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Friday, August 23, 2002
Postcards of the Past II Forgive my lazy afternoon geek fest involving postcards, but I've been Googling for vintage views of cities in Massachusetts. There are some awesome resources online, although I've yet to find any collections of postcards from Somerville or Cambridge. Postcards from Framingham sheds flattering light on what is now a rather uninteresting city. When I first moved to Massachusetts in 1996, I worked in Framingham, and this collection of cards acquired over the course of 25 years shows several sides of the city that aren't visible any more. The cards are organized well, and the archivists include publishing and other information. Who'da thunk Framingham could be so interesting? Shirley Bruso's online exhibit of postcards from North Adams is not as well organized as the Framingham collection, but the cards are still beautiful. Bruso's archive comprises more than 100 cards depicting scenes between 1900-1970. While it is slightly frustrating to pop back and forth between the cards themselves and the menu, I appreciate Bruso's efforts. Some of the cards are accompanied by personal recollections of the scene in question, and Bruso surrounds the card archive with additional historical and local information. Lastly, Bob Trachimowicz's Worcester, Massachusetts, Postal History provides just that. In addition to the categorized collection of Worcester postcards, "Track" expands on the history of postal markings and methods in this city west of Boston. I didn't find the analysis of "fancy cancels" and auxiliary markings as interesting as the cards themselves, but his approach is innovative and in depth. Postcards of the Past Thanks to Postcard Collector, one of my new favorite magazines, I've come across several interesting Web exhibits of old postcards. David Clause's Vintage Bethlehem archives more than 300 postcards of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The cards are categorized by location, as well as by subject (such as bridges and waterways and planes and trains). Many of the cards are annotated with historic descriptions of the depicted scene. There should be more local postcard archives like this! Wait, there are! Casey Weaver has developed a site called Austin Postcard that features old photographs of Austin, Texas. While the initial card-description navigation listings are somewhat daunting, once you're viewing the cards, you can just click through them as a series. The backs of the cards are also included in the collection, which is a nice touch, and Weaver provides rudimentary postmark and publisher information. And the site also collects some historical information about the Congress Hotel, Granite Dam, and other local landmarks. And closer to home, but not concentrating on antique postcards, the Salem, Massachusetts, Postcard Tour collects almost 45 postcard views of various aspects of the historic city. Every time I've driven through Salem has been a traffic hassle, and I'm not planning on returning any time soon. These postcards will do just fine. Corollary: 'Tis the Season to Be... AWOL X I have 25 days of vacation that technically need to be used up by the end of September. I can't really do that, so I think I might take one day a week off for the rest of the year instead. That feels kind of weird. The Anchormen might finish the overdubs for "Just Because You Sleep on My Floor Doesn't Mean That You're My Girlfriend" on Monday, so it looks like next week might be my first short week. I'm not very good at taking vacation days. From the In Box: Poll Position What about the Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop and Museum? I've never been, but as an Oz fan from way back (books more than the movie) I've always been a little curious. And speaking of Dillinger, I guess the Biograph Theater reopens today (Thursday) at 6 p.m. with a fancy dinner and a rescreening of "Manhattan Melodrama," Dillinger's last movie, and a reenactment of the shooting afterwards! -- Joe Germuska Thursday, August 22, 2002
Poll Position I'm planning a weekend away in Indiana to spend some time with my grandmother before Labor Day. We're planning some day trips, and you can help. The first dilemma can be voted on in the ever-so-quiet discussion forum. Your choices: You can help me make my travel plans. Take the poll. 'Tis the Season to Be... AWOL X I just learned that the vacation days I've been accumulating -- and not using, really -- since I started working for the magazine in 1997 will not roll over at the end of the year. That means that I need to take the vacation days I earned while under our previous management by the end of 2002. One colleague just took a five-week sabbatical and still didn't use up all of his vacation. Another works perhaps two days a week. I'm not sure I can take five weeks -- which I've probably racked up, if not more -- but perhaps I can get away with working four-day weeks for the rest of the year. Email sent to HR. This is kind of weird. Mention Me! XV I'd like to give a special shout out to Carol and her blog RawBrick. She recently showed up in my referral log, and because she's leaving Boston for Atlanta soon, we should all wish her safe travels. All together now: Safe travels! Another local blogger, Brian Kane, whom I've mentioned previously, also links to Media Diet. I've visited his Web site several times, but because of some awkward formatting -- I have to scroll pretty far to the right to actually read the text of his blog entries -- I must admit that he's not a frequent read. Still, I appreciate the linkage. Thanks, Brian. Comics and Community I helped staff the Somerville Comics Collaborative table at ArtBeat near the end of last month. Local comics wunderkind Jef Czekaj has scanned the resulting pages -- drawn by people ranging in age from early childhood to post-retirement -- and put them on the Web. You can now read the most recent comics story collectively created by the citizens of Somerville. When we get around to it, Jef, Dan, and I are going to record a voiceover narration and make the comic into a Flash slideshow or something, but we beg your patience. As Jef emailed me, "Someday. Someday." Sounds like a good name for a cafe, eh? Rock Shows of Note XXXV After a long day complete with slow, sleepy morning; Summer Camp party at work; an awesome Anchormen practice; and a walk to Central Square from Inman Square (Jef and Chris stopped off at the Abbey, and I was meeting Coco at home); Coco and I went to the Middle East for the Punk Rock Aerobics anniversary bash. As soon as we got to the club, bumping into Jef, who ended up beating us there, I got hit by a heavy wave of tiredness. I just wasn't into hanging out in a crowded, loud, and smoky club, regardless of how good the show was. Maura and Hilken seemed pleased with the turnout and birthday celebration despite an inattentive sound woman who kept neglecting to turn on the mics so they could MC. I picked up a Count Me Outs CD after ascertaining that, despite two different CD designs, all of the CD's they had on hand featured the same songs. And we lingered long enough to see two of the bands. Dead Combo was irritating in an art-damaged kind of way. A two-piece featuring guitars, a drum machine, and a keyboard that produced some interesting sounds, the Combo played lackluster, low-energy art rock -- and seemed to take themselves way too seriously. Backed by some projected graphics, the two created a wall of sound but didn't communicate any sense of fun or humor in their set. Perhaps that's what knocked me out so quickly. Regardless, we stayed for several songs of the Operators' set before heading home for an early night. After Maura introduced them as her favorite PRA students, the Ops opened with "Bottle" and seemed to be playing quite well for the songs we stuck around to see and hear. We ran into some folks we'd hung out with at Chris and Em's cookout earlier this month, and Coco was a sport to leave as early as I needed to. Mmm, sleep. I needed it. We were bummed to miss the rest of the Ops' set and the Count Me Outs, but I did get that CD. Next time I'll pace myself better throughout the day so I don't fade so quickly! You can also read Coco's review of the show. Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Workaday World V I'm a member of Fast Company and Inc.'s "funkomiti," an informal group that occasionally plans silly little social events and parties for the magazines' staffs. Today, we hosted a Summer Camp party over at Commercial Wharf, complete with a vanilla ice cream taste test, s'mores, a crafts table, and T-shirt tie dying. We even decorated a whiteboard in Inc.'s lunch room with graffiti such as "Please don't feed the maintenance man," "No boys in the girls' lodge," and "You are assigned to cabin #3." Here are some photos from the Summer Camp smashup: 
Beware the poison oak. 
M&M's are the tops! 
I scream, you scream, we all scream. 
Campers just love the crafts table. 
Tara shows off her God's eye. 
Daigo readies the rubber bands. 
Sodium bicarbonate: My shirt's soaking in it. 
Michael's shirt has to sit here for 24 hours. 
I snuck into a doorway down the alley. This is what was inside. 
Wires, wires everywhere. 
The room I snuck into was dominated by this elevator setup. 
Is anybody down there? Hello? 
Heading out to sea. 
Emma Peel gets her "avenge." 
We're not sure where the smoke came from. 
Now I know where the string is stored. 
The funkomiti's previous event. 
We didn't organize it, but St. Anthony's Feast is this weekend. In addition to coming in a little late this morning, this afternoon's fete has really thrown off my day. I feel like it's not a work day. I haven't eaten anything other than M&M's, ice cream, and a s'more. And I'm aiming toward band practice and the Operators' Punk Rock Aerobics anniversary show tonight. T-minus 42 minutes. Then I'm out of here. Corollary: Magazine Me XIII While the person who penned the faux Kurt Andersen article in the August issue of Details hasn't been outed yet, investigations continue. Senior Editor Bob Ickes had to hasten his departure because of his handling of the piece. Despite his contentions that the piece was fact checked and that he secured Andersen's social security number in order to pay the man for services rendered, word is that no one ever actually talked to the writer on the phone. The entire assignment, writing, and editing process was handled via email. Another commentator says that it's good form to call big-name writers just to thank them for working with a publication. Lesson: You don't schmooze; you lose. Thanks to I Want Media. The Song I Just Wrote II It goes a little like this: I didn't shave. I didn't bathe. I haven't washed these clothes in 23 days. That's all I have right now. Worth finishing? It's an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World XIV Taxi cabs in Toronto are equipped with GPS-driven video and audio advertising. Advertising rates are in part determined by what block the cab will be on when the ad is triggered. Thanks to Utne Web Watch. Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Corollary: Blogging About Blogging XXX I've also added some section headings in the right-hand column so it's easier to find all of the different kinds of reviews. These are basically Google searches within Media Diet, so the formatting is search engine-driven -- not organized like a section of a Web site -- but it does the trick. I'll continue to add categories as it makes sense and the need arises. Thanks to Media Dieticians Tom (again) and Jeremiah Brown for pointing out how challenging it is to find past Media Diet entries. Blogging About Blogging XXX I've made a couple of changes to Media Diet. One, Atomz is no longer my search engine of choice. Google is. Using their Free Search service, Media Dieticians can now search the Cardhouse domain or the Web. I've positioned the search field at the bottom of the page, near the Archives link. To accommodate easier searches -- and so you don't have to scroll down so far to find the search field -- I've altered Media Diet's template so three days of entries are on the main page instead of the seven of the past. Those made for some pretty long pages! Thanks to Tom for helping push me over the edge to fix something I haven't been pleased with for awhile. Atomz just wasn't passing muster. From the In Box: Subway Soundtrack III The Chicago Reader has recently introduced a cartoon which illustrates real-life reader-contributed anecdotes of overheard conversations -- primarily to make fun of and embarass cell-phone users. This week's showed someone putting their transit card into the turnstile while telling someone on the phone "OK, so I'm going to hop into this cab..." I've seen funnier, but they aren't online. The Reader is unfortunately stingy with their section-one content on the Web site. -- Joe Germuska Indeed they are! Does anyone have any links or scans to share? From the In Box: Books Worth a Look VI One request I have for you, as a reader of your blog -- I was digging back through your "From the Reading Pile" and "Books Worth a Look" sections (which, on a side note, are actually easier to track down using Google than Atomz, but that's a critique for another day), and I would love it if you'd include the publisher of each book, if such an entity exists, as well as the title and author and date. Especially since a fair number of the books you write about are independently produced. (In this case, I was curious to see if you'd reviewed any of the So New Media books, but I only recognized "Words! Words! Words!" from having seen the title in their catalog.) -- Tom Hopkins Consider it done. With the next edition of Books Worth a Look, I'll note the publisher, as well. On your side note, I, too, have been frustrated by Atomz. It doesn't seem to find much, ever, and the search results are formatted such that the results are masked, even. Tough to find what you found, if that makes any sense. When I have some time, I'll explore a better search tool option. Does Google do microsite search engines? Any other recommendations? Subway Soundtrack III Overheard on the Green Line this morning: Little Girl: (showing her mother a religious tract entitled, "What the Hell?") What does this say? Mother: It says, "What the Hell?" Little Girl: (shocked) Mommy! Corollary: An Open Book? Positioning itself in a niche currently occupied by magazines such as Page and Book, the people behind Readerville are planning to launch a print magazine, The Readerville Journal, in September. The magazine will build its circulation on the 20,000 or so people who participate in Readerville's online discussions every month, and the publisher hopes response is early and active. "It's as if a focus group of several thousand people met round-the-clock for two years to lay out an agenda for this content," he says. Special kudos to Readerville for partnering with Book Sense, the American Booksellers Association's network of more than 1,100 independent bookstores. This alliance might be a worthy challenger to Book, which is backed extensively by Barnes & Noble. Independent bookstores, an online community, and a magazine? What more could we ask for? Thanks to I Want Media. Big Brother Is Watching VII The state of Illinois is spending $4 million to install security cameras and emergency call boxes at more than 50 highway rest stops. Thanks to Drudge Report. Corollary: Rock Shows of Note XXXI I returned to Toad last night to see Schwang and the Tim Gearan Band with Coco and her friend Mark. I wasn't totally into the idea of seeing the bands again -- they're good but not brilliant -- but I did want to see Coco, so there you go. The show was slightly different. Schwang and Gearan were joined by a new guitarist, Kevin, whose approach was more blues and solo oriented -- not as sparse and ornamental as Dave Goodrich's guitar work. And Schwang was joined by the bartender's sister, who'se visiting from out of town, for several songs. She's got a solid voice and a sultry stage presence. Her harmonies with Anita were especially impressive. Gearan's band added a mohawked hand drum and tambourine player -- who slid in beside us on the side pew, making seating quite tight. He was the most intent tambourine player I've ever seen. Wasn't going to let it get away from him, no sir! The saxophonist was mic'ed this time, which was awesome. You could hear the tenor much better than last week. But still not my thing. We left after several songs to walk home. Also of note, Andy got a haircut. Among the Literati XIV David Eggers rates two mentions in the Aug. 19 edition of Advertising Age. Placement one, one of the photographs accompanying Kate Fitzgerald's article "Promoting the Page" about New Yorker Festival sponsorships features Dave sitting in on a panel discussion. Mention two, Richard Linnett's Adages column includes several paragraphs subheaded "Scrambled Eggers." It discusses Dave's book excerpt in the Aug. 12 issue of The New Yorker and suggests that the very premise -- a young man gets paid a lot of money for posing for an advertising logo and, wracked by guilt, gives it all away -- is farcical. Dave builds his book on the idea that the man was paid $80,000 for the use of his silhouette. One ad exec says he would have netted $2,500, max. The caption to the photo adjacent to the blurb is captioned "Dim Bulb: Dave Eggers has money to burn." Well, at least he's flaring brightly! Monday, August 19, 2002
FAQ 'n' Roll Jef and I frequently receive emails from people wondering whether Handstand Command can book them a show while they're on tour, put out their record, or otherwise help them in the ways that managers, booking agents, and record labels do. Sometimes we can. But not all the time. So I wrote this little Handstand Command primer this morning so we had something we could reply to these folks with promptly. Rereading it, I figured Media Dieticians might find it interesting, as well. So here you go. HANDSTAND COMMAND SAYS: HELLO! Please remember that this will be sent out as an email. It wasn't really written or formatted to be published on the Web, regardless of its presence here. Move along. There's nothing to see here. Magazine Me XIV This struck me as slightly funny and overly self-referential, but MediaBistro, a media-related Web site, offers an article on how to pitch stories to the Columbia Journalism Review, a trade magazine for journalists. Now I'm mentioning it in Media Diet, a media-related blog. If we keep this up, pretty soon we'll all write stories about writing stories for people who write stories about us writing stories. Or something like that. Rock Shows of Note XXXIV To help celebrate Lydia's birthday Saturday night, Coco and I went to Tir Na Nog near Union Square to meet with Lydia, Alex, and several other people -- and to hear Frank Morey. Ostensibly a blues musician -- Frank's coming out with a record later this year on a Chicago-based blues label -- Frank's set was a pleasant bit of old-timey country blues featuring him singing and playing guitar and Scott Pittman on drums. 
Frank chain smokes, lighting one cigarette with another. While I enjoyed Frank's singing and the overall feel of Tom Waits-like dramatic folk blues, I spent most of my time watching Scott play drums. He's got an awesome kit -- modeled after vaudeville, he says -- with a tambourine attached to the high-hat, a loosely coiled spring hanging from a stand, a cowbell, wood block, beaded tom, and a bass drum imprinted with a graphic that reads "Art is the handmaid of human good." He played melodica during one song, and the song in which Frank played the jaw harp accompanied by Scott's duck call was quite enjoyable. In addition, his method of singing backups was interesting. He positions himself pretty far back from the mic, so it created more of a suggestion of vocals underneath Frank's up-front singing. Nice. 
Scott just moved from Lowell to Jamaica Plain. Despite a couple of awkward moments -- girls at the bar giggling over Frank's mention of the "mouth organ" and U2 on the radio interrupting the beginning of their second set -- Frank and Scott played an enjoyable, energetic set. The song from O Brother, Where Art Thou? felt a little cliched, but it's a good song, so I can't fault them. Worth checking out if you like this kind of music. They'd fit well on a bill with Gloria Deluxe, I think. You can also read another person's review of the show. Photographs courtesy of Koshka. The Movie I Watched Last Night XXXII Friday: Nine to Five An extremely satisfying office comedy that rivals more recent attempts such as Office Space. The basic premise is slightly dated, as the film concentrates on a secretarial pool, its relationship with their male manager -- and their eventual rebellion against the hierarchical structure of their workplace. Lily Tomlin leads the charge with her strong-willed character Violet Newstead, and Dolly Parton shines as the southern-bred and misleadingly ditzy Doralee Thodes. But it is Jane Fonda's Judy Bernly who emerges as the most level-headed and leadership-oriented character, evolving from a mousy, unconfident recent divorcee into the group's conscience and reality check. That said, the chemistry between the three is palpable, and the movie rides on their collective acting force. Worth watching if you haven't ever seen it -- and returning to if you had. The messages still mean something. Sunday: The Importance of Being Earnest I've never read Oscar Wilde's play, but it's evident that the movie is infused with and quite fond of Wilde's penchant for playful banter and language usage. Colin Firth (Jack/Earnest) and Rupert Everett (Algy) interact quite nicely, and the cast is well rounded out by Judy Dench, whose society matron role is a highlight of the film, and Reese Witherspoon, who surprises with her portrayal of Jack's ward Cecily. Some commentators have remarked on director Oliver Parker's occasional forays into the world of Baz Luhrmann in terms of updating classics, but even it's true that Parker rearranged some of the story, added some details and back stories for the characters, and updated the story slightly, it's a solid movie. Plenty of Wilde's original cleverness and cynicism, and a solid clutch of actors. Wilde would probably approve. |
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