Notes From The Management: Happy Easter

The Girl and I are off to the homestead, so there won't be much here until next week. Thanks to the unwilling participants from yesterday's prank, Apple To Ban Violent Games From iPad ... which by the logs didn't get much traffic but did include a few Apple employees - so I'll consider it a marginal success.

Happy hunting (eggs, that is) y'all.

Apple To Ban Violent Games From iPad

Following a policy of purging near porn titles from the App Store to make the iPad a more family friendly device, Apple will also ban games with violent content. According to CNN, the removal may not occur in time for the iPad's release date this Friday - but will follow shortly thereafter:

Cartoon violence may remain untouched, as the new policy will target games with "realistic depictions of gore, blood, removal of body parts, headshots, disembowelments, torture, and actions which may be construed as felonies by federal statute. Other titles may receive a more strongly worded message prior to purchase, including language that some of the actions depicted within the game should not be attempted at home without parental supervision

-- CNN: iPad cleans house, first sex and now violence

I'm guessing the game based on the popular show Dexter won't make the cut as it has nearly everything described there. We may see an increase in titles with "cartoon" violence (would a cel-shaded Call of Duty pass?) - and like the porn purge, any violent titles which remain will likely see a huge increase in sales.

For Sunday: Scarface Done Elementary School

Before people go too insane over this, check out the Snopes article. It wasn't a real school play, but something produced by a music video director in response to what he actually sees on TV:

"We definitely suspected that would happen," said Klasfeld, a father of two who says he wonders why the most vocal critics of the ironic video don't speak out more against the sexualization of young girls in American culture or the relentless violence on screens of all sorts.



"Everyday when I wake up with my daughter and I turn on the television for her and we're constantly guarding her against all these unnecessary sexual [messages] bombarding her ... so for us to see the reaction against this, well, that was a little shocking," Klasfeld said. "I found it all fascinating."

TV Watch: Lost, The Package

After last week's episode, this one had a lot to live up to ... and well, partially because of that it felt extra boring. I have a soft spot for the Kwons, so I didn't really mind it so much - but there was very little movement in this episode, and the Sun's aphasia had one moment of brilliance - where she was yelling at Richard in Korean actually came out as slightly poignant and emotional in her native language (as I once said to a Serbian friend of mine, "You'll ruin your appetite" sounds the same in any language). Other than that it felt like a distraction more than anything else.

The sidestory was nearly all throw away though, mostly explaining Jin's presence in Sayid's story and affirming things we already knew about the couple. I did think Mikhail's presence in Keamy's band ... in the Island world, Keamy was a Widmore thug and Mkihail was an Other - not really the same team there. So we have even more convenient folding of Island related people into the LA X microcosm. The entire thing is starting to remind me a bit much of Donnie Darko.

Widmore being out to destroy the Man In Black is curious. Is it possible his original goal was to wipe everyone off the island, and start over with himself in control? It's hard to reckon him as a "good" guy, but again the show has been sneaky about what is really "good" and "bad". His treatment of Desmond doesn't seem to be all the kind, of course, but at least we may now know who was "coming to the island" mentioned during The Lighthouse episode.

And finally - ABC, the V countdown may have been the worst television marketing stunt in recent history. Twitter and blogs are talking about the annoyance factor in watching an ad constantly remind you just how little show you have left to watch. The Girl's comment was "is that V huge or just in HD?" (answer: both). Let us hope you never do something that stupid again.