NPR Pet Peeve

It's a minor thing, and perhaps only irksome to the NPR addict, but it makes me cranky when a particular topic, individual, author make the rounds on NPR (and often bleed over to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). It gets kind of repetitive.

Today's example: Bob Mankoff, on Fresh Air on Monday to shill his new book How About Never? Is Never Good For You? Three days later, he's popping up on The Colin McEnroe Show (along with many others) for a more free-form discussion about getting cartoons published (or not) in the New Yorker.

As least there's a bit of introspection or self-awareness, as TCMS page notes "Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, has been all over the media this week...." - and I am sure the publicists of these authors and celebs make a point of hitting all the usual outlets. But I can be pretty sure that when I hear about a person, book, or topic on Fresh Air, I'll likely hear about it again via On The Media, Studio 360, On Being, RadioLab, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or one of the local WNPR shows (The Colin McEnroe Show or Where We Live).

National Geographic

It's hard to begin to quantify how much of who I have become as a person was influenced by the fact that my parents subscribed to this magazine. My parents were not intellectuals or academics; dad was an IT guy in the 60s and 70s, mom was a nurse / full time mom. Neither was a huge reader (other than the newspaper; yet my childhood was vividly informed by a Merit Student Encyclopedia on the shelf, and National Geographic magazine once a month in the mail. I devoured them - in my room, in the bathtub, in the car, cover to cover.

My knowledge of the world with its continents, oceans, and nations, my love of nature, curiosity about space and exploration - and perhaps all of these coalescing into a spiritual curiosity - between the covers of this publication.

It's been a long long time but I decided today, out of the blue, to subscribe again, after many years hiatus. Happy to be back in the fold.

Melancholy Odyssey Through Limbo

Maureen Dowd in yesterday's New York Times - Between Torment and Happiness

In it she recounts the rather horrific story of Chrissy Lee Polis's attack in a Maryland McDonald's by two young women, presumably for being read as trans. And folds in some observations about Renee Richards.

Why Dowd but A & B together is something of a mystery, perhaps best explained by this "In the mid-1970s, when I covered tennis..."

Renee Richards is perhaps her best, most direct, or only cultural reference to transgenderism, and part of being that sort of columnist is to reach across the years and ones experience and create deep, meaningful linkages. Or not, in this case. Does not work from an informed trans perspective but perhaps it plays in Peoria.

Also, Chrissy Lee Polis' mom is named Renee. So perhaps she just glommed onto these two stories bubbling up in the media (Richards' book, Polis' attack) and tried to make something out of them. Fail, IMHO.

This kind of reinforces one of my long held opinions - that the folks who truly transition happily, healthily, and well (assuming they are out there) are not the ones who are going to write the autobiographies for fear of damaging the good life that they have found or find their own journeys somewhat pedestrian and ordinary. Instead its the folks who are still in pain, or who crave the spotlight, who write such books. Giving Maureen Dowd (and society in general) the fodder to recount such loving phrases as:

"...at a place in between torment and happiness...."
"...melancholy odyssey through limbo..."
"...something that’s crazy and freakish and not real..."

Just want to report from a bunch of years down the track that this is not everyone's experience.

And.....invisibility cloak back on. Continue as you were. Nothing to see here ;)

New Media vs. Old Media

A not so happy story from down in Essex - there was a fire at the CT River Museum last night. The Middletown Press seems to have the best coverage so far: Fire at Conn. River Museum may have destroyed historic artifacts

One of my clients is the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat, so I'm familiar with the CT River Museum as a tourism partner - which drew my attention last night. I did a bit of web surfing, dropped by Twitter, and watched the 11 pm news. WTNH's Jamie Muro was on site, but was not able to get close enough, quickly enough to catch the fire on video.

The Middletown Press, on the other hand, rocks it in terms of integrating text, photos, and video, and really documenting the heck out of this story better than anyone else on the web. Their coverage seems to be entirely generated by one reporter (Lauren Flaum), with a camera that captured video. WTNH - needing to set up a Sat Truck and Camera Crew, was unable to get close enough to really cover this as it happened (Mr. Muro noted in his first stand-up that he would have to walk over to see what was happening and would be back later in the newscast) - but Ms. Flaum (on foot, light, and mobile) from the Press got right in there, got some photos and video of the fire itself, and some eyewitness interviews.

Just an interesting example of "how the new media works vs. how the old media is limited"

And from the Press article: ‎"At one point as firefighters hammered away at the roof, a cluster of bats was disturbed and fluttered away into the dark night sky."

It's the little poetic touches....heh.

Slow News Day in New Britain

Flashmob. Or Not.

Apparently, the Greater Hartford Arts Council organized (or, to use the word that I saw on Facebook today regarding this, choreographed) a "flashmob" today at State House Square. It looked kind of fun....



A small slice of uneasiness here....does something cool cease to be cool (or perhaps, become less cool) when it's used as a tool by an organization (regardless of how worthwhile)? When people are invited to come watch? When it's pre-packaged and marketed?

I think back to that staple of arena and stadium fandemonioum, The Wave. Wikipedia has a few alternate versions of how this got started, but as I recall from those early years, the coolness of The Wave was its grass roots origins, how one fan, or perhaps one rowdy section, would work to get it going, how each section in turn figured out that it was happening, and how the stadium sort of caught it's breath and watched, hoping it would make it around. No organization or marketing needed.

Today, with a mascot leading the charge, a video screen, announcer, and theme music proclaiming "It's Time for the Wave!" - it is simultaneously simple to get a wave going, and a lot less cool. It was plucked from the realm of "self entertainment by the masses" and co-opted by management.

So, an organized "flashmob" set up by marketers and with full sanction of all parties (official or no), with an invited guest list. Kind of cool. But only "kind of".

Addendum: A follow up tweet from GHAC. "Clear Channel Radio was at today's hARTfordFlashmob...were you?" 5 points from Gryffindor. Clear Channel? The bane of independent, local radio? Might as well announce that Walmart, Monsanto, and BP were there as well....."

Addendum II: And ctnow.com (Courant, FoxCT, WTXX, Advocate, etc.) describes this as Spontaneous Dance Breaks Out In Hartford. Sigh. A quick foray over to Merriam-Webster online provides several definitions of the word spontaneous, including:

5 : developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment
6 : not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural

Au contraire. This appears to have been completely contrived or manipulated. IMHO.

Jude = Arts and Tourism Crank and Marketing Curmudgeon. Guilty as charged.

Font Critique Bureau

Really, NBC Connecticut, this is the best you could do? Ick.

Sidebar, what happened to WVIT 30? Your call letters and UHF channel are nowhere to be found on your website. Curious. Both WFSB Channel 3 and WTNH Channel 8 remain rooted to their broadcast roots.

Kind of makes sense in an era when most folks get their television off a cable, where NBC is sitting right there on Channel 4. But still, kind of curious. I'll have to check out the news to see if you've unbranded your broadcasts the same way you've unbranded your website....

Mixed Media Messages - Canine Edition

Study shows Aussie dingo may be world's oldest dog

and

Dogs domesticated in Middle East, not Asia

I'm so confused.

Let's Go To the Videotape

Back in September 2007, Bob Wilson came on a balloon flight, taping it for his Roadside Stories series. Today, I found the video from that segment on YouTube.

I'm in there a little bit.....