Culture

Looking back on the Dean campaign, I was dead wrong about how effective the campaign was at turning online energy into real world results. Despite the number of people willing to go out and do things in the real world, Dean didn’t win. He did raise a whole lot of money, and blogs continue to prove effective as money-raising avenues. However, they do that by getting lots of Internet-savvy people to contribute. Even in fund-raising, nobody bridges the gap between the Internet and normal retail politics. ...

“Today we have elves, stormtroopers and now superheroes,” Koster said. “We need to break out of the geek ghetto. No offense … I am one.” Wired is running the old mainstream acceptance article (original), except it’s about MMORPGs instead of comic books. And yeah, we all know how unpopular stories about elves, stormtroopers, and superheroes are. #2 movie of all time: Star Wars. #4 movie of all time: The Phantom Menace. #5 movie of all time: Spider-Man. #6 movie of all time: Return of the King. #9 movie of all time: The Two Towers. ...

I wonder. Is it a bad sign that I’d sort of prefer a superhero parody movie night to a straight superhero movie night? I mean, hey — The Specials, Mystery Men, and The Incredibles vs. what? Superman, Spider-Man, and X-Men 2? I think the goofy superhero movies are winning. Not by a lot, but they’re ahead. Possibly The Incredibles will suck, but I would not bet against Pixar.

The Scala Choir cover of “I Touch Myself” is kinda making me sentimental just at the moment. It’s really beautiful. There’s a bit more about the Choir here (original), with a video. There’s a classical piece, Nocturne, opus 40 by Dvorak, on the official site. I just added the Fluxblog feed to LiveJournal as flux_blog (original), by the by. There’s also a syndicated journal called fluxblog, but it’s using the RSS feed which is not so current.

[Written on Friday.] I’m glad I came into Austin early; for one thing, I’m far better rested this morning than I would be if I’d gotten in last night, and for another thing, it was nice to see Austin. We stayed at the Austin Motel, on South Congress Street, which is pretty clearly the hip area of Austin. Funky stores, good clubs, ice cream, and good Mexican food — what’s not to like? ...

I now believe that Hollywood is in imminent danger of being destroyed by an angry God. It’s an unavoidable side-effect of reading the fall 2004 TV pilot roundup. It’s nice to know that Seth MacFarlane (“Family Guy”) is working on another animated show. I did not particularly want to know that Rob Lowe is in a pilot in which he plays the in-house doctor at a Vegas casino. Nor do I have much hope for the premise “Animated show about Siegfried & Roy’s Vegas act, told through the eyes of the animals.” Or “Suburban mom uses psychic powers to solve crime.” ...

From AICN: Aaron Sorkin, giant-brained creator of “Sports Night” and “The West Wing,” has now gotten the greenlight from New Line to produce his spec screenplay for “The Farnsworth Invention,” which depicts a 22-year-old genius from Utah who invented television in the 1920s, according to Friday morning’s Variety. This project has long been a part of Sorkin’s agenda, so one assumes Sorkin will still return to TV at some point to oversee his long-gestating proposed series — a backstage show-within-a-show kind of thing depicting the the creators of a fictional late-night comedy show that bears more than a passing resemblance to “Saturday Night Live.” ...

Being a music lover, I was quite pleased to accidentally stumble into the useful world of MP3 blogs. It’s a blog, see, but instead of ranting about politics, these people are posting MP3s and talking about music. The MP3s usually don’t stay up for more than about a week, which is enough time to give them a listen but apparently not enough time to get on the RIAA’s radar. It’s like a very very slow radio station. “This week, we’re going to play the new Prince single.” ...

I don’t know how to listen to Live365 stations easily on my Mac, but I am fairly certain that someone reading this will be happy to know that there is a 24/7 Muppet music radio station out there.

Sadly, Kwame lost, but it won’t hurt his career. Which is good — I think he’d have been a better hire than Bill, although I’m sure Bill will do a good job for The Donald. On the other hand, Bill certainly did a better job on the final task than Kwame. Kwame was stuck with Omarosa no matter what, but he should have at least tried to sideline her. Even given that he’d kept Omarosa, he might have had a chance to win if he’d defended himself in the boardroom. I’d have used the situation as an excuse to trot out the “I always hire people who are smarter than me” line, which has the advantage of being true. I’m pretty sure Kwame’s management style works better when he’s had the chance to build and/or mold his own team rather than inheriting a bunch of subpar workers. ...