Jefferson City prison inmate Irving Berry has written a song for Missouri, entitled “Missouri, Home Sweet Home to Me,” which he calls a gift of honest reconciliation from all of Missouri’s incarcerated sons and daughters. Berry says 90 percent of the inmates he has come into contact with are remorseful. Berry, who has been in prison for nearly 30 years, wrote the song while incarcerated at the Cameron prison. When he was transferred to Jefferson City, he met with fellow inmate Mark Immekus, who wrote the music. They recorded the song with fellow inmates at the Jefferson City Prison. [Missourinet.com]
Kevin Kelly: We Are the Web
Kevin Kelly has written a wonderful article for WIRED.com about the Web that perfectly sums up what I’ve been feeling but didn’t know how to say. I encourage you to read the complete article, but here are a few grafs that jumped out at me:
The scope of the Web today is hard to fathom. The total number of Web pages, including those that are dynamically created upon request and document files available through links, exceeds 600 billion. That’s 100 pages per person alive.
No Web phenomenon is more confounding than blogging. Everything media experts knew about audiences – and they knew a lot – confirmed the focus group belief that audiences would never get off their butts and start making their own entertainment. Everyone knew writing and reading were dead; music was too much trouble to make when you could sit back and listen; video production was simply out of reach of amateurs. Blogs and other participant media would never happen, or if they happened they would not draw an audience, or if they drew an audience they would not matter. What a shock, then, to witness the near-instantaneous rise of 50 million blogs, with a new one appearing every two seconds. There – another new blog! One more person doing what AOL and ABC – and almost everyone else – expected only AOL and ABC to be doing. These user-created channels make no sense economically. Where are the time, energy, and resources coming from? The audience.
The Web continues to evolve from a world ruled by mass media and mass audiences to one ruled by messy media and messy participation. How far can this frenzy of creativity go? Encouraged by Web-enabled sales, 175,000 books were published and more than 30,000 music albums were released in the US last year. At the same time, 14 million blogs launched worldwide. All these numbers are escalating. A simple extrapolation suggests that in the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program. This idea is less outrageous than the notion 150 years ago that someday everyone would write a letter or take a photograph.
There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one large Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born. You and I are alive at this moment.
AgWired.com
I’ve been a blog bore for a few years and helped 10 or 12 friends get started blogging. Some were/are very good at it but none have run with the ball like Chuck Zimmerman at AgWired.com. I used to work with Chuck and his wife Cindy until they left and started their own consulting business a while back. Anyone interested in agriculture marketing should (does?) make AgWired.com their first stop. He’s making Old Media publications like AgriMarketing look… old. If you want to see how to do this blog thing right, click over to AgWired.com. From this point on, Chuck gives me tips on blogging.
Remembering The Bomb
The Sundance Channel will air a documentary film tonight (7pm) titled Original Child Bomb that features portions of footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese newsreel teams, in the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan almost 60 years ago. The public did not see any of the newsreel footage for 25 years, and the U.S. military film remained hidden for nearly four decades. I’ve got the Tivo set to record.
Anyone who grew up in Kennett, Missouri, in the 50’s has memories of B-52 bombers roaring overhead on their landing approach to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) base at Blytheville, Arkansas (about 30 miles away?). They were undoubtedly hundreds of feet up but it felt like you could throw a rock and hit them. Even as children, we knew they carried The Bomb. As we got a little older, we came to understand that a Russian ICBM was almost certainly targeted for our little corner of the world. But we certainly had no understanding of what it would mean to get “nuked.”
The atomic bombing of Japan probably avoided an invasion that would have cost countless lives. I seem to recall my dad (in the Navy, in the Pacific Theater) telling me he might have been part of that. So, I’m glad we ended it when we did, the way we did. Shit, I might never have been born if pop had bought the farm invading Japan.
But that was then and this is now. And George Bush has his finger on The Button. Is there anyone I trust less? Maybe.
A single chair in a room full of corrugated memories
I’ve always believed poetry is where you find it. On a billboard. A T-shirt. Or a blog. And the best blogs are personal and honest. From Dave’s Window:
“Everything is packed, the house is quiet. Stacks of boxes clutter the once-beautiful Morris manse, and the only thing connected to the outside world is my trusty laptop. The dog’s at my feet and I’m having coffee. It’s a sad day, the ‘last stand’ at the house my wife and I shared.”
Bill Fischer died this week
Bill Fischer worked with my father during the early days of KBOA and they remained friends after Bill moved to California many years ago. According to an article in the DDD, Fischer died this week at the age of 84. In addition to his stint at the radio station, Bill owned the Log Cabin Drive-In; was projectionist at Tommie’s Drive-In Theater; and ran Calton’s Donut Shop. Kennett landmarks all.
It’s not about the fireplugs
Scott, Phil and I had a meeting in St. Louis today and, on the way back, we passed a semi loaded with shiny new fireplugs. As we passed I snapped a picture. In a very accusatory tone, Scott said, “Mays is just looking for something to blog. That’s why I quit. I got tired of trying to come up with something to write about every day.”
Actually, I took the picture because the fireplugs looked very phalic and naughty in an industrial sort of way. But I understand the “blog pressure” Scott and many other bloggers feel. Fortunately, I don’t share Scott’s need to make every post interesting and worth reading. I’ll post on anything. But if I were taking the photo just so I could blog it. What the hell would I say? “Look at the dirty fireplugs?” No, Scott… we don’t live to blog. We blog to live.
I have another friend that battles his blog demons. Andy writes very long, very thoughtful posts. In truth, they’re more like essays that blog posts. He says he envies my knack for posting short, trivial items that don’t gobble up my day. (I added “trivial”) What Andy must understand that is that it’s the gestalt of smays.com that gives greater meaning to the humble parts.
30 movies I can watch again
Alien
Aliens
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Jeremiah Johnson
Last of the Mohicans
Manhunter
Marathon Man
Midnight Cowboy
Mississippi Burning
No Way Out
Platoon
Pulp Fiction
Saving Private Ryan
Speed
Terminator
Terminator II
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Commitments
The Getaway
The Matrix
Three Musketeers
Four Musketeers
The Professional
The Road Warrior
The Verdict
Three Days of the Condor
Time Bandits
True Romance
WarGames
Sunrise at Learfield
I said in an earlier post that I was only going to use photos that I took myself for the masthead. But when I saw David Sprague’s breath-taking sunrise shots from the Learfield parking lot, I decided to amend my rule to allow use of photos by anyone I know personally. I was so taken with David’s photo I didn’t bother to ask his permission to use it here… so enjoy it while you can.
Fishing where the fish are
From the cover story in the August 8 issue of Fortune: “In 2006 roughly $400 million of Chrysler’s money that used to go into TV, newspaper, and magazine ads will be spent on the Internet.” [RAIN]