For the Family Guy fans, including me, I’m ready for the internet-only cartoon series from Seth to debut on September 10 (I wrote about the cool distribution here as a different business model).  Check out the site at sethcomedy.com, where you can see the teaser.

The style of the teaser suggests that if you like the style of Family Guy, and to an extent, American Dad, then you’ll like Calvalcade. 

I’m pshyched.  Calvacade is supposed to free Seth up to do uncensored stuff.  Some of the DVDs he’s released in the past have been less censored (ie, he showed some cartoons that weren’t allowed to be aired). 

This time it seems like it’ll be no-holds barred.

A little bit ago, I wrote a blog on why video games are recession proof. The theory is that people want a nice form of entertainment that, in a recession, is extremely low cost. Think about it. For about $50 for a brand new game, you get unlimited play for the LIFE of the game. The means the cost/play or cost/hour of play is as close to zero as you can get. Compare that to the movies. That cost is $9/play or maybe $4.50/hour. It’s off the chain for most popular concerts.

So why would movies do well in a recession? I have a couple of thoughts…

1. People like going out. In a recession, this truth still holds. And in an environment when there are so many reasons to stay home, it’s still true. For example, the ungodly number of social networks, video chat, AIM and other ways (like the phone) to maintain contact with friends, in addition to movies on demand and the old tried and true, TV, are some of these reasons to stay home. These should not be underestimated.

2. Compared to other forms of entertainment, going to the movies is relatively cheap (assuming that you eat before/after the movies and avoid the concessions, which can eat a whole in your pocket). It always gives you something to talk about afterwards too.

3. The reason to go out to a movie is because something is good. There were so many movies I wanted to see this summer it’s ridiculous (The Hulk and Batman being two of them). This is very crucial. If there were horrid movies at the box office, theatres would not be doing well at all.

What’s interesting is that some theatre chains (the industry is coming off of a period of consolidation) are doing okay. Theoretically, consolidations should be good since you can squeeze synergies out of most of them. With the theatre consolidations, initially, I was wondering whether it would good, since the industry wasn’t doing that well. I kept myself in check, because you can never scold good companies in a bad industry (don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – type of thing).

Here’s a wonderful blog from Wired.com that gives some stats on the matter.

Valleywag had a piece on The 4 Worst Athlete-Backed Startups of All Time.  In short, they name:

1. WePlay, a youth sports-related social network social.
2. Dunk.net, focused on promoting Shaq’s shoes and other wears, with backers, Shaq, Mike Piazza and DeLisha Milton
3. MVP.com, an e-tailer, with backers John Elway, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.
4. Chatwithastar.com, a celebrity blog portal, with backers bestselling author Burton Rocks and Billy Wagner

The article made me think about athlete’s and their money. 

It’s interesting in what and how some of the guys put their money in. 

The What

If I had a dime for everytime I heard an athlete wants to do a clothing line or a restaurant, I’d have so much seed money to start two ventures.  One financial advisor, who works closely with Venus and Serena, Donovan McNabb, and a few more, told me he advises his clients that if they’re thinking about investing in a restaurant, they’re better of throwing away the money…it’ll be easier and lot less stress.

The How

Now, this is fascinating…

Many athletes don’t know too much about business so they have advisors (smart move).  But many of them have their friend from around the way as their businesss guy (stupid move).  It’s classic “the blind leading the blind”.  Decisions aren’t made on hard data (like financials, reputation/experience of management team and size/sustainability of the market…you know, the usual cast of characters. 

Instead, it’s how confident does the guy pitching them seem, or how cool does the idea sound, or how can it boost their ego (of either the athlete or the advisor).

Very fascinating…

To their credit, some are getting wiser…thinking about things as a business, and getting the right people in place to help them make decisions.  Look at Jay-Z!

So there’s a service called slydial.  It’s kinda cool.  Basically, you can go straight to voice mail. 

So the kinds of people you want to use the service on…

This “Issues” Chick

So if you met that chick at the club that looked hot, but then you found out she has some “issues” and you wanna break it off…

The “Investment Banker” Dude (or Ass depending on the depth of annoyance)

What about that dude, same club (it’s a weird club), who said he was an investment banker, but you wonder why he’s ALWAYS home, break it off.

Here are some more situations to use the service.  Hilarious. 

These can be done drama free.

I can see this service doing well.  Too nervous to ask the VP of business development for a job, you can leave a voicemail.  But whoever is sitting at their desk and the voicemail light blinks, he/she might just think you’re a punk because you couldn’t actually call.  So the service will be limited.

I would’ve used the service, but I like the people I’m around.  Seriously, I’m reluctant to give out my cell number b/c it might get sold to telemarketers.

The company behind slydial is MobileSphere.  They have a couple of more cool services including Joopz, which allows you to send/receive text messages b/t website and cell phones.