Sheryl’s gonna tell us how it’s gonna be

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Ann Morren (our only Belgian reader) reminds us to watch for Sheryl Crow’s Revlon ad in the Super Bowl (sometime in the 3rd quarter)… and then head over to iTunes and purchase Ms. Crow’s cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.” Proceeds going to aid breast cancer research.

Update: Purchased/listened to the song. Okay. Liked Rolling Stones & Buddy Holly versions better. Would love to know what Revlon is paying to have SC as spokesperson.

While pinging back and forth with Ann Morren, I learned she is a photographer and persuaded her to let me share a few here. I’ve noticed that a disproportionate number of smays.com readers (Henry, Bass) take great photographs.

 

Radio Iowa Week in Review

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RIWIRRadio Iowa reporter Stella Shaffer produces “Radio Iowa: Week In Review” and it’s a nice toe-in-the-podcast-water for the network. She pulls together the top stories of the previous week:

“The old governor’s got a gig teaching law at Drake, the new governor wants a dollar-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, and an economist tells us what that might cost. The new improved state minimum wage may also have unanticipated consequences, according to HeadStart heads. Bitter cold played a part in the apprehension of an auto-theft suspect, OSHA offered a helping hand to migrant workers while one mayor wants a fulltime cop to bust them, and we mourn two more Iowa soldiers lost.”

Another of our networks began repurposing feature programs as podcasts last year. But RIWIR is our first true podcast (by my definition).

We have some really good reporters working in our newsrooms. Historically, if they came up with a good idea for a new program, it could only fly if we could convince enough affiliate stations to “clear” it.

In the world of podcasts, they are only limited by their imaginations and the hours in the day. I’m hoping to hear some good stuff in the coming year.

Love flickr. Yahoo! not so much

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This week Yahoo! announced that flickr users would have to merge their accounts with their Yahoo! account (Yahoo! bought flickr a couple of years ago). Long-time flickr users aren’t happy. I really like flickr but Yahoo!, not so much.

So I’ve been looking around for alternatives and came across Picasa (a Google service). Just started playing with it but like it a lot. I’m conducting more and more of my online life with Google services (Search, Gmail, Google Reader, Google News, etc).

A total switch would be a pain (if I go back and change links in previous posts) but I’m thinking about it.

Writing it down. 2,500 times.

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I started this little online journal on February 3, 2002. I couldn’t come up with anything to mark the anniversary so I checked the stats and found I have posted 2,500 times. Rather modest as blogs go, but a nice round number.