May 24, 2010
Internet + Journalism + Inside Baseball Gossip = Schadenfreude
When New York Observer publishes a thin article, apparently mostly based on a press release, about the altruistic new career direction of ABC News VP Mimi Gurbst, who "liked to advise her colleagues on various ways to improve their personal and professional lives" reader comments tell us that oh boy, did she ever! One of the many, many comments by ABC News alumni, from former ABC journalist Richard Gizbert, sums it up: "Finally: Don’t you just LOVE the internet? Don’t you just LOVE seeing this whole thing backfire on Mimi and the underhanded underling who tried to get away with this piece of fiction?" Oh snap!
from grit to horseshit
TV serials, says Richard Beck, self-consciously set out from the very beginning to get us to take them seriously. From Hill Street Blues to The West Wing to The Sopranos and The Wire, how the television series convinced us that it was art — and now, why Lost's achievement of success via casual genre mixing and narrative derangement might signal that there's no future creative ground left within the old limits of serial drama.
Flash mob opera REDUX
More than 30 members of the Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus and cast members of La traviata performed a flash opera in the aisles of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. [more inside]
Programmers? Hackers? Journalists.
"The Journalist as Programmer" is an academic, ethnographic case study (pdf), which considers whether the New York Times' Interactive Newsroom Technologies unit, source of the paper's Open Source Developer Network, should be thought of as a template for the future of Web Journalism. Slide Deck. (Previously on MeFi.) NYMag profile of the INT team from '09: The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady. ("What are these renegade cybergeeks doing at the New York Times? Maybe saving it.")
Phone Guitar
Dude plays an interpretation of Cracklin Rosie on 2 Android devices, 2 Windows Mobile devices, and 1 iPod Touch.
Marching bands unite in tribute to Brandon Franklin, slain at 22
'If I die,' Brandon Franklin had said, 'I want all the bands at my funeral.' As Franklin’s family filed out of the eastern New Orleans church and the hearse waited, nearly 300 current and former band members performed a final salute. Via.
Pigeon: Impossible
Pigeon: Impossible is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.
Hot young blonde eaten up by star system
Hubble spots a planet-eating star. The list of confirmed extrasolar planets numbers only 455; the first ones being discovered in 1990. That count is about to decrease. [more inside]
'Bitch Slap' ...
'American Idol' (Season 8) top 25 finalist and kooky contender, 'Norman Gentle' (IRL -- Nick Mitchell) in his debut music video: 'Bitch Slap.' [more inside]
You’re going to be signing hella autographs
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele is a surreal collaboration between Roger and Dave, some ukuleles, 185 other artists (many yet unknown!), and The Beatles. New tune and essay every Tuesday through July 2012.
This is why Superman works alone
The Brave and the Bold...Lost Issues! - in which Batman teams up with everybody.
Beefcake wardrobe malfunctions by Paul Richmond
Whoopsy! Beefcake wardrobe malfunctions! Columbus, Ohio artist Paul “Paulypants” Richmond paints lovingly detailed and luminous and saucy portraits of gay demicelebrities with their britches falling apart or otherwise depantsed or underclothed. As Richmond describes it with the juice and vim of a ’50s tattler magazine, “It intrigues me that it was almost exclusively women who were depicted as hapless victims of comical wardrobe malfuncions in early pin-up art. Those ladies couldn't even walk down the street without their skirts blowing up or their underwear falling down (or both!)” [more inside]
A piece of Google's action
Have a website? Use Google AdSense? Ever wonder what your cut of the ad revenue was? Google just revealed it this morning: 68 percent for content ads, 51 percent for search.
Pixel - A pixel art documentary
An 11 minute documentary exploring the merits and impact of pixel art, animation and chiptune music. From the Simon Cottee Animation Production Blog. (via) [bonus]
Your brain will insist
Crazy Cubes optical illusion. (SLYT)
First Pro-Choice ad to air on UK TV
Marie Stopes International will tonight screen the first pro-choice Television advert to air in the UK - you can watch it on YouTube here.
Debate on the appropriateness or otherwise if the advert has been predictably fierce. Meanwhile, Channel 4 have chosen not to screen the advert in Northern Ireland, prompting further arguments.
Available in three sizes.
In his book The Unspoken Alliance, writer and academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky references documents released by the South African government, indicating that Shimon Peres offered nuclear warheads to PW Botha's apartheid regime. Israel strongly denies the claims.
The Net Worth of the U.S. Presidents
Stephen Perry
Stephen Perry, best known for his work on the cartoons Thundercats and SilverHawks, as well as comics including Timespirits and Psi-Force, has died in mysterious circumstances.
Perry recently suffered from both bladder cancer and being uninsured. Through the charity Hero Initiative, he was able to receive treatment. He recounted his battle with the disease and the healthcare system in a post on Steve Bissette's blog. Bissette has started a series of articles on Perry's life and works.
Heads Up, Citizen Scientists: The Moon Needs You!
Moon Zoo is another project from Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott, the creator of Galaxy Zoo (previously: 1, 2, 3). Moon Zoo calls for citizen scientists to record the craters and boulders, among other things, on the Moon's surface. [more inside]
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