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You are what you read. And what you see. And what you hear.
I am Heath.
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Email Heath at heath at mediadiet dot net about items of possible impact, interest, and intrigue. Or just to say hey! (Portions of our correspondence might make its way back here. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, be sure to let me know.) Send me links. Use Delicious, and tag them for:h3athrow.
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Friday, January 31, 2003
No Media Res(t) for the Weary Traveler III While I neglected to read any newspapers yesterday, I just finished flipping through today's San Francisco Chronicle and this week's SF Weekly and San Francisco Bay Guardian. The Guardian yielded some interesting tidbits. Former publisher of Factsheet 5, Seth Friedman, now works as the Guardian's IT manager. Also from the masthead, Bay Area improv guitarist John Shiurba works as the paper's office manager. I first encountered Shiurba through the Boss Improv mailing list that I founded. Small world. The Guardian includes several interesting media-related pieces this week. Savannah Blackwell's article on the recent antitrust case filed against New Times Media -- the parent company of the Guardian's closest competitor SF Weekly -- and Village Voice Media, is a clear exposure of the companies' attempts to collude and avoid regional competition. Jeff Chang looks at Clear Channel's purchase of KMEL -- and former listeners' attempts to take back the urban radio station. And Camille Taiara's consideration of corporate media organizations' contributions to politicians -- and FCC chair Michael Powell's openness to big business -- offers a nice companion read addressing the evils of conglomerization. All in all, an impressively solid edition of the Guardian. Right on, Bruce Brugmann. Alt.weeklies everywhere could learn from you. Among the Literati XXV In the Jan. 29 edition of the SF Weekly, Tommy Craggs takes the San Francisco Chronicle to task for publishing a thinly veiled news release for 826 Valencia's October 2002 teacher of the month -- penned by Dave Eggers. What starts as a query why Eggers would contribute to the Chronic ends up as criticism that the paper gave 826 Valencia -- quite a worthy learning center -- any ink and a snarky dismissal of Eggers as "stumbling." Give the guy a break. Corollary: Signs of the Times Just talked some more with the security guard at 601 Montgomery. He says he's been changing the sign near the security desk for six or seven years. "I have three sets of letters now," he says. "I used to be restricted." Word is that a friend interviewed him and wrote an article for a class she took. If she gives the OK, I hope to publish her piece here. Event-O-Dex XXXIV Sunday, Feb. 2: The Tardy, the Pee Wee Fist, and Rachel McCartney at the Washington Street Arts Center, 321 Washington St., Somerville. The action starts at 7:30 p.m. Signs of the Times Every day, the security guard at 601 Montgomery St. in San Francisco changes this sign.  He says that as long as it makes people laugh, he can "keep his laugh on the job." Media Diet Eat Up I'm meeting some friends for dinner tonight at 7:30 at Zeitgeist, 199 Valencia, in San Francisco. If you're a Media Dietician and want to join us, consider the invitation open. I've got messy hair and small glasses, and I'll be wearing a blue workshirt. Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing will be there, too, but Dr. Frank of the Mr. T Experience is on his way to LA for a solo show. He sends his regards. Corollary: Comics and Community IV Christopher Baldwin, creator of the Bruno Daily Times is going to be at APE. I read Bruno every day! Dead Technology You know how folks say that Betamax was vastly superior to VHS but VHS won out because of better distribution? Might be a myth. Thanks to Through the Wire. Among the Literati XXIV Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow are kicking up some dust in the Well's Inkwell forum. Thanks to Weblogsky. Blogging About Blogging XLVIII Ross Mayfield's Blogmap project is now online. Looks like he's upping the ante on the social network map he created of the Ryze Blog tribe. Neat stuff. And Corante's got a new blog rolling. Amateur Hour looks at the democratization of media, digital tools, and media making. It's the "me" in "media." Jan. 24's entry touches on how cable TV and the net are changing traditional journalism. Born to Run Away Bruce Springsteen was slated to play a benefit performance for DoubleTake magazine at the Somerville Theater in Somerville near the end of February. The deal was that for something like a $1,000 ticket, you could see the small, intimate, acoustic performance. And for $5,000 you could share time and table with the Boss and his wife at a special dinner. The whole idea was to raise money for the ever-struggling Davis Square-based magazine. Now Springsteen has pulled away from the deal, and the concert is canceled. Why? The Boss was upset at the steep ticket prices despite the benefit gig. And he was miffed that the magazine leaked news of the performance early to fuel ticket sales. Just goes to show: What DoubleTake can give, DoubleTake can take away. Workaday World XV On my way to Fast Company's Montgomery Street offices in San Francisco I saw what might very well be one of the best buskers I've ever seen. The fellow at the Montgomery Street Bart station has an extremely clear and impressive singing voice. If you come across him, give him some money. Upon reaching the top of the exit escalator, I saw a forlorn-looking older man in a suit standing resolutely behind a sandwich board that said, "Please take my resume. I've done it all." Welcome back to San Francisco. Thursday, January 30, 2003
Anchormen, Aweigh! XV Half the band mastered the final mixes of the songs we're including in our forthcoming CD, Nation of Interns, Tuesday, and the final songs are available online. Hopefully, the CD itself will be available in the next month or so! Workaday World XIV I'm in San Francisco today, camping out in Fast Company's Montgomery Street offices to catch up with the Company of Friends before the San Francisco group's event this evening. So far today, I've had two delightful Bay Area experiences. I saw a woman on the Bart reading Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and I heard a custodian whistle "Do You Know the Way to San Jose." Welcome back to San Francisco! Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Corollary: Comics and Community IV In another fit of good fortune -- to start balancing out all of today's bad -- Highwater Books will be tabling at APE this weekend. That's where I'll be spending much of my time, so if any Media Dieticians go to APE, look me up. Anchormen, Aweigh! XIV Half the band is mastering the forthcoming Anchormen CD, Nation of Interns, tonight. And we're trying to figure out what order the songs should go in. Do you like or or better? You can download the rough mixes. Determining song order is much more challenging than you'd think. Games People Play IV A co-worker of mine made a board game! Lights... Camera... Action! is a Trivial Pursuit-like game in which players try to identify the name of a movie based on quote, actor, and scene clues. It's extremely well produced and looks like a lot of fun -- 800 movie moments to consider! Fun stuff. I had no idea you could just make a board game. Corollary: Workaday World XIII Murphy's Law is in full effect. Let's just say that the relaunch isn't going exactly as planned. We'll get there, though. I'm just not very good at being ineffectual. I'm also not very good at being nostalgic. Last night, with all of the anticipation and excitement about the relaunch, I waxed romantic about a former girlfriend, even emailing her a thank-you message for her long-ago support and interest. I should not do things like that. Stupid, stupid Heath. That'll work itself out, too, I guess. All this shall pass. Monday, January 27, 2003
Mention Me! XXXIII Adam Gaffin highlights the Boston World Explorers' Foundation's inaugural outing today in Boston Common. This is a solid site I'll have to return to. What is Boston Common? "Boston Weblogs are cool, interesting, funny, thought-provoking and sometimes maddening. Couple Boston Weblogs with Boston forums and Usenet newsgroups and you've got the makings of a great online magazine. This Weblog is an attempt to sift through all those postings to find stuff you might also find interesting." Welcome, Boston Commoners! Now you're Media Dieticians, too. Workaday World XIII Tomorrow, we launch the new online community platform for the Company of Friends, Fast Company magazine's readers' network. I founded the network back in 1997 and have spent the last five-plus years coordinating and managing it. Normally, when I email the 42,000 members, I get a little nervous. That's a lot of people. But tonight, having just queued up the relaunch and redesign announcement for emailing, I'm more than a little nervous. This is a good step for the network, but it's a big step. Excited, nervous, hopeful, curious. I hope people like what we've done. Hiking History III The Boston World Explorers' Foundation held its inaugural meeting Sunday afternoon, with four founding members gathering at the statue of Captain Farragut at City Point in South Boston to explore the environs of Castle Island and Fort Independence.    Walking from Broadway station on the Red Line, Hiromi and I made our way along South Boston's main commercial street and through a decidedly industrial section before reaching City point and meeting up with Brad and Jennifer. One of the old buildings we passed on the way, just before we walked past the Edison power plant, had cryptic letters, numbers, and arrows stenciled on the building's brick corners. What are these codes for? Near Independence Square, we also passed an old factory building that's been closed down for asbestos removal.    The island is now connected to the mainland with a walkway winding around Pleasure Bay, but the fort is still largely as it was way back when. During the tourist season, the fort is open for guided tours, but in the off season -- which is now -- the fort is closed. So are the snack bar and the public restrooms. "Seasonal!" quickly became a popular cry in response to a suggestion that was difficult or impossible.       One of the highlights of the day was finding a Bruce Lee stencil spray painted on a corner of the fort building. Another highlight was finding an arrangement of broken shell pieces spelling out the word "love" -- using a concrete round set into the soil as the "o."    In addition to its history as a military outpost and the numerous war memorials -- and thin spire to honor a local boatmaker -- that line its perimeter, Castle Island comes complete with a fascinating story. Rumor is that Edgar Allen Poe, who was born in Boston and served briefly as a soldier on the island, wrote "The Cask of Amontillado" based on a legend he heard while serving in the armed forces there.    My memory may be faulty, but the general sense of the story is that an officer on the island took offense at the actions of a younger soldier. I don't recall what the action was, but it may have involved a young woman or a night watch the soldier accidentally missed. The officer challenged the soldier to a duel, and even though other people in the company protested that the young soldier's actions didn't warrant a duel, the officer insisted. The duel occurred, and the officer killed the young, innocent soldier. Some of the soldier's friends inquired about the officer's previous tours of duty and learned that in every instance, in every location, the officer had found cause to challenge someone to a duel -- killing them in that duel. The officer had found a form of officially sanctioned murder within the armed forces. The young soldier's friends ganged up on the murderous officer and sealed him into a section of brick wall, either in the fort itself or in an installation once outside the fort.    After walking around the fort, we headed around the bay along the walkway. On the far side of the walkway was a fascinating circular concrete structure that reminded us of '70s or '50s motel design. With a ladder, you could easily carry a bicycle up top to ride around the platform. We watched the geese and seagulls and enjoyed the panoramic views of the Boston skyline -- as well as the sound of sea water lapping against the rocks.    The walkway also afforded good views of the outer harbor, including an island that now houses globular sewage treatment facilities, an island that was once a dumping ground for dead horses and cattle -- and then an illegal casino and bar complex during the prohibition -- and an island once used to house an insane asylum, part of which is now ruins.  Then it was back to the car, Broadway station, and home. Thanks to Hiromi, Brad, and Jennifer for their role as founding members of the Boston World Explorers' Foundation. I think we may have even decided on a slogan for the group: "I may not know where we're going, but I've read a lot about it." The adventures will continue. The Movie I Watched Last Night LVI The Blair Witch Project To help pass time while reading magazines on the Big Blue Couch on Friday night, I popped in The Blair Witch Project. While I wish I'd originally seen it back in 1999 without having read so much about the movie, the film holds up well to my first viewing in the theaters. Several aspects of the film resonate with me: the need to document experiences; a fascination with lost, bizarre local history; and stomping around in the woods -- or city, for that matter -- looking for things you've read about. This viewing, I felt like they gave the interview segments with locals short shrift and that, outside of the scene at coffin rock, the history was poorly presented. I also didn't connect as much with the decay of the filmmaking trio's friendships as they got lost deeper and deeper into the woods. So I was pleasantly surprised when they finally started discovering the totems, they stumbled across the abandoned house in the night, and the movie proceeded to accelerate to its relatively anticlimactic, though satisying, end. As a faux documentary, this was done pretty well. As a horror movie, I'm not so sure. Has anyone seen the sequel? Is it a waste of time, or does it build on the witch mythos and back story? Between the Lines A surprisingly solid all-star cast populates this little-known 1977 movie that tells the tale of a small, scrappy alternative newspaper in Boston -- the Back Bay Mainline -- that's on the brink of being bought out by a larger, corporate publisher. Riffing on the evolution of the once-proud Real Paper into what is now the Boston Phoenix media empire, I wonder how loosely based the movie is on the alt.weekly scene in Beantown. The story, while slightly cartoony in its portrayal of the stereotypical independent journalists and the stories they pursue, is an engaging look at how a media merger affects the content of the paper, as well as the relationships among the staff. And it's the staff -- the cast -- that amazed me here. Jeff Goldblum plays a manic, down-on-his-luck rock critic who, in one scene, gives a "performance artist" who shows up at the office demanding to be interviewed a run for his money. Bruno Kirby, almost unrecognizable, plays a hapless newbie who can't quite write, and who gets stomped for trying to out a local record bootlegger. You've also got actors who went on to be in L.A. Law and Taxi. Stellar. A great, unsung media movie. If you work in journalism at all, check this out. The issues surrounding mergers remain, although the romantic portrayal of what it's like being an independent journalist is a little dated. Shallow Hal I never would have paid money to see this in a theater, much less rent it, but there it was on HBO on Saturday night, a night I was trying to stay in to read and have a quiet night at home for a change. So I watched it. I enjoy Jack Black, who I thought was relatively mellow in this movie, and I was pleased by the people he surrounded himself with in the movie. Nice to see Kyle Gass in the movie, and even Jason Alexander was quietly present in the movie. The gist of the story is that Black's character, Hal, gets trapped in an elevator with the motivational speaker Tony Robbins. After Robbins works his mojo, shallow Hal now only sees what's really inside people. Homely, good-hearted people appear beautiful. And duplicitous, beautiful people are seen as haggard and ugly. The jokes of the movie, which could have been much more aggressive and slapstick, are based on the premise that now Hal's only attracted to fat and ugly people who are good and pure inside. Enter Gwyneth Paltrow's character. Seen as a slim, shapely, beautiful woman, she's actually quite large. Chair-breaking large. They fall in love before Robbins' mojo is removed and Hal is able to see things as they really are. While I didn't buy his conversion and undying love for Paltrow's roly-poly Rosemary, I was touched by his affection for the children in the pediatric burn ward. I was also intrigued by the parallels to The Sixth Sense because I couldn't always tell whether I was seeing characters as Hal saw them or as they really were. In the end, an OK movie, but one torn between wanting to be a comedy -- and wanting to be a message movie. It doesn't quite succeed as either. |
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