“Self expression the new entertainment”
Found this wonderful quote from Arianna Huffington on Seth Godin’s blog:
“Self expression is the new entertainment, We never used to question why people sit on the couch for seven hours a day watching bad TV. Nobody ever asked, ‘Why are they doing that for free?’ We need to celebrate [this desire to contribute for free] rather than question it.”
There you go. That’s it. That perfectly sums up why I can spend almost every waking moment doing what I’m doing right now. Even the most modest form of self expression is endlessly entertaining.
April Winchell has a better music collection than you
Paul Winchell was a well known ventriloquist in the mid-1960s, the voice of Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. His daughter is April Winchell has her own accomplishments, including a website where you can find some great music.
There’s a collection of cover versions of Stairway to Heaven, including
AUDIO: The Dixie Power Treo (tuba and banjo)
AUDIO: Dolly Parton.
But my favorite section was Terrifying Christian Recordings.
Then I Start to Yodel by Princess Ramona
Jogging for Jesus
Amazing Grace (Tim Gibson as Donald Duck)
AUDIO: Then I Start to Yodel by Princess Ramona
AUDIO: Jogging for Jesus;
AUDIO: Amazing Grace (Tim Gibson as Donald Duck)
BONUS: Collection (PDF( of Terrifying Christian Recordings
The Tower of Power
This week I ran into a long-time broadcaster I called on back in my affiliate relations days. We chatted for a few minutes and the subject of towers came up (I have no idea). He mentioned that he had tried to sell his AM tower but got no takers. Then he tried to give it away. Nope. Now he’s paying someone to take it down and haul it off. As far as I know, that is nothing unusual. But it struck me as somehow… foreboding?
A radio station tower is …iconic. Usually the tallest structure in small towns throughout America. You didn’t need much of a studio but you had to have that transmitter and a tower. The bigger the better.
Every radio guy I know has at least one tower story.
Like the DJ who pulled his UHaul truck into the parking lot of the station where he was to start working the next day. In the downpour, he didn’t realize he’d snagged the truck’s trailer hitch on a guy wire and pulled the tower down. And he didn’t get fired.
Or a story about the insane guys who did tower maintenance, climbing four or five-hundred feet to paint or change a bulb.
[Momentary aside: If someone drops a wrench from 400 feet above you, is it better to remain still or to run? Discuss]
What once took studios filled with control boards and tape decks and cart machines… can now be done with a couple of laptops.
The equation once was:
Good programming (content) + big transmitter + big tower + good frequency = big audience
Now it’s:
Good programming (content) + big transmitter + big tower + good frequency = big audience
I’m sorry I never interviewed one of those tower guys.
The New News Audience
No big surprises in this report from Pew. I found slide #8 interesting. Shows % of Americans who “regularly” go to news by source:
- Local TV – down 25%
- Natl TV news – down 52%
- Cable News – up 18%
- Newspapers – down 41%
- Radio – down 27%
- Online News – up 1,850%
And one slide tells us 29% of mobile phone owners have gotten some kind of news on their phone.
Patience (barbed wire embedded in tree)
We have a full flight today
We have a full flight today, originally uploaded by smays.
I’m surprised I don’t see more photos like this. Given how fucked up air travel has become, it’s probably a good way to get tossed from the plane.
You can’t see them in this size image, but I’ve annotated the photo to point out a couple of strange expressions.
Steal this blog, too
Markus Mindaugas’ blog is called “living on impulse.” I’ve only been following for a couple of weeks but his posts are consistently positive and upbeat. Yesterday he invited readers to “steal this blog.” I hope he doesn’t mind if I share most of that post here:
Feel free to take, steal, re-purpose, or do anything you want with anything you find here (including my best photos). A link or reference would be be much appreciated, but is not required. I’m not worried about ownership. I’m not worried about losing anything. There’s nothing I can possibly lose by someone taking something I created and using it in any way they want to use it.
The only reason for me to copyright something would be for me to control it, a need to derive income from it, or a fear of misuse. I have no such fears. Besides, even “altruistic-licensing” can get really hairy and become a mess.
I am supremely confident in my own ability to create new stuff as needed. As soon as I write, photograph, or otherwise create something it’s already in the past. If anyone finds a use for it, fantastic. If it helps them out in ANY way, fantastic.
If someone wants to use something I created and finds it helpful and wants to share it – that’s awesome. It’s a compliment to me. I am in no way diminished by it, only enhanced. Besides, anything I create I will never “always have”. I will have to relinquish it, at the latest, when I die. So why obsess or hang on to it? It’s gone the minute I am done creating it. So I’ll let it fly.
While I have no illusions about the value of the ideas or images I post here at smays.com, I’d like to make the same offer. Take anything you want, use it anyway you like. I’ll make some more.
“Digital-age monks illuminating manuscripts”
From an op-ed piece on NYTimes.com, by Sheelah Kolhatkar:
“You can tell when a print journalist has lost his full-time job because of the digital markings that suddenly appear, like the tail of a fading comet. First, he joins Facebook. A Gmail address is promptly obtained. The Twitter account comes next, followed by the inevitable blog. Throw in a LinkedIn profile for good measure. This online coming-out is the first step in a daunting, and economically discouraging, transformation: from a member of a large institution to a would-be Internet “brand.”
“While most people are worried about getting paid for their work, I’m more concerned that journalists might be the digital-age equivalent of monks illuminating manuscripts, a group whose skills will soon disappear.”
I feel bad for anyone that has lost a job, but can’t help wondering why the reporter in this piece didn’t already have the online presence. It’s like going camping without a flashlight.
