Name a movie in which the following actors appear: Spencer Tracy; Burt Lancaster; Richard Widmark; Marlene Dietrich; Judy Garland; Montgomery Clift; and…William Shatner.
Cartoons on the back of business cards
Hugh Macleod “draws cartoons on the back of business cards” and writes about about advertising and marketing. The cartoon above spoke to me until I broke it down:
A 28-year-old wasn’t born when 3 Days of the Condor was released; I’d eventually comment on her stupidity; I could not “do the time”; and I’d never give up my Casio. But the naked part sounded okay.
Three Days of the Condor – Final Scene
I think the best answer can be found at the end of Sydney Pollack’s 1975 spy flick, Three Days of the Condor. Robert Redford’s character (Joe Turner) is talking to CIA agent Higgins (played by Cliff Robertson) about the no-longer-secret plan to invade the Middle East for oil.
Higgins: The fact is, it wasn’t a bad plan. It could’ve worked.
Turner: Jesus — What is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth.
Higgins: It’s simple economics, Turner… There’s no argument. Oil now, 10 or 15 years it’ll be food, or plutonium. Maybe sooner than that. What do you think the people will want us to do then?
Turner: Ask them!
Higgins: Now? (shakes head) Huh-uh. Ask them when they’re running out. When it’s cold at home and the engines stop and people who aren’t used to hunger… go hungry! They won’t want us to ask… (quiet savagery:) They’ll want us to GET it for them.
“Now the news waits for us to go get it”
“The idea that we should just sit there and watch as someone reads the news to us is — now that we see the alternatives — quaint at best, condescending at worst. Why the hell should we ever have let Dan Rather decide what’s important to us and how we should should look at it? How did we ever tolerate listening to the news from him without taking the opportunity to talk back?”
“It’s the top-down, one-way, one-size-fits-all news-extruding machine that’s ready for the mothballs. It’s the old view of delivering the news that’s antiquated. We no longer wait for the news to come to us; now the news waits for us to go get it. We are in control.”
Jeff Jarvis on the death of the Dan Rathers of news… what should rise in their place.
SanDisk Digital Music Player
I gave some serious thought to purchasing an iPod or similar digital audio device. But the buggers cost $300-400 and I didn’t want to pay that much. And I don’t have 10,000 mp3 files, anyway. But I have started downloading and listening to interviews from IT Conversations.
Listening to these on my laptop was somewhat limiting so I sprung for a SanDisk Digital Music Player. This little gem has 512 meg of (flash) storage and will play for 15 hours on a single AAA battery. It was on sale at Best Buy for about $120 and I can take it back if I don’t like it.
So when would you use a device like this? Today I went to see National Treasure and got there about 15 minutes before the movie began. Popped in my ear-buds and listened to the first part of a talk by Richard Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class).
It got me thinking again about this whole podcasting thing. The stuff I’m interested in will never be broadcast on a traditional radio station. Or, if it is, I’m unlikely to know about it or pick up that station. But the IT Conversations website has hundreds of hours of content that I’m very interested in. And I can go and get it whenever I want. And listen to it whenever and where ever I want.
Radio programmers have always been about trying to find the right combination of music, news, talk, whatever… that would appeal to the greatest number of people within their coverage area. Lowest common denominator. That doesn’t work for me anymore. I want to listen to what I’m interested in. When I want to listen to it. Where ever I might be. The web makes this possible.