And the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version:
Chevrolet Sales Training and Motivation Film (1941)
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The Onion: Gay Pride Day
George Carlin R.I.P.
Skinny jeans, fat jeans
If you have an “issue” with weight, skip this post. You won’t find it amusing, insightful or nostalgic. It will only piss you off. (Are they gone?)
If turning 60 was a milestone, this week I passed one of far greater significance. I outgrew my Levis. First time.
I’ve weighed 155 pounds since high school. I’ve worn the same size Levis –34″ inseam, 32″ waist– for more than 40 years. And I have some jeans that are 20 years old. The same age as some of our summer interns.
You can see where this is going, can’t you?
I’ve gained about 5 pounds in the last 6 months, enough to make all of my comfortable, fashionably warn jeans just a little too snug. Oh, I can lie down on the bed, like some supermodel and get them buttoned but they just aren’t comfortable any longer.
So this weekend I purchased some new jeans, with a 34 inch waist. Talk about Passages. On the up side, it’s a hell of a lot easier to find 34×34 jeans than 32×34, although I’m not sure why.
Still in the last stages of denial, I came home and tried on –one final time– all my dear old jeans. Only a couple made the cut. The rest are in suspended animation in a big Tupperware crate in the basement.
I have no doubt they could fetch a couple of hundred a piece on Rodeo Drive (assuming straight leg jeans ever make a comeback). But you can’t put a price on knowing Jessica Alba’s little keester was packed in a pair of my old Levis. Sigh.
“The Beltway-Blog Battle”
Writing in Time Magazine, James Poniewozek has an interesting take (The Beltway-Blog Battle) on the passing of Tim Russert.
“…the press lost its most authoritative mass-market journalist, just as it is losing its authority and its mass market.”
The New Meida vs. Old Media argument got tiresome a long time ago, but Mr. Poniewozek offers a fresh take. A few paragraphs to wet your whistle:
“In their original division of labor, the old media broke news while the blogs dispensed opinion. But look at two of the biggest stories of the Democratic primary: Barack Obama’s comments that working-class voters are “bitter” and Bill Clinton’s rope-line rant that a reporter who profiled him was a “scumbag.” Both were broken by a volunteer for the Huffington Post website, Mayhill Fowler.
Traditional reporters were aghast at Fowler’s methods–the Obama meeting was closed to press (she got in as a donor), and Fowler did not identify herself when speaking to Clinton. But mainstream media had no problem treating the scoops as big news; if she had overheard both quotes in the same way but told them to a newspaper instead of publishing them, that would have been considered a coup.
The case against Fowler, in other words, was about process and credentials, not content. If sources stop trusting us, reporters asked, how will we do our jobs? But however sneaky her methods, Fowler’s stories prove that one reason sites like Huffington have an audience is the perception that Establishment journalism has gotten better at serving its powerful sources than its public. Fiascoes like the Iraq-WMD reporting gave many the impression that the old rules mainly protect consultant-cosseted public officials who need protection least.”
[For more on the Mayhill Fowler story, here’s a bit of audio with Arianna Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media’s internal Future of Journalism event on 18th June 2008.]
Mr. Poniewozik poses this rather rude question regarding MSM: “…if 3 million people read Drudge and 65,000 read the New Republic, which is mainstream?”
HuffPo starts local news push
“The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago. Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in “dozens of US cities”. The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor.” —Guardian.co.uk
I’m a bit bothered by “aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources.” This suggests (to me) that a HuffPo editor in St. Louis, should they expand to that city, would link to stories from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website. Or even our statewide news network, when we do a story with St. Louis relevance.
Which is way the web works, of course. I’m not quite sure what about this plan bothers me. Maybe it’s: What can a single Huffington Post editor provide that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website cannot?
Is it a matter of putting an editor in each of the top 50 markets… have them aggregate stories and links to local news sources… and building an online audience that is smaller while accomplishing all of this at a fraction of the overhead?
Or is it that the people behind the Huffington Post just get the web better than most of the other guys?
HBO: Generation Kill
“In the history of filmmaking, there is only one movie that Marines like, and that’s the first 20 minutes of Full Metal Jacket,” Sgt. Eric Kocher says, slicing into a medium-rare steak in a midtown New York restaurant. “After that, it all goes to shit.”
A veteran of the Iraq invasion in 2003, Kocher is a muscular 28-year-old with an intense stare and the word psycho tattooed inside his lower lip. For the past year, he has served as the senior military adviser on Generation Kill, a seven-episode miniseries about the early days of the Iraq war that premieres on HBO July 13th at 9 p.m. Based on the book of the same name (which began as an award-winning series of articles by journalist Evan Wright in Rolling Stone), Kill follows the Marines of 1st Recon, who were at the vanguard of the American invasion in 2003, blitzing ahead of the U.S. forces in Humvees. A team leader on the real mission, Kocher was there to make sure the filmmakers stayed true to the story. “If Eric hadn’t been there, it would have been Generation Lame,” says Wright. “He forced an authentic point of view.” [Rolling Stone]
You know I loved The Wire. Probably best series ever. And Band of Brothers gets my vote for best mini-series of all time. We won’t be taking evening calls for those seven nights.
Sikeston man on America’s Got Talent
It’s always fun to showcase talent from “down home.” Neal E. Boyd is from Sikeston which is just up the road (from Kennett, MO) in Sikeston, where he’s an insurance salesman.
He’s also a competitor on America’s Got Talent, the show I’ve (never watched) but always thought of as the poor man’s American Idol. Neal sings opera. And from our Small World File, Neal attended choir camp at Arkansas State University under the direction of my old friend Viretta and he sang at the Christmas Eve service of the Presbyterian Church in Kennett a couple of years back. A gig made famous by frequent appearances by Sheryl Crow.
Obama-McCain Twitter Debate
This is probably one of those ideas that sounds more interesting than they turn out to be. But I’ll be following along, just because I have the hots for AMC.
“Starting tonight, a designated representative of both of the major presidential campaigns are going to participate in a free-wheeling debate on technology and government, moderated by Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox and channeled via Twitter.” – Personal Democracy Forum/techPresident
The Future Radio Morning Show
It isn’t simply streaming your current morning show. Or putting it online for download. Jerry Del Colliano lays it out — in ten easy steps — on his blog (invitation only). #1 gives you the setup and #7 and #8 my favorites.
1. Start ten morning shows (other than the one that is airing on your terrestrial station). The content should aim at one demographic that is desirable to sell. Example: women 25-54. Ten shows that don’t air on the radio.
7. Hire the right person(s) to host this 45-minute show – not, I repeat, not anyone from your airstaff. Podcasting is not to be confused with broadcasting. You may be a professional broadcaster but it is not in your best interest to make these podcasts son of what is already on your air. Give the host a piece of the show and lock him or her into it for the long term. As it develops it will be a moneymaker for you and for your talent.
8. Do not include traditional spots in the podcast. Commercials have seen there better days. Young people don’t listen – but consider the “live read” approach that goes over very well with young people. If they are hooked on a podcast then they will listen to a “live read” by the host(s) if it is sincere and keeping with the overall approach of the show.
Mr. Del Colliano concludes his post with a bit of insight into Generation Y:
(Gen Y) went through childhood without a love for radio, unlike baby boomers or Gen X. They are attached to their iPods and smart phones – their new radio. If you still want to be in the content business when the last baby boomer passes into The Hall of Fame, learn about the new radio – podcasting.
The “ten morning shows” had me puzzled at first. But I’m guessing you need this many, all aimed at the same demo, to reach the numbers that will be attractive to advertisers. The advertises cares about reaching the demo (Women 25-54 in the example above) and not so much about how many shows he sponsors to reach them, assuming the price makes sense.
So let’s assume we have a 25 minute commute to Jefferson City (from Columbia or Loose Creek). Would I be willing to produce five, 25-min podcasts a week for a piece of the show? I would if Mr. Del Colliano was managing the station.