Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

There are few places on Earth where the stars in the sky can be seen in all their glory. In most civilized or inhabited regions, the stars’ powers are diminished by the many particles and pollutants in the air. As the population grows greater, the stars grow dimmer.

One would think that with a greater talent pool, there would be greater star actors. But alas, and alack, the stars fade to black.

What I am talking about is the Oscars ain’t what they used to be… they are headed the way of the Miss America pageant. Take a look at this Road To the Oscars list of the Top 25 Stars of 2005 at the Internet Movie Database. Paris Hilton at #5? Perhaps this explains the confusion…

rankings were not based upon critical assessments or box-office performance, but the actual search behavior of over 30 million users of IMDb.com.

Clark Griswold would envy the rockin’ Christmas lights of this highly decorated home, and its matching audio track. A top online video worth a look and listen.

Download and play this Windows Media File of a 3D Santa and his reindeer flying with NORAD guidance systems at work.

Not to be missed is the creative JibJab team’s retrospective of President Bush’s year of 2005, one he’d like to forget!

Recently I’ve received requests from 2 different music CD publishers for usage of my Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band photos. Both of these requests came from Great Britain, although one is a major label’s UK office.

Beefheart apparently has a big following in Europe, as does Frank Zappa.

From the Sports section, a troubled ex-field goal kicker, Cole Ford told his psychiatrist…

while watching Siegfried & Roy he realized “what was wrong with the world was linked to the illusionists’ treatment, dominance and unhealthy intimacy” with their animals.

“He felt they threatened (the) world, and he began trying to figure out how he could stop them.”

Then in September 2004…

Ford drove past the sprawling Jungle Palace estate owned by Siegfried & Roy. Obscenities poured out of the slow-moving van, then blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun sprayed the entrance.

An obstinate Ford later appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom, demanding to plead guilty to the shooting. Instead, the judge ruled he was incompetent to stand trial and sent him to the state’s mental facility in northern Nevada.

“I’m perfectly competent,” Ford told the judge in January.

Although there is strong evidence that Siegfried and Roy’s DreamWorks 3D TV show Father of the Pride lowered the bar for 3D computer animated entertainment, that is no excuse for Cole Ford’s violent response.

The lighting and shading on the above image is unforgivable, enough to throw any respectable 3D artist into a tantrum. Most folks just changed the channel.

Cole Ford may have perceived part of the world’s problems while watching Siegfried and Roy’s live act. DreamWorks’ choice to outsource their FOTP 3D animation to China is yet another problem. So far no news of California 3D animators morphing into Yosemite Sam and going postal.

“No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.” – H. L. Mencken

Stern on Yahoo! Pretty amazing media convergence!

I’ve tuned into Stern’s radio show on and off since 1986 when he was on at WNBC, and have been repulsed and fascinated from the very start.

This entry is based on a blog entry by Mike Bawden entitled Social Networks 3.0 which is based on the original article by David Hornick. That makes this article a third generation representation of the original, with two links or two degrees of separation. Hornick sees Social Networks 3.0 as building upon the foundations of previous online groups, in his words…

entrepreneurs have come to realize that social networks are enablers of other compelling consumer experiences. Thus, social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Social networks inform the conversations that take place among friends on LiveJournal. Social networks enable the discovery of new music on MySpace. Social networks enhance the multi-player gaming experience at Xfire. Social networks now empower recruiting on LinkedIn. And dozens of new social networks are emerging to enable specific, valuable consumer experiences that are enhanced by the underpinnings of the network.

I have been exploring MySpace.com and its relevance to my own entrepreneurial venture at GeoSpot.com. Compared to other networks, myspace appears to be surprisingly open. People are looking to promote themselves and what they do, find new friends and hobnob with them. The attraction also appears to be that myspace members are provided with a web page that they can personally stylize often in a very garish and bloated way, much like a cluttered refrigerator door. Approved friends can leave a message on your page, which is often a link to an image, audio, or video file. The result is that myspace.com can be sluggish. Member pages can gag your browser and choke it to a frozen death state. Simplicity can be del.icio.us.

While networking, I stumbled acrosss Jeremy Zawodny’s Blog who appears to be a bright Internet developer at Yahoo! worth reading. Somehow we are connected.

Peace.