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December 31, 2004

One year closes, another one opens

"What kind of a maniac puts eagles in a Christmas tree?":

One even senses that this avalanche of overwrought power worship is inspired by the very fact of George Bush's being such an obviously unworthy receptacle for such attentions. From beginning to end, the magazine behaves like a man who knocks himself out making an extravagant six-course candlelit dinner for a blow-up doll, in an effort to convince himself he's really in love.

I just really liked that metaphor. Happy new year. 2004 was a difficult year in many ways, both personal (lotta medical problems) and political (see above); let's hope for better things, as everyone always does, in the year to come. Let's keep both those serving in Iraq and those affected by the tsnuami in mind as well - give to both as generously as you can. You know where to find the necessary links.

Posted by John at 5:44 PM |

December 15, 2004

RSS Killed the Designer Star

Airbag - Bronze.

Here we have the gazillionth take on that old web designer canard, stagnation of web design, and its redheaded stepchild, "design piracy." Via Jason "MiddleBrow 2.0" Kottke.

It makes you wonder. People seem to think that distributing stuff someone else makes is "sharing," and distributing stuff they produce is "piracy."

Part of the discussion is true though: A combination of RSS and blogging has lead to the slow agonizing death of the design site.

Leaving those who thought that the "content" was just something for them to wrap their design around pretty much out in the cold.

I've always noticed the inherent contradiction in people who exalted the "populism" of the Macintosh as a liberating force from the computer "priesthood" being incredible elitists when it comes to their own place in the scheme of things: the problem with the system is that I'm not in charge of it.

Posted by John at 2:13 PM |

December 14, 2004

Idle chatter

There's an interesting essay in this month's Harpers called Quitting the Paint Factory, an essay on the necessity of idleness. It's a good essay, well worth reading. What's extremely amusing is to see the overcaffeinated multitasking blogosphere act as though goofing off is one of its so-called "core values." This from the medium that has spawned an entire literary subgenre, the mobile whine: the lack of wifi keeping you from getting work done between connecting flights. The horrible injustice of dialup Internet connections in your hotel. The poor quality of the free coffee in frequent flyer clubs. The people who would find some way to work in their sleep if they could. Yes, actually, just a bunch of carefree idlers. Wishful thinking or massive self-delusion? You make the call.

Posted by John at 2:43 PM | | Comments (1)

December 10, 2004

Bungeejumping journalism

Reading this post by Tim Porter, what jumps out at me is that the tension between old and new media is one of opposing extremes. Porter says:

Of course, in the real world of newspapers, where risk-averse culture and deeply ingrained fear of change produce oppositional arguments at the slightest whiff of innovation, zero-basing a newsroom is next to impossible.

Having worked at a newspaper, this is pretty true, but I attribute this mostly to the general hidebound nature of corporations.

But against this is the continual tendency of the new media crowd to break out the blog triumphalism as an answer to everything. As much as the news media may fear the "slightest whiff of innovation," the other side is addicted to nothing but innovation, and continues to pretend that lowering the bar for distribution equates to equal access to audience. If newspapers are a "risk-averse culture," blogs are a risk-addicted one. There is a continual dissonance in BigBlog circles between the idea that blogs have somehow achieved a pure meritocracy untainted by any sort of nepotism or politics, and the much-touted idea of the "long tail" in which nanoblogs somehow replace the phone or IM for small groups of people.

The extremes make it as polarized as any political discussion you can name. Perhaps Jarvis can wring a few more TV appearances out of denying it.

Posted by John at 1:05 PM |

December 6, 2004

And now a word from our blogger.

Marqui Product Placement in Blogs

[Marc Canter] sees the program as a good alternative to the automated ad services offered to bloggers by many online advertising networks. "I hate the idea of having an ad on my page. I like employing humans to think," he said.

About whether that entry is an ad or not. I like thinking about important things and not wasting my thought and time on discerning the blogger's agenda, don't you?

In Rotting Media they call this a "disclaimer." They also make it pretty obvious which are the ads and which are the stories.

Posted by John at 9:44 AM |

Blog hagiography

Yet another echo chamber puff piece on St Jeff the Populist:

Blogoland: A piece on Jeff Jarvis, blogger

Mr. Jarvis's ire has been extended to some of his readers as well. On his blog in August, he expressed his outrage over the execution of an Italian journalist in Iraq, and was alarmed at the response, which he characterized as ''spiteful, mean, venomous, stupid comments.'' He took all of them to task: ''O.K., too many of you are just sick. Someone is killed and you turn it into your chance to spit. Grow up. Join the human race.'' He admonished one poster named ''Kat'' -- ''I guess you probably blame sunset on evil reporters.'' He banned all of them from his blog.

And then let them all back on about a week later. Funnily enough, the piece doesn't mention this.

One other proctological fact-check:

He is not of the opinion -- shared by many -- that blogs will smash old media, take over the conversation and bestride the globe like a colossus.

Man, which BuzzMachine is he reading?

Posted by John at 8:57 AM |

December 3, 2004

Sooooooooooop

Gothamist: The Soup's Out, but the Secret's Not

Sekrit soup in Union Square:

Six varieties of hot soup are available daily at the stand from now until Christmas Eve including tomato basil, sweet corn chowder, mulligatawny, split pea, carrot ginger artichoke, and mushroom barley. $5.00 will buy you a medium sized bowl and $6.50 a large bowl; crackers are free.

This has Hale & Hearty written all over it. I may have to walk by there to check it out at lunch.

The title refers to one of my favorite dumb jokes. A hooker walks into a bar and sees an old man in one of the chairs. She walks up to the man and says "Hey, you want some super sex?"

The guy replies (high old man voice) "Sooooooooooop."

Posted by John at 10:28 AM |

December 2, 2004

Yap! Yap! Yap!

From an Ask Mefi discussion on noisy co-workers:

Why avoid the argument? Bring one of those New Orleans noise makers to work, the sort you spin by holding a rod (noise thing buzzes loudly when you twirl it) While twirling it, scream "yap! yap! yap!" in their direction, for the duration of their talking until they shut up.

They might think you're a jerk, but do this every time they speak up! Soon silence will be yours.

Sweet, sweet silence.

I especially like the "yap! yap! yap!" Nice touch. Just another day at Misanthropics, Inc.

Posted by John at 5:22 PM |