Entertainment desk
< December 5	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 6

What shows / films / literature show mirror universes where all good causes are evil, and vice-versa?

It would involve the USA being a brutal dictatorship, North Korea and/or Stalin-era Soviet Union and/or Nazi Germany being a benevolent democracy/benefactor nation, etc...

...and Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and etc. being as benevolent as Mother Theresa, Norman Borlaug, the Popes, and other most-altruistic, compassionate figures of history.

So what mirror universes would flip historical figures, lands, and events on its diabolic / angelic opposites as I suggested? --70.179.167.78 (talk) 04:57, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

~~It's just too implausible to posit such a Bizarro World for historical figures.~~ The best I can come up with is fictional examples like the Star Trek Mirror Universe. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:12, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Too implausible" seems a rather silly statement. The concept (somebody writes a "mirror universe"-type historical fiction) is straightforward; clearly, someone actually writing such a thing is plausible (though commercial viability isn't assured). For one such example, see The Mirage (novel) — Lomn 14:15, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

My evil doppelganger User:GOPClarityangel must have written that. Back to your own universe, evil one, where benefits really do trickle down, and black is white. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:23, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

International basketball

Is there any chance that the sport will become more international for American teams? I would watch a lot more, and is there any prospect of adding relegation/promotion to NBA? That would make it a lot more exciting. I would love to see one day international teams become more recognized even in video games. Wouldn't it be lovely to see NBA 2K13 change to something like "FIBA 2K13" with the ability to manage a team in another league or something like that. What I want to know is if there is any chance of international play coming to NBA teams. I wish it would change it's format to be more like football it would be a lot more exciting for me and I'm sure the sport would rise in worldwide popularity. Nicholasprado (talk) 06:07, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not likely. Promotion and relegation is a completely foreign concept to most North American sports, especially professional basketball organizations like the NBA. Almost all the North American major professional leagues use a closed model, which always has the same teams playing, with occasional admission of new expansion teams. As Promotion and relegation#Historical comparisons notes, the closed system was developed because it "would permit the [teams'] owners to monopolize fan bases in their exclusive territories and give them the confidence to invest in infrastructure, such as improved ballparks. In turn, those would guarantee the revenues to support traveling halfway across a continent for games." Even Major League Soccer, the highest level of association football in Canada and the U.S., uses the closed system. If the NBA added a new expansion team, for example in Europe, it would most likely be part of this closed system too -- where owners can treat it more as a stable business, with little annual turnover among the league's membership. Zzyzx11 (talk) 08:23, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Music genre

What genre of music is this? 146.87.49.23 (talk) 08:49, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I would say that is fairly generic pop music or perhaps dance-pop. --Viennese Waltz 10:02, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

virus free

please tell me some virus free porn tube or site?Rikisupriyo (talk) 10:25, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Youporn, Xtube, mostly websites listed under Porn 2.0. 90.193.232.108 (talk) 12:17, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

THE FACES OF A SNOOKER CUE

I have tried to research this topic and have read the Wiki article about cues, to no avail. All Snooker cue adverts from reputable firms mention how many FACES their cues have. What exactly is a face and how many should a cue have ideally. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.253.207 (talk) 13:50, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are you quite sure the word is "faces"? This page gives descriptions of more cues than you can shake a stick at (sorry...) and nowhere is the word "faces" used. It does, however, use words like "splice" and "piece". Can you give an example of the advert you saw this word used in please? --TammyMoet (talk) 14:49, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could it be cue chalk: [1] ? That commonly comes in a cube shape, so has 6 faces. Perhaps they offer a different shape ? StuRat (talk) 17:12, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Weird Al "always" getting permission first

On Weird Al's Wikipedia page, it says under the section Reactions from Original Artists, "Under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, one does not need permission to record a parody. However, as a personal rule, and as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies." But earlier in that article, under the section Dr. Demento and Early Fame, it says "In mid-1979, shortly before his senior year, "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody titled "My Bologna". He sent it to Dr. Demento, who played it to good response from listeners. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college and introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna"." So Weird Al did not get The Knack to give him permission in advance that time, is it not so? 20.137.2.50 (talk) 15:05, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe so, at that point. Al always gets permission since then. The "My Bologna" thing was basically some guy goofing around with a tape recorder in the bathroom, he hadn't thought it would break him as an artist. Once he became a professional recording artist, he started getting permission for his parodies, because it quickly became apparent that not everyone would like what he was doing, and he didn't want to piss people off. The My Bologna thing also doesn't require us to change the text of the article in any way. Weird Al does always get permission from the artists, and has no plans to change that AFAIK. --Jayron32 15:14, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

True that he always (now and since becoming a professional musician of note) gets permission, though the words used are "has always requested permission." That's kind of all-encompassing, with one single exception making it logically false. Maybe "always requests permission" would be more accurate, and closer to the meaning of what you said ("does always get permission") since that statement will never be read on Wikipedia in mid-1979. 20.137.2.50 (talk) 15:20, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The cited reference doesn't say he asks permission before recording his parodies. Since he appears to submit his parody to the artist, that would be weird even for Al. I think that phrase should be changed to "commercially releasing his parodies." Clarityfiend (talk) 17:41, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The cited reference does say "Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies." as of the typing of this. I copied and pasted the text from the article. I agree with your correction, by the way. I suggest "Yankovic always requests permission from the original artist before commercially releasing his parodies." 20.137.2.50 (talk) 17:53, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As I understand it, Weird Al's practice is to request permission from artists before releasing paradies on his albums. (I almost dated myself there and typed "records"!) There have been one or two well-publicized instances of crossed signals where it turned out that permission had not been obtained, e.g. with Coolio for the "Amish Paradise" parody of "Gangsta's Paradise", but those are rare and apparently inadvertent.

However, I believe Weird Al has occasionally released a song in another medium without having cleared the rights, e.g. his release online of "Perform This Way" although permission was later obtained to release it, and of the "You're Pitiful" parody of "You're Beautiful." Also, he will sometimes include a song in his live show although he does not have permission to release it for sale; the clearest example of this that I can recall is the "Chicken Pot Pie" parody of "Live and Let Die", which for many years was included in the in-concert Food Medley. (Paul McCartney reportedly declined to give permission for this parody because he is a vegetarian; ironically, so is Yankovic.) Newyorkbrad (talk) 22:05, 6 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are we talking about the same reference?[2] Because I don't see that wording anywhere. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:00, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I (20.137) am talking about the Wikipedia article. If that link does not put it in front of your eyes, Ctrl+F it. 67.163.109.173 (talk) 11:28, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can't go by what the article says, but what the supporting reference (that [7] thingie) does. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:06, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What I am saying is, if it is technically false what it says in the Wikipedia article that "Yankovic has always requested permission," as the My Bologna case is one counterexample, then maybe the Wikipedia article's language should be modified so that it is no longer technically false. That is what I am saying. 20.137.2.50 (talk) 13:45, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can edit the article yourself to make the change you think should be made, or you can post this comment on the article's talkpage so that editors interested in this can comment on it. Newyorkbrad (talk) 16:06, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, maybe 67 can't, seeing as the article's semi-protected. I've gone ahead and done it. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:16, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The simple assertion that it's a parody so it must be fair use is to rather over simplify things. Clearly the lyrics are parody, but the rendering of the music mostly isn't - it's reproduced in a pretty faithful way. He's not playing it in a weird comic manner like Victor Borge, or an intentionally bad fashion like Les Dawson. It's the same music, not something in-the-style-of like Family Guy's parody of Randy Newman ("the left foot right foot song"). And he reproduces the whole work, and sells it for commercial gain. While the US Copyright Office's notes about fair use here do specifically mention parody, it's still in the context of the other parameters a court might use to weigh whether a specific use is fair. Simply saying "it's a parody" isn't sufficient. In addition, Yankovic doesn't just sell his music in the US - it's sold in lots of other countries, where fair use rules differ, or don't exist. If he didn't get permission, he'd risk getting sued not just in the US but in Belgium or Japan or Brazil. The publishers of Tanya Grotter were sued, for example, not just in their native Russia but in the Netherlands, where their claims that it was a parody of Harry Potter didn't persuade. It's cheaper to ask than to litigate. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:27, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I recall something from NPR a few year back, a feature about Yankovic, in which they said there are certain songs he does (or at least one) in concert, but has not committed to a recording because he did not get permission from the artist(s). Presumably, that's close to but doesn't cross the "fair use" border. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:27, 7 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]