Newspapers on the Internet? Aww… that will never work!
A little Friday filler, via TechCrunch
Posts from the ‘A series of tubes’ Category
Jan 30
Jan 15
BlogFox Braindump!
I don’t have a lot of insightful, funny, lengthy stuff to post, but rather a bunch of odds and ends that don’t lend themselves to lengthy discourse… hence – fear my braindump:
- Digital 21 gun salute for both Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalban. Both spent a lot of time on islands. Both had unsucessful experiments with Mind Control. Both recalibrated the suave-meter for their time, and will be missed.
- Matthew Paris makes a spirited case in the Times Online that Tintin was gay. You may not agree, but I guarantee you’ll never look at Thomson and Thompson quite the same way again.
- FilmEsq. is reporting that a settlement might be coming down in the Watchment case. I’m quite curious to see the details to see if it sheds any light on the particularly bizarre past few weeks of filings.
- Okay – entertainment news, funnybooking, legal rambling… all we need to round out the set is some light internet entertainment, perhaps mixed with a videogame reference…
Perfect! Thank you Zelda one-man-choir.
Happy New (Glurk)!
I decided to mix up festivities this year by apparently toasting in the new year with a large glass of influenza virus. In retrospect, I think I can see why “champagne” is probably the more traditional medium, as “general discomfort” really doesn’t do justice to the past few days.
I have trouble reading when I’m sick, but managed to squeeze some of my “unexpected bonus vacation” time to read through several collected Scary-Go-Round volumes I received over the holidays. Like clockwork, I’ve been rewarded for my diligence by John Allison turning his laser sharp pen to five brilliant panels which sum up the entirety of Canadian politics.
- Cons: Allison may be in the back pocket of the monarchy – trying to reassert it’s colonial grasp
- Pros: Heroic send-off for Stéphane Dion, Allison manages to avoid using (then subsequently having to define) the term prorogue.
Happy New FUTURE!
I had new-years news all lined up, but I’m still ironing some kinks out of the new design (now with unnerving levels of GIANT FLOATING HEAD) – so I’ll be breif instead:
Happiest of New Years to everyone who joined me here since the sites relaunch last Spring, and remember – it may not be perfect, we may have a lot of work to do yet, but every once in a while it’s good to sit back and take a moment to give thanks that we’re lucky enough to be living IN THE FUTURE!
(Century 21 Calling, and other marvels of futurisim can be found at the always-awesome Prelinger Archives)
Dec 8
Dear Chicago Blackhawks Marketing Staff – You’re Doing It Wrong.
Catching up on my hockey blogs over the weekend I found an amusing post over at Hit The Post sharing a couple of funny mock-political ads made by the Chicago Blackhawks – presumably to spur fan voting for the all-star game. The spots were unusually funny for in-house marketing, and contained a couple of good Canada jokes, so I fired the link off to my brother and forgot about it. Behold – viral marketing in action!
Except for the part where he went and discovered that both the videos had been pulled off YouTube by the Blackhawks claiming copyright violation.
Confidential to Chicago Blackhawks crack marketing team: When you make a viral-type video – it is with the express purpose that you hope it will show up on YouTube (or Veoh, or Digg, or any of the myriad of bastard social-networking sites – some of which will re-host your media, and some of which won’t). The entire point of this type of marketing is to encourage your fans to spread your message far and wide – even if it is out of your control. Why it might get to the point where a Calgary Flames fan reads about them on a Flames blog, and e-mails his brother… who just happens to be in the process of filling out his all-star ballot at that exact moment. Read more
It’s like an encyclopedia of “80s Toy Manufacturing High Concept”
In trying to solve a contest question for the effervescent E Dub today, I came across this YouTube.
While I’m not sure I agree that these are the “top” cartoon themes from the 80s (It was a big decade for Cartoons stretching from “Danger Mouse” through “The Simpsons”) I will say this is a really interesting cross section of early 80s toy-based “high concept” cartoons. Literally pretty much every permutation and combination of “space”, “cars”, “robots” and “dinosaurs” is represented herein. Most importantly the clip contains the requisite amount of “I completely forgot about THAT!” moments, 80s futurism design, and hair-rock.
Plus, Jem is at #2 which is only one spot off… since I think it’s unarguable that Jem had the quintessential 80s cartoon theme song. Period.
Missed Opportunities, Part 2
Aw man, here I already write one post about Pixar today, and I totally miss that the trailer for their 2009 film is “up” today.
I’m slipping in my dottage.
I also long ago discovered it’s nigh impossible to judge Pixar on their concepts. See “Rattitouli”.
