Former Lingerie Football League gets woke

Women’s football league X League kicks off its first season on Friday June 10 in Independence, Missouri. But the league actually has been around since 2009 when it got its start as the sexy Lingerie Football League.
Back then, the women played in bras and panties with minimal athletic protection. They wore shoulder pads and hockey helmets plus knee and elbow pads. But they still showed a lot of bare skin. Naturally there were numerous “wardrobe malfunctions.”
The league inspired other sexy women’s sports leagues including the Bikini Basketball League, Lingerie Basketball League, Bikini Hockey League and Lingerie Fighting Championships. But it was a short-lived phenomenon.
In 2013, the Lingerie Football League rebranded as the Legends Football League. With the rebrand, the uniforms became more sports appropriate. So, no more wardrobe malfunctions.
The recent change to the X League is the second rebranding of the Lingerie Football League. It’s trying to become a legitimate sport now. That means no more cleavage-baring outfits.
Frankly, I’m surprised the league has lasted this long.

Sweets & Snacks Expo 2022 provides look at fun eating trends

The Sweets & Snacks Expo, held May 23-26 in Chicago, offered a glimpse into the types of treats consumers are ingesting these days.
Candymakers like Hershey, Jelly Belly, Mars, and Tootsie Roll showed off new products that offered twists on fan favorites. Smaller companies at the show brought out edgier eats.
Trends at the 2022 show included more s’mores-flavored confections and greater varieties of spicy chips and snacks. Plant-based products included carrot bacon jerky, non-dairy chocolate, and vegan gummies. Two candy brands introduced drinks: Jelly Belly Sparkling Water and Warheads sour soda.
The 2022 show attracted about 700 exhibitors and 16,000 attendees. Other major exhibitors included General Mills, Hostess Brands, Kellogg, Mondelez, and PepsiCo. The Sweets & Snacks Expo boasted 4.5 acres of candy and snack innovation at the McCormick Place Convention Center.
Next year’s show is the last planned for Chicago. Future shows will alternate between Indianapolis and Las Vegas.

Related article:

Sweets And Snacks Get Boost From Economic, Societal Trends (Investor’s Business Daily; June 17, 2022)

Photos: Sweets & Snacks Expo 2022 in Chicago (Patrick Seitz)

Rotten Tomatoes is the best review aggregator but it needs improving

A recent study by BacanaPlay determined that Rotten Tomatoes has the most reliable and fairest film rating database when compared with IMDb and Metacritic. But Rotten Tomatoes isn’t perfect.
Thank goodness it offers both a critics rating and an audience score. Often it will certify a movie as “fresh” or recommended by the critics, that I will not like. Recent examples include “She Dies Tomorrow,” “Zola” and “The Green Knight.” In two of those cases, the low audience rating should have been a tip-off to avoid the movie.
I tend to side with the audience rating now. Critics often will recommend a movie just because it’s different or has some social message they agree with.
Rotten Tomatoes does well with covering big Hollywood releases. But it falls short when it comes to aggregating reviews for independent and foreign films.
It also does a mediocre job with television shows. That could be because there are fewer professional reviewers and more shows amid the “peak TV” trend now.
Many foreign shows on Netflix rarely get reviews posted on Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes probably needs to cast a wider net for international reviewers. Otherwise, consumers are flying blind.

Related article:

Report: Rotten Tomatoes Named Best Movie Rating Database (MediaPlayNews; April 27, 2022)

Rock Hall Nominating Committee needs to course correct and focus on rock acts

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was widely criticized this year for straying further away from what most people would consider rock music with its 2022 nominations and inductees.
This year’s inductees into the Rock Hall skew toward adult contemporary with picks like Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, and Harry Belafonte. Other performer inductees include Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eminem and Eurythmics. The hall gave a back-door induction to heavy metal group Judas Priest with its “Musical Excellence” category to counter the lack of pure rock acts.
The problem stems from the small group of people who pick the nominees that appear on the ballot. After all, the voting body can only choose from what they’re given.
I suggest that the Nominating Committee consciously load up the ballot with rock acts next time. That would ensure a rock-focused induction class and ceremony.
This year’s ballot included 17 candidates for induction. What follows are some names I’d love to see on the 2023 ballot. The first year of eligibility is in parentheses, based on data from Future Rock Legends.

Thin Lizzy (1996)
REO Speedwagon (1997)
Scorpions (1998)
Styx (1998)
Suzi Quatro (1999)
Boston (2002)
The Runaways (2002)
Foreigner (2003)
Motorhead (2003)
Joy Division/New Order (2004/2007)
Siouxsie & the Banshees (2004)
Iron Maiden (2005)
INXS (2006)
Phil Collins (2007)
Billy Idol (2007)
The Bangles (2007)
The Smiths (2009)
Hole (2016)
Smashing Pumpkins (2016)
The Cranberries (2017)
No Doubt (2018)
Sheryl Crow (2019)

Related reading:

The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees are Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Eminem and more (USA Today; May 4, 2022)

The Rock Hall Keeps Its Foot on the Gas (Future Rock Legends; May 4, 2022)

Rock Hall of Fame’s Class of ’22 Has Something to Satisfy Almost Everybody… Except People Who Like Rock Bands (Variety; May 4, 2022)

‘Another Terrible Band’: Two Rock Hall Voters Get Candid About Their Ballots (Vulture; May 3, 2022)

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame’s Weird Bias Against Alt And Indie Rock (Uproxx; May 5, 2022)

Never-ending supply of cheap post-apocalyptic movies on Amazon Prime Video

I’ve written several times about how Amazon Prime Video is a dumping ground for cheap post-apocalyptic-themed movies. Most of these films have received poor reviews.
Lately there’s been a surge of low-budget exploitation flicks tied to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also, there are quite a few Christian-themed apocalypse movies on Amazon Prime Video.
What follows are 33 more post-apocalyptic movies on the service. They bring the total number of such titles that I’ve tracked on Amazon Prime Video to 195 movies.

America 3000 (1986)
Apocalypse (1998)
Superstarlet A.D. (2000)
Left Behind: The Movie (2000)
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002)
Left Behind III: World at War (2005)
Alien Apocalypse (2005)
Raiders of the Damned (2007)
Apocalypse Blues (2008)
Mutants (2008)
Battle of the Damned (2013)
2149: The Aftermath (2016) aka Confinement or Darwin
AmeriGeddon (2016)
Earthtastrophe (2016)
Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter (2016)
After the End (2017) aka I’m OK
Cold Zone (2017)
I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday (2017)
The Humanity Bureau (2017)
Reflections in the Dust (2018)
This World Alone (2018)
A Living Dog (2019)
Crucified (2019) aka Everybloody’s End
Into the Void (2019)
The Reliant (2019)
Apocalypse of Ice (2020)
75 Degrees West (2021)
Alien Conquest (2021)
Covid-19: Invasion (2021), aka Lockdown
Grey Eyes (2021)
School’s Out Forever (2021)
After The Pandemic (2022)
When Everything’s Gone (2022)

Related articles:

Covid-inspired apocalypse movies populating Amazon Prime Video (Jan. 16, 2022)

‘Mad Max’ rip-offs invade Amazon Prime Video (July 19, 2020)

Ready or not, the conference industry is returning post-Covid

After being shut down for about two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the in-person conference industry appears to be coming back.
After a two-year absence, the National Association of Broadcasters held its NAB Show in Las Vegas April 23-27. The 2022 show attracted more than 900 exhibitors and 52,468 attendees. The NAB Show is the world’s largest annual convention for broadcasters and the broader media, entertainment, and technology industries.
The biennial MODEX manufacturing and supply chain conference drew 857 exhibitors and 37,047 visitors to Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center March 28-31. It was the largest MODEX show ever, with 20% more visitors than the last pre-pandemic show – MODEX 2018.
The MODEX show is sponsored by MHI, an international trade association that represents the material handling, logistics and supply chain industry. MODEX is held every other year, alternating each year with the ProMat trade show.
Many other U.S. conferences are scheduled for physical shows soon. They include the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston on May 10-11; the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago from May 23-26, L.A TV Week in Los Angeles from June 6-8; the Automate conference in Detroit from June 6-9; and Sensors Converge in San Jose, Calif., from June 27-29. Those are just a few that I’ve been pinged about.
Some tech companies I follow are hesitant to go back to in-person shows just yet.
Apple is holding its annual Worldwide Developers Conference as an online event for the third straight year.
Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, will take place online May 11 and 12. Google I/O was canceled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and returned as an online event in 2021.
However, other tech companies are going forward with in-person events that also will be livestreamed for people who can’t or don’t want to travel to a physical show.
Dell is holding its Dell Technologies World conference in Las Vegas May 2-5. Intel has scheduled its Intel Vision conference for May 10-11 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

Related reading:

After two years of Covid, live events are finally happening again (Tech-media-tainment; Feb. 13, 2022)

Photo: Officials cut a ceremonial ribbon to open the NAB 2022 trade show in Las Vegas. (NAB)

Watching the slow death of DVD

A little over 25 years after its introduction, the DVD is in its end-of-life-phase. The ease of on-demand video streaming has been pounding nails in DVD’s coffin for years. But the digital video disc and its high-definition successor, Blu-ray Disc, have been holding on.
However, the signs of its demise are easy to spot. From retailers shrinking shelf space for video discs to fewer movies being released on the physical format, you can almost see the obituary for the DVD being written.
Last year, revenue from physical video media fell 20% to $2.8 billion in the U.S. Meanwhile, revenue from digital video services rose 11% to $29.5 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association.
Physical sales have been on a slow, steady decline. In 2014, for instance, disc revenue totaled $10.3 billion in the U.S., the MPA said.
Netflix continues to run a DVD-by-mail service in the U.S., but it has been shrinking along with the overall physical media business.
In the first quarter, Netflix’s DVD revenue fell 20% year over year to $39.8 million.
While Netflix still has a better movie selection than any single subscription video-on-demand service, its catalog has been diminished as older films go out of print and new ones are never put on disc to begin with.
My Netflix DVD queue now has 47 discs in it. But my “saved” queue of movies not presently available on the service is up to 65 titles. Many of those may never be released or are permanently out of print.
My “saved” list would be even longer if I didn’t occasionally remove titles that got to see via HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, and other services.
And my “saved” queue only includes movies that Netflix has indexed on its website. There are dozens more movies I’ve searched for on the service but just aren’t listed. I keep a list of those movies in my “want-to-see” movies list at tracking service Reelgood.
Elsewhere, Redbox, operator of DVD-rental kiosks, says its business has been hurt by fewer new movies being released on disc. It blamed the lingering Covid pandemic for a smaller number of theatrical releases.
Redbox said it released just 57 new DVD rental titles in 2021, compared with 68 in 2020 and 140 movies in 2019.
Are the bells tolling for DVDs?

Photos: Netflix DVDs (top) and Redbox kiosk.