NYCweboy

Obama And The Jedi Mind Trick

Via Riverdaughter, I finally have this video, which I think is hilarious... not just for what it says about Obama, but because, you know, everyone wanted to know how do the Jedi Mind Trick. :) Me included.

...Or, We Could Also Worry About Those Winged Pterodactyls On Skull Island, I Suppose...

You may have noticed I'm taking it a bit easy today; the political weekend wore me out a bit (not mention what felt like a long spate of working at the 'bucks). I'm going to work on a few lighter things, and leave the heavy politicking for later.

In the meantime, if you're dying for a fix:

• The Obama thing: Oh I don't know... try here or here or here or here or here or here... It seems to me we're talking this thing to ever-lovin' death. Since I already said my peace, I have little to add - except this: I don't think "the media" is the problem here, really I don't. Obama said something that was a mistake, and he's being, fairly I think, taken to task for a set of assumptions that deserve a challenge; however, I think the problem is that "the problem with what Obama said" is poorly defined, and too much of it has become "Easy Reader Elitism" that isn't the real issue here.
• As Ana Marie Cox says, yes, I read that Chris Matthews thing.  And so should you.
• Torch Song Trilogy: Count me among those who didn't realize that the Olympic Torch protests around China's poor Human Rights record (especially in relation to Tibet) would make such a splash. Then there's the whole Leni Riefenstahl-Berlin-1936 thing about the Torch Relay generally... and hey, you've got a weeks' worth of discomfort right there.
• Save The Robots: Apparently, the geek love affair with talking about the robot menace just will not go away. I already played, too. This is serious stuff people. Don't say you weren't warned. :)

...Before It Kills Us All

Via SeeDubya, blogging over at Michelle Malkin's place, this piece of overwrought trend reporting from the NYT:

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

...

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

It's true of course; thanks to reading about two people I've never heard of who've died... I'm now convinced blogging can kill me. Though I especially love "The premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic"... of course, why let that stop you from blathering on for dozens of additional paragraphs, insisting that sleep disorders, weight gain and all sorts of health problems come from, you know, writing a lot? (Oh, and, for good measure, why not throw in a few graphs about the hell that is Gawker Media, for good measure? That's clearly germane...)

Isn't it enough that, thanks to Hemingway, we're all alcoholics?

Sheesh. Anyway, I better stop, I can just feel myself dying as I write this...

UPDATE:  And now Charlton Heston is dead too! It's as if we're all going to die... eventually. Of something.

-- weboy (I suppose it's a good thing I added those other writers...)

Ad Bleg

Hi - I really don't usually do this... but does anyone know anything about using Google Adsense?  I am having a devil of a time getting the code they supplied me to display ads properly... and I can't figure out how you're supposed to get an answer from a person over at their site.  Any suggestions, thoughts? Comment here or e-mail me.

Thanks!
I am feeling very frustrated, which is keeping me from writing more.  Grrr....

If A Tree Falls In The Forest, And No One Uploads It To YouTube...

I'm less interested in discussing the poor content of last night's debate - for my money, Red describes (via Digby) the absurd, meta, SNL-like qualities of the questioning perfectly - than I am about the mechanics.  Even if I wanted to show you the SNL clip of the opening (which was hilarious), or the much discussed (but less seen) Tina Fey hilarity on supporting Clinton, I really can't - unlike say, Jimmy Kmmel and his naughty words; and similarly, I can't really show you any clips of the debate.

That's because NBC (and its parent company, Universal), unlike CNN (and ABC, in the case of Kimmel), is vigilant about keeping content off of YouTube. As we discussed at the beginning of the TV season (which seems long ago and far away), NBC pulled content from YouTube, and from iTunes, preferring to set up their own, closed, advertiser driven system. And although there are no numbers yet, I'd say a quick tour of the zeitgeist says the wider exposure of NBC and Universal content... isn't happening... much.

In which case I'm not sure there's any way to really discuss the lasting impact of last night's debate, or its aftermath.  Outside of people who tuned into MSNBC last night (still one of the smallest audiences for news on basic cable), most people will see little, if anything of it (nor did MSNBC follow CNN's example of making a live web feed of the debate available, a key reason I've been able to see them, along with my Mom).  What they will see will probably be stage managed by TV news people into easy sound bites that confirm the current storyline - Obama is vague and wonderful, Clinton is mean and desperate. And tomorrow, even fresher footage will be used to do exactly the same thing.

What little I did see in the cherry picked selection NBC graciously allowed me to watch after commercial (after commercial), was unimpressive.  Brian Williams lacks the gravitas of more seasoned anchors, and comes off - still - as junior league and trying too hard.  Russert, as always, substituted mind numbing detail for actual probing of people for ideas that would illuminate actual - as opposed to media created - differences. And, as Red notes, though Clinton was probably hurt by it, the format wasn't doing Obama many favors, either.

In the end, though, with conventional wisdom hardening into amber, it probably doesn't matter.  What does matter is that NBC's refusal to capitulate to the demands of new media, and the changes in audience approaches to content and content delivery means that they are cutting themselves out of the culture, and sealing their fate as a weakening media powerhouse. Their debate is most likely the tree that falls in the forest, with no one around to hear it.  Without YouTube it's like it never even happened.

Green Eyed Monster

So the news is finally true - Ezra Klein shifts tomorrow from his own blog to a presence at The American Prospect.  Ezra's announcement has turned into congratulatory paean to the young fellow, on that I, oddly, can't really get into the spirit of.

Please, don't get me wrong - I think Ezra is a brilliant, talented writer, clearly devoted to his subjects and determined to find answers. I will certainly continue to read him, and to comment, because his blog attracts an interesting group of people who are great to debate ideas with.

But look - not much, really, has changed. And while I like what Ezra does - so much, I started to do it myself - I'm not sure that what is gained here replaces what is lost.

Why's It So Hard

Honestly... why does every online thing turn out to be so complicated and time consuming?  Just trying to set up a new Verizon subaccount under my Mom's account has taken 25 minutes and a long conversation with the help desk.  I thought this stuff was sujpposed to get easier with the internets... grrrr.....

You're The One With The Problem

I should in all likelihood just ignore this, a dialogue that Peter Beinart and Jonah Goldberg are having (part of a regular series called "What's Your Problem" on NRO that's mostly, sadly, kind of dull) about Pam Anderson and Madonna and the War on Culture critics of the right.  And I would, except that I majored in Madonna, as most weboys my age did (Go, Webo Girl), and I want J in Baltimore to see this too.

Jonah's so wrong on so much of this it's hard to know where to begin, but let's start with Pam - Pam recently married Rick Salomon, who used to be married to Shannon Doherty, but then  had a fling with Paris Hilton that was famously videotaped and distributed and which served as the cornerstone of Paris' future fame.  Salomon, as Goldberg notes, is nobody's idea of a gentleman, and probably speaks more to Pam's poor choices in spouses, but never mind. (Actually, let's do mind: What is Goldberg saying? That girls will, on the basis of this third marriage, run out and sleep with total strangers? Like nobody knows Pam's history with Tommy and Kid, never mind Rick's sordid past?  That it's cool to marry sleazebags?  What's his point, anyway?) Pam apparently told Ellen DeGeneres that she fell in love with him after one of those celebrity poker matches in Vegas, where instead of paying him what she owed, she paid with sex.  Goldberg says, fairly, isn't this reprehensible and why should we celebrate it, and isn't this like Madonna.

We'll get to Madonna in a moment, but first, let's just note that Jonah's winking, leering description of Pam alone undermines his outrage - you can't really berate your lust object for being sexual and then lust away guilt free; Pam's life as a sexual being has everything to do with her image... But even so, why take this as true? It sounds apocryphal, a Penthouse Forum fantasy date that Pam's all too happy to play into.  And this could easily be more PR hype than real.

And, by the way Jonah, Pam's work on VIP is much more fun than Baywatch.  Now, about Madonna:

Is That A Hammer In Your Pants, Or Are You Just In Love With Your Car?

Premiere week has begun!

And, happily, I was able to catch the premere of How I Met Your Mother tonight. Woo-hoo.

What I was not expecting was the new ad campaign for Cadillac, which is unintentionally hilarious. The Kate Walsh one, titled "Turn You On", lays the basic car-as-sex groundwork, but for real, over the top, car as phallus discussion... check out "Hammer." I kid you not.  That's the name.

Me? I got all the torque I need... right behind the zipper, baby. But I love the way my Caddy shakes a tail feather... :)

Nice Office Ya Got There... Shame If Anything Should Happen To It....

Continuing my catch-up on the stories of the past week: NBC Universal announced their planned alternative this week to making TV shows available for download on iTunes.  The new plan, as described here, is that you will be able to download a version that "degrades" after one week for free, and it will include commercials that you cannot jump past, and you cannot load it onto any other player or other computer. 

Fun, huh?

Apparently NBC has been pissed at iTunes because Apple maintains tight controls on the amount to be charged for each program, which also means that it tightly controls the price paid to program distributors like NBC.  And NBC, apparently felt they deserved a premium for The Office, which was, far and away, the most popular download.

And now, well, it's not.