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If You Don’t Read The Newspaper, You’re Uninformed

[ 5 Comments ]Posted on March 29, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

If you DO read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.


Is This News?

I’ve always loved Mark Twain’s saying “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed“. Sitting down this Sunday morning to not read the Sunday paper – something I used to love to do – I was really struck by this change in my behavior over the years. Living in a town where the local newspaper is failing as a business, I’m surprised by the way people talk about the topic. Some seem almost shocked, as if the news were some public utility, like electric power. I find that level of ignorance strange, because aside from the fact that the trend away from print has clearly been in motion for over a decade (I even used it as a sales pitch on this dated page in 2005 in the sidebar), newspapers in general have struggled since the 1970′s. Those who like to think they’re more informed show an interesting ignorance of their own. They’ll say things like “this is no surprise, the blogosphere has shown that we don’t need newspapers“. Which is a REALLY scary level of ignorance, as this Guardian UK interview with David Simon, creator of The Wire points out. As he puts it: “The internet does froth and commentary very well, but you don’t meet many internet reporters down at the courthouse.” Another argument that Simon (a former crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun) puts forth is that the failure of local newspapers will allow unprecedented political corruption. Which I think shows a certain insider ignorance all its own. The ownership of newspapers by large media companies effectively killed the Woodward & Bernstein style of reporting years ago, as pointed out by journalism professionals themselves in the excellent book The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, which is a great read, if you’re not familiar with it. In any case, the bottom line is that these days, news is business. In spite of sites like newspaperdeathwatch.com that track the carnage, there are still people who see a business opportunity. And some on line news sources understand that there are things you can do to attract visitors that you just can’t do in print, like photo features on cheerleaders wrestling in Hershey’s Syrup.

Internet Archive – The Web In A Box

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 26, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Thousands of hours of media and archived web content in a shipping container

I’m always a little amazed when I mention the Internet Archive to someone who spends a lot of time on the web, and they haven’t heard of it. If you’re not familiar with the site, it’s an incredible archive of film, audio, text, and even the internet itself. The Wayback Machine lets you visit sites that no longer exist, so we can enjoy lost treasures like RubberBurner.com, where you can learn some “FAST and BASIC facts” about Curry, “A slim and handsome race car driver” (a site which later turned out to be one of the first viral marketing campaigns). If you’re the kind of person who accidently spends hours on Wikipedia, the Internet Archive can be dangerous. The Prelinger Archive, for instance, not only has classic feature films like Un Chien Andalou, Night of the Living Dead, and Nosferatu available for download, but a wealth of often hilarious old commercials like the one featured at left from 1956 called Once Upon a Honeymoon, in which a (probably gay) angel descends from heaven to sprinkle fairy dust on the house of a young couple to ensure they have fashionable new phones before they go on their honeymoon. I’m especially drawn to the film section of the site, because of things like Cinemocracy, where they’ve archived 1940′s propaganda pieces by directors like John Ford, John Huston, and Frank Capra. If you’re a technophile, you’ll also find it pretty interesting that they’re moving the entire three petabyte archive into a shipping container, much like Google’s floating servers. Read the rest of this entry »

A Better Life Through Info Graphics

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 20, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Even global economic collapse is fun as an info-graphic

In these troubled times, nothing soothes one’s anxiety like a cute info graphic. The video clip at left, for example, is a re-imagining of “Little Red Riding Hood”, told in helpful info-graphic form, with useful tooltips, and handy facts. Like grandma’s nutritional value, for instance. Even the corporate world is onto the fact that somehow life is just easier to digest in graphic form, which explains these examples of game-based training brought to us by BusinessWeek.com. This Japanese animation – Ensuring the Future of Food – makes consumer waste downright cute. And if you have a web site with lame traffic stats, just use VisitorVille to view the figures. Your web site is MUCH cooler when Google is represented by a cute little bus instead of a cold, heartless, data-harvesting bot that doesn’t visit your site as often or as deeply as you’d like. And then there’s The Sims. Do people still play The Sims? I’m a little out of the loop on stuff like that, but if they do, now they can buy their little imaginary info-graphic people imaginary little info-graphic furniture from Ikea. Speaking of the Sims, I can’t help think that a little misery might have also been spared if the sadists in the Bush administration had been given instructions on how to torture Sims instead. Read the rest of this entry »

Real Tiny Cities, Tiny Real Cities

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Fun with miniatures and tilt shift photography.

You may have heard of tilt-shift photography before, or at least seen examples of it. What is our fascination with tiny things? While some people spend all their time making tiny cities that are remarkably realistic, others spend all their time making real cities look unrealistic. That first link is the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg Germany, the second is an actual photo of London manipulated to look like a miniature. The best examples of this kind of work use actual optics to achieve the effect, but if you want to try your hand at it without the investment, there are plenty of tilt-shift Photoshop tutorials , and now there’s even an iPhone app. The online tool at TiltShiftMaker.com will also let you upload your own photos and add the effect. Tilt shift can be even more fun with video; the clip at left is from Sydney Australia’s Mardi Gras 2009. It was created by Sydney-based photographer Keith Loutit, who has more clips on Vimeo. One of my favorites is Helpless, in which Greenpeace activists and sand sculptors build a 17-metre sculpture of a fin whale on Sydney’s Bondi Beach to send a message to the Japanese Government in protest of its controversial whaling program. For more still image examples see this collection at Smashing Magazine .

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World Builder: A Charming & Visually Stunning Short Film

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 6, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Friday, March 6th, 2009

A charming nine-minute short film created by Branit|VFX

I’ve mentioned before that due to my puppy-like attention span, I’ve long been a fan of short media. That’s one of the reasons I like the award-winning short film World Builder, featured at left. I also like it because it takes something usually used to blow things up or create monsters – visual effects – and creates a few moments of sentimentality and simple beauty. If you’re especially hip and cynical, don’t waste your time; there’s no jaded punchline. Although visually rather stunning and clever, it’s really just kind of sweet. Apparently the nine-minute film was shot in a day, but took TWO YEARS to complete in post-production. It was created by Branit|VFX of Kansas City, which has also provided effects for shows like Pushing Daisies and Lost, as well as producing the amusing 2004 short 405:The Movie, “The story of the wrong guy – in the wrong place – at the wrong time.” This kind of material is one of the things I love about the current world of media production: some of Hollywood’s best post-production work takes place in places Like Kansas City, MO! I could watch Branit|VFX’s 2009 Demo Reel repeatedly simply because it uses Kaki King’s music as a backdrop…. Read the rest of this entry »

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