Sivad is “Davis” spelled backward

Growing up in Kennett, Missouri, in the 50’s and 60’s, we got our TV from Memphis, 100 miles to the south. But we were blessed with a great selection of movies. One station, WHBQ, billed their offerings, “Million Dollar Movies.” And there was a great sub-set of horror movies (Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, etc) presented as Fantastic Features. The Monster of Ceremonies was SIVAD, the only vampire with a hush-puppy southern accent.

How big was Sivad? He drew 30,000 fans to the Mid-South Fairgrounds, breaking the Beatles attendance record). You can learn more about Sivad and alter ego Watson Davis here.

Much thanks to Charles Jolliff for tipping us to this pop-culture flash-back.

Augmented reality and the annotated world

The following is from a post by Jeff Jarvis in which he talks about augmented reality and the annotated world and the ever-changing definition of journalism and local news.

“Every address, every building, every business has a story to tell. Visualize your world that way: Look at a restaurant and think about all the data that already swirls around it — its menu, its reviews and ratings and tags (descriptive words), its recipes, its ingredients, its suppliers (and how far away they are, if you care about that sort of thing), its reservation openings, who has been there (according to social applications), who do we know who has been there, its health-department reports, its credit-card data (in aggregate, of course), pictures of its interior, pictures of its food, its wine list, the history of the location, its decibel rating, its news…

And then think how we can annotate that with our own reviews, ratings, photos, videos, social-app check-ins and relationships, news, discussion, calendar entries, orders…. The same can be said of objects, brands — and people.”

His post includes a few videos but this is my favorite:

When I think about the implications of this technology, and what it means for news organizations, I have what I have come to think of as Wile E. Coyote moments. The realization most will never catch the Road Runner (Beep, Beep!) The future –which is here– belongs to small, flightless birds that refuse to play by our cartoon rules.

PS: If you’re satisfied seeing the world through emails and text messages, your BlackBerry will be fine. If you want to augment your reality (and you will), it will be with an iPhone or similar device.

MacWorld: Waiting in line in the dark and the cold

Sarah Palin has another book signing at noon today at the Barnes & Noble in Sioux City, Iowa. Supporters spent the night in the parking lot in hopes of getting their book signed. My friend Kay drove up from Des Moines to cover the event and took some photos. The wind chill was about 9 degrees.

cold3

Her story and photos got me thinking about things about which I care enough to wait in line, in the cold (I hate both). I couldn’t come up with much.

There was the time George (pictured), David and I waited in bitter cold weather to attend a taping of Digg Nation in St. Louis.

cold2

I had not idea San Francisco could be so cold at 4:30 a.m. or I would not have waited in line to see Steve Jobs give a keynote at MacWorld.

But the coldest of the cold will always be (I hope) the inauguration. My hands are shaking just typeing these words.

cold1

For whom/what have you/are you willing to wait all night in the freezing cold?