It's where I talk to myself. Gaming, politics, and links I don't want to forget about.
Welcome to the 1st International Love Hotel Moblogging Conference. (Snooze finds the coolest links.) You sort of missed it, because it was yesterday. A bunch of people independently sought out love hotels, took pictures, and blogged the whole thing.
It reminds me of the Lessig Starbucks weekend, but with a single centralized blog. I wanted to do a central blog for the NBA draft, but I thought of the idea too late. I still want to do my nomoblog, too.
I was just browsing around the Apple iTunes Music Store, contemplating the new Liz Phair album. Despite the warnings of friends, yeah. I was all geared up for the experience of buying the thing and being hugely disappointed by a sellout.
Then I noticed a Clean Lyrics badge on the album. Clicked it, and discovered that the album was an expurgated version. (Didja hear about the expurgated Liz Phair concert? “Hi, thanks for coming out! It’s gonna be a great night! I hope you enjoyed my show, and have a safe drive home!”)
After another few clicks it turns out it’s available in the dirty version as well. Gave me a little scare, though. Still… there’s something vaguely wrong about Liz Phair doing an expurgated version of her album, particularly since the cover is unabashedly hetcentric. So much for accepting her on her own terms.
Katharine Hepburn, rest in peace.
It’s a victory for masked politicians everywhere! The Great Sasuke just won the right to sit in the Iwate Prefectural Assembly while masked. Good on him.
George Axelrod passed away Saturday. As big Hollywood names go, his wasn’t that big. Still, he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Manchurian Candidate and the original play Seven Year Itch. So, yeah, let’s recognize.
Some musicians are peeved about single song sales from the Apple iTunes Music Store. An attorney who works for the firm that represents Will Smith and Alanis Morissette claims it’s an artistic issue. “The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past.” Alas, Yahoo Shopping lists 26 singles from Mr. Smith and another 26 from the divine Ms. Morissette. I’m sure the attorney will be attending to this breach of artistic integrity immediately.
The truth is, it hurts the bottom line since people don’t have to buy a whole album to get the song they want. I can sympathize with that, but I’m not sure I feel like I ought to be forced to buy stuff I don’t want to get the stuff I do want. Makes an interesting litmus test for everyone who claimed they approved of Napster because the artists don’t get much money from the labels anyhow, though.
MSNBC scores the first review of Warren Zevon’s upcoming album. Eric Olsen says it’s a masterpiece. And the review made me sniffle.
BookSense allows you to order books online and pick them up at your local independent bookseller. Unfortunately, it’s dog slow, and I’m a bit perturbed by their offer to sell me a book named simply Harry Potter — seems to me that there aren’t enough words in that title.
Also it would be better if they did not direct me to a bookstore in Canton when I live in Somerville.
Warren Ellis has some simple words of wisdom on the Mark Waid firing. Let it rip, Warren:
I dunno. I used to know Mark. He’s been humped by Marvel two or three times previous to this. If you keep going back to a place where they fuck you in the arse with spiky metal things, then after a while people will simply assume you like it. It’s kind of a non-story.
This post is pretty old, but Dave Winer just linked back to it today and I picked up on something new; also, it ties in nicely to the recent discussion from the Dead Parrots, and if you aren’t reading the Parrots you ought to be. So, discussion ensues. Here’s the money quote from Dave:
OK, let’s deconstruct a myth. Someone says that weblogs aren’t journalism. OK, suppose a journalist has a weblog. When that journalist writes something on the weblog, therefore, it must not be journalism. Suppose the journalist writes exactly the same words on her weblog that she writes in a column in the newspaper she writes for. In one place it’s journalism and in the other it’s not? Hmmm.
Assuming we’re talking about a weblog with no editor, the answer is quite possibly yes. The logical fallacy is in the assumption that journalism is simply words. It’s not; it’s a process. It’s certainly possible to use that process in a weblog — c.f. Gizmodo, which is not precisely deep journalism but which qualifies nonetheless — but a weblog does not become journalism simply because it’s news-oriented.
Really, it’s about reputation capital. (Ob”Whuffie”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,889293,00.html.) “Journalism” is shorthand for “the reputation capital built up by generations of reporters and editors who have made the unwritten bargain to live up to the standards of those who have gone before them.” Independent journalism is hard because the journalists don’t have the reputation backup of an editor. Some succeed, and some don’t.