the damn thing.
Has it been almost twenty years since Nik Cohn wrote his excellent book about the history and character of Broadway, “
And here we have this week’s 
This week’s MSN DVD column has yet to go up because of the long weekend. I swear I filed it on time. I am not losing my mind at all.
An 
I don’t often blog on Sundays any more; it’s not a religious thing, more of a too-busy-to-post thing. But the little guy in the picture compels me to make an exception.
I salute you with my little plastic glass!
The news broke yesterday that Toronto theatre, film and television actor Tracy Wright had died, age 50, of pancreatic cancer. Torontoist has a nice memorial 
Sorry for yesterday’s absence; I spent the day transferring files from my wheezy old laptop to its shiny new replacement — when I wasn’t watching more documentaries, of course.