Another one bites the Mac

Learfield pal David Brazeal has looted his son’s college fund to buy himself a new MacBook Pro. He’ll be Mac-dazed for bit, unlearning the thousand things you need to know to make a PC go, but we’ll try to keep up with his progress here.

On the off chance my own Mac experience contributed to David’s high dive into the Mac pool, I’ve added him to the Mac Gallery.

The X-Files

The X Files Chemistry. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn had it. Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had it. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had it. Who has that kind of chemistry today?

Just watched the last half of the movie and was reminded how good Scully and Mulder were together. Where are Duchovny and Anderson now? Duchovny became something of a parody of himself but I don’t recall seeing much about Anderson. Good for her.

Gillian Anderson was white hot. She was put-a-sparkler-on-your-tounge hot. She wasn’t Victoria’s Secret beautiful…but she was leave-a-note-and-run-away-from-home sexy.

Donkey Basketball

“This 12 to 10 score is amazingly high when you consider that you have to be mounted to shoot and the donkey is usually moving, so you’re hanging on with one hand and both catching and shooting with the other. That’s not to mention that the gym in the old armory is so loud that you can’t hear yourself think. If you’d like a simulation, stick your head and a boombox (turned up loud) into a 55-gallon drum.  Have two friends beat upon it savagely with baseball bats. To add essence of Donkeyball, add a scoop of horse-manure to the drum. (And they say there’s nothing to do in this town.)”

Read the rest of Dr. Mobley’s hilarious account. Makes a boy homesick.

NAB keynote: Broadcasters still don’t get the web

I keep looking for signs that broadcasters are beginning to understand the importance (an potential) of the Internet. I’m sorry to say, I’m just not seeing them. And, based on Steve Safran’s (lostremote) summary of the keynote at this year’s NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) meeting, I won’t find it there:

“The internet did get a shoutout at the National Association of Broadcasters keynote speech Monday morning in Las Vegas. David K. Rehr, CEO and President of the NAB, said “internet.” He mentioned it once. In passing. During his discussion of issues about radio. It came 47 minutes into the keynote session and was the only time anyone said “internet.” That’s really all you need to know about the keynote. The NAB is simply not interested in the potential of the web, and what little interest it may have is only in terms of saying how broadcasting is better.”

Working for a company that provides services to broadcasters, I really hope they have a bright future. Mr. Safran’s summary of the keynote is worth a read.

Are you eating your own dog food?

Media Guerrilla has advice for companies or organizations trying to choose a ‘partner’ to help produce new media content. He has a series of questions to ask potential partners, including this one:

“How are they using new media in their business? It’s a fairly straight-forward question, right. Is the company or the consultant you’re talking to eating their own dog food? What you want to hear is of course yes, but I think what you also want to see is a degree of variety in how they’re active across the web. Having a personal blog, for example, is great, but at this point in the game, it’s practically a must-have. How else are they immersed?

Google will sell ads on Clear Channel

Google has broken into radio with a multi-year advertising sales agreement with the largest U.S. broadcaster, Clear Channel Radio. Clear Channel said it has agreed for Google to sell a guaranteed portion of the 30-second spots available on its 675 radio stations in top U.S. markets, in a bid to expand the universe of local radio advertisers to Google’s online buyers.

A Clear Channel executive said Google has access to less than 5% of the radio broadcaster’s overall inventory of advertising air time. The U.S. radio industry generates $20 billion in annual sales. [USAToday]

Henry Domke hanging up his stethoscope

I have posted frequently about my friend (and personal physician) Henry Domke. I learned this morning (by email and blog post) that he has decided to leave medicine and do art full time.

He cut back his medical practice some years ago to devote more time to his art but this announcement will be a shocker (I suspect) to his patients and the local medical community.

Just as Dodge City wasn’t the same without Doc Adams, Jeff City will miss Old Doc Domke.

Taking the Imus story to the big screen

Aging white radio personality (Bill Murrary) gets fired for racist remark. His career appears to be over until he’s hired by the owner (Bernie Mac) of a struggling, urban (Detroit?) radio station. Seems the radio personality saved the station owner’s life in the jungles of Viet Nam.

The station manager (Queen Latifah) doesn’t like the idea at all but the program director (Jack Black) –a white man who longs to be black– sees big ratings.

The local minister/activist (Eddie Murphy) keeps the heat on to get rid of “this loud-mouthed saltine!”

The station sales manager (Regina King) sees nothing but angry advertisers but soon finds herself falling in love with the repentant Murray character.

As with all my movie ideas, I have no third act, but know Kay will come through as she always does. I guess I need a title, too. Maybe, “What’d I say?”

Radio doing TV News

“At WDEL-AM in Wilmington, Delaware, our reporters produce stories using video cameras instead of cassette recorders,” news director Christopher Carl says in a comment on Poynter.org. “The audio is used on the radio. Reporters then produce video packages for out website – WDEL.com. WDEL.com users can then choose to watch individual video stories or a daily 10-minute video newscast. On weekends, users can watch a recap of the week’s big stories. Wilmington, DE is a a market with NO local commercial television station. [via CyberJournalist.net]