This is my official warning to seniors, mothers with small children, the lame and infirm of any description. If there is a flu vaccine shortage next year, you’re gonna have to wrestle me for the last vial. This year Barb persuaded me we should not get the shots –assuming we could– so there would be “more for those who need it most.” Easy call when you’re feeling great. Well, we both got the flu and it has been a nasty, miserable three days (assuming the worst is over). So I won’t be holding the door for you down at the clinic, granny. Tell the OATS bus driver to floor it.
The rise of podcasts
NPR’s Robert Smith reports on the rise of “podcasts” — amateur music and talk shows created by the users of Apple’s popular iPod personal music devices and other digital music players. Whole “shows” of music and talk can be downloaded from the Internet to individual players automatically, and some of the show hosts have become celebrities among the burgeoning podcast audience. Related stories from NPR:Personal Radio Via Podcasting Grows More Popular; Slate’s Gizmos: The Future of Radio; Does the iPod Play Favorites?; TiVo, iPod, the Human Ego and the Future.
The wireless Super Bowl
“On the consumer side, the league sees big revenue potential in wireless. The league is moving content from its NFL Network cable channel and Sirius Satellite network to the Internet to bring more dimensions to stories. It’s the first year the Super Bowl is on satellite radio, and the league plans to make audio of the radio calls for the Pats and Eagles available for fans to download to their MP3 players for $10. And when someone calls their wireless phone, Eagles fans can hear defensive end Jevon Kearse tell them “This is Jevon Kearse. It’s time for you to pick up the phone.” [via RAIN]
BostonHerald.com
“My Very Own Radio Station”
Michael Bazeley, writing in the Mercury News (My Very Own Radio Station), does the best job of ‘splaining the podcasting thing I’ve come across:
“Thanks to a new technology called podcasting, I’ve turned my iPod into a personalized radio station, loading it with talk shows and cutting edge music that I’d never be able hear on traditional radio stations. It’s transformed my listening habits overnight. Although it’s new, I’m convinced podcasting will transform the way many people consume media, just as blogging and TiVo have. When you can program your own radio station, carry it with you anywhere and pause and restart it at will, who needs mainstream, advertising-supported broadcast radio?”
His piece quotes Doc Searls who believes:
“Podcasting will shift much of our time away from an old medium where we wait for what we might want to hear to a new medium where we choose what we want to hear, when we want to hear it, and how we want to give everybody else the option to listen to it as well.”
Hey, I’m just posting this shit so I can say I told you so.
Three years blogging
On Thursday, I will have been “…writing some of this down” for three years. More than 1,000 thoughts, notes, links, rants, reviews and random ravings. I couldn’t have imagined sticking with it this long and I can’t imagine ever stopping. I’ll be 57 next month so I could easily have another 25 years of blogging ahead.
I tell new bloggers that the first 48 hours will tell the tale. If you’re gonna get the bug, you’ll get it within those first couple of days. And if you’re not hooked by then, it’s probably not for you. M
The Confusion
Just slogged through 800+ pages of Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion (Volume Two of the Baroque Cyclel). I enjoyed it more than the previous sentence would suggest but I found it a tough read. With another 1,000 pages ahead of me in Volume Three.
March Madness on Demand.
CSTV.com will offer live and on-demand streaming video of up to the first 56 NCAA Tournament games through the Regional semifinals as well as streaming video of interviews, pre-and post-game press conferences, and video highlights. Local-market webcasts of games broadcast by CBS will be blacked out. [More at E-Media Tidbits]
Blane Mays helping in Banda Aceh
My brother Blane has returned from Banda Aceh to his home in Bandar Lampung, following two weeks of helping with the tsunami disaster relief effort. He will return to the areas for a couple of weeks at a time between now and June when he returns to the states for six months. It is still unclear how long foreigners will be allowed in the area, which has been closed to same for the past five years and only opened because of the tsunami.
Pod-Think.
Consultant John Silliman Dodge recently offered broadcasters his “iPod approach” to programming and marketing radio. In a recent article for FMQB he asks:
“Look at your 21st century customer: Blackberry in one hand, iPod in the other, and a cell phone on the belt. Ask yourself the defining question: how does my radio station fit into this person’s life?”
Hustle & Flow
A recent entry in the Sundance Film Festival, Hustle & Flow — written and directed by Memphis native Craig Brewer, and produced by John Singleton– has been purchased by Paramount.
“Djay is a pimp suffering a midlife crisis and although nominally successful, he yearns to record his flow and become a respected rapper. Galvanized by a gospel song, he sets his dream in motion–recruiting his motley crew and building a studio in his home. And though he succeeds in putting his rap, “It’s Hard for a Pimp,” onto tape, the barriers to fame and fortune are many, and getting there becomes an elusive goal.”
Kennett Senior Correspondent Viretta, proudly reports that her baby boy, Luke, worked on the soundtrack. She adds that she’s not bothered that the film is about “pimps & ho’s.”